14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 remains a heavily criticized product, despite Microsoft’s marketing blitz and its official sales figures that point to an early performance similar to Windows 7’s.
And even though some have blasted the new operating system, consumers need some time to get used to the changes made to Windows 8, an unnamed Microsoft employee said in an IAmA session on Reddit.
While calling the Surface RT a “good product that will get better over time,” the Microsoft worker said that users can experience the most of Windows 8 on a touchscreen device, be it a laptop or a tablet.
“Win8 is a great product. You need to try it on a touchscreen PC / tablet to really understand how amazing the interface is with touch. However with a new interface and so many changes it will take time for adoption. I believe right now it’s about selling as many copies as Windows 7 did in the initial few months (as per publicly released official figures) - and Windows 7 came to the market after years of pent up demand after XP,” he said.
“There are a number of under the hood changes - lower memory consumption, faster boot times, faster resume, Defender is now built-in. For a desktop user these may not be compelling reasons to upgrade, but for a new PC I think the Win8 choice is obvious given that it is fully compatible with Windows 7,” he continued.
Tami Reller, one of the two executives currently in charge of the Windows division, revealed last week at CES 2013 that Microsoft had managed to sell a total of 60 million Windows 8 copies in approximately two months after its launch.
While that may sound impressive, sources close to the matter continue to outline that Windows 8 has clearly failed to reach internal sales projections, while third-party reports indicate that Microsoft’s operating system does little to help the collapsing PC industry.
Microsoft says Windows 8’s sales are in line with those recorded by Windows 7, but the early uptake is rather suggesting that the new OS is actually trailing behind its predecessor.