<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<div id="dealNotice" class="messageNotice"> </div>
<h2 class="entry-title"><a
href="http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/a-windows-veteran-looks-at-win8-consumer-preview/"
title="Permalink to A Windows veteran looks at Win8 Consumer Preview"
rel="bookmark">A Windows veteran looks at Win8 Consumer Preview</a></h2>
<br clear="all">
<img src="cid:part1.03070401.05060505@btinternet.com"
title="Woody leonhard" alt="Woody leonhard" align="left" height="100"
hspace="0" vspace="0" width="110"> By Woody Leonhard <br>
<br>
<strong>If you download and install Windows 8 Consumer Preview,
released late last week, <u>I can almost guarantee that you won’t like
it.</u></strong><br>
<br>
I know only a handful of experienced Windows users (who don’t work for
or with Microsoft) who say they like Windows 8. But it’s the future, eh?<br>
<br>
Microsoft is not building Windows 8 for the garden-variety Windows
expert. You and I aren’t being ignored, exactly, but we’re not at the
top of the Win8 food chain. As perplexing as it might sound, aiming
Windows 8 at a different demographic is probably a good decision. But
it still might lead to Windows’ demise.<br>
<br>
There’s a good reason why Microsoft is cutting us old salts loose.
Money. We aren’t generating enough revenue, and the future looks grim
indeed. Microsoft made its basic decisions about moving to a
touch-centric world three years ago. That’s before the first iPad was
released. Since then, the market has proven Steve Sinofsky right:
Microsoft’s traditional PC market has sunk into a funk, and mountains
of iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks are rising in its place.<br>
<br>
Sales of PCs in the U.S. fell steeply in the fourth quarter last year,
compared to one year before. In the U.S., Windows mostly comes
preinstalled on new PCs, so any decline in hardware sales is a hit on
Microsoft’s revenues, too. PC sales in China soared, but as I reported
in a June 2011 AskWoody.com <a
href="http://WindowsSecrets.com/links/$P20d/1d820ah/?url=www.askwoody.com%2F2011%2Fmicrosofts-marketing-strategy-china-plain-stupid%2F">post</a>,
only five percent or so of new PCs in China ship with Windows. Bottom
line: Windows revenue dropped, and it’s likely to drop again — and
again.<br>
<br>
At the same time, the iPad rolled over the market like a tank — there
were more iPads sold in the fourth quarter of 2011 than desktop
computers, for heaven’s sake. Nobody predicted that. But Microsoft had
enough of a premonition three years ago to start building a radically
different kind of Windows, one more attuned to tablets and fingers and
less dependent on mice and keyboards.<br>
<br>
As things stand, by the time Windows 8 hits the shelves, Apple will
have a two-and-a-half-year lead in that part of the market — let’s not
mince words — in the iPad part of the market. Can Microsoft catch up?
More to the point, can Microsoft catch up without alienating us
billion-plus Windows users — especially the ones other consumers look
to for advice ?
</body>
</html>