14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 and Windows RT are both considered rather disappointing these days, especially without any official sales figures provided by Microsoft.
Research firm IDC claims that sales of Windows 8 tablets are likely to grow from one percent right now to 7.4 percent in 2017. While this might sound like good news at the first glance, the growth isn’t quite impressive, especially since Microsoft is still investing a fortune into its marketing business.
Windows RT is expected to reach only a 3 percent market share in the next four years, as the lack of support for desktop apps is keeping customers away.
“Microsoft's decision to push two different tablet operating systems, Windows 8 and Windows RT, has yielded poor results in the market so far,” IDC Research Director for tablets Tom Mainelli was quoted as saying by eWeek.
“Consumers aren't buying Windows RT's value proposition, and long term we think Microsoft and its partners would be better served by focusing their attention on improving Windows 8. Such a focus could drive better share growth in the tablet category down the road.”
The Redmond-based technology vendor continues to bet big on the Surface RT, its very own tablet running Windows RT software.
Even though it’s pretty clear that the Surface Pro, the upgraded iteration of the device equipped with the full version of Windows 8 Pro, has much more potential to attract new buyers, the company will soon launch the Surface RT in new markets across the world, citing high demand everywhere.
Richard Windsor, independent tech analyst, sees Microsoft’s efforts as a waste of time and estimates that Windows RT will soon lose most of its users.
“It looks to me that it will be some considerable time before ARM can really have a go at this market and I can see the medium term forecasts for ARM having being cut. ARM is a high flyer for good reason but if estimates are heading south then the multiple is likely to unravel as well as the numbers,” he said.