The Numbers Don't Tally
Despite its huge launch events and marketing blitz, a series of results, both scientific and rather less so, show Microsoft's Windows 8 or RT experience on tablets and computers hasn't swept the planet like wildfire. With so many other gadgets to choose from and users evolving their computing preferences away from traditional formats, that won't really come as a surprise.
At the rough end of the survey scale, a Piper Jaffary team monitoring a single Apple Store vs. a Microsoft Store showed plenty of iPad sales compared to no Surface sales. Slightly more scientifically, an IBM survey of web data, showed Windows 8 devices didn't register when making purchases online during the Black Friday weekend.
Over in Europe, A British survey of those Web users has found that only 39% are likely to upgrade to Windows 8, with only 14% saying they preferred it as an operating system. Perhaps Microsoft's educational efforts have yet to kick in, or perhaps the Windows era is really starting to be less relevant to users' everyday lives.
Looking for Growth
On the plus side, Windows 8 already accounts for more web traffic than Android, according to one StatCounter metric, which highlights that despite the massive number of Android devices, they see relatively little online use.
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If you really want to know who's boss, the IBM research showed the iPad was responsible for 88% of sales made from tablets, with Nook second at 3.1%. Amazon's Kindle range doing 2.4% of sales, while the Samsung Galaxy managed 1.8%.
With reviewers highlighting the confusion over the dichotomy between the Windows 8 and RT, and traditional Windows interfaces, perhaps users aren't quite ready to make the jump yet, either because they haven't see it in action, or are happy with Windows 7. Certainly there will be no big rush from enterprise for many years to come.
There are no big-number press releases out of Microsoft since the launch, and its next quarterly earnings call isn't until 24 January 2013, so it might be some time before we get a solid idea of numbers. Of course, Microsoft is in this for the long-term and might be pretty happy with its start in this new crowded environment.
