14 DAY TRIAL // Although Microsoft expects Windows 8 to sell millions of copies before year’s end, that’s not going to happen, Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund said.
What’s more, the new operating system will most likely have a very slow start, before eventually reaching full speed in 2013 when the PC market is expected to recover.
According to The Seattle Times citing a note he sent to investors, Sherlund believes that Windows 8 is likely to experience a significant growth thanks to the arrival of compatible tablets and ultrabook touch devices.
While the traditional PC market is obviously one of the industry segments that would have a major contribution to Windows 8’s sales, it’s the tablet industry that will drive the new OS forward.
“We expect that the issues for Microsoft will ultimately resolve favorably and Windows 8 together with Office 2013 will be perceived as a more functional device than a consumer tablet,” he reportedly said in the note.
The Redmond-based technology company has much higher expectations, mostly because it sees the new operating system as one of the biggest changes in the IT industry. Windows 8’s debut is at least as important as Windows 95’s, Steve Ballmer said in early September in an interview with the same publication.
“When Windows 8 goes live on October 26, the [size of the market] is [over] 1 billion consumers. Our goal … is conservatively over 400 million units in the marketplace by July 1,” Microsoft vice president Keith Lorizio said last month, while also adding that the new operating system is expected to get at least 100,000 apps in 90 days after its public debut.