Retailers share blame for poor Windows 8 sales

May 03, 2013

Retailers share part of the blame for poor Windows 8 sales and the ensuing decline of PC shipments, analysts contended today. Microsoft’s radical overhaul of Windows has been cited by some to explain plummeting PC shipments, but the very organizations whose best interest is served in selling those systems were at least partly at fault. “Windows 8 brought a brand new UI [user interface] that had not fundamentally changed since DOS,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, in a blog post Tuesday. “[So] how did big-box retail respond? The same way they have for the last 20 years.” Moorhead was critical of big retailers—Best Buy is the largest in the U.S.—for not modifying how they sold PCs when Windows 8 landed on their stores’ shipping docks. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238887/Retailers_didn_t_do_Windows_8_any_favors#tk.rss_all