PC vendors hoping Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 8 OS would help turn around a struggling PC industry are finding the hoped for sales gains haven’t materialized – and they’re lashing out at Redmond in response.
According to a report from The Korea Times, Samsung Electronics president Jun Dong-soo told reporters at a conference in Seoul that he doesn’t expect the PC industry to come back any time soon, and Windows 8 isn’t helping.
”The global PC industry is steadily shrinking despite the launch of Windows 8. I think the Windows 8 system is no better than the previous Windows Vista platform,” said Dung-soo.
He went on to characterize the demand for Microsoft’s Surface tablet, with which Samsung competes, as “ lackluster” and blamed low demand for the Intel-led ultrabook form factor on “the less-competitive Windows platform.”
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While he wasn’t as outspoken as Dung-soo, in an interview last month with IT World Canada at the vendor’s global partner conference, the head of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s PC business acknowledged Windows 8 hasn’t performed as many had hoped.
“Windows 8 has been slow (to be adopted) with the lack of touch broadly and because of demand and price. The difference in the OS has in some ways slowed adoption,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice-president of HP’s printing and personal systems group. “We’re doing a phenomenal amount of work to educate customers. Price points of touch are on average $100 more than non-touch products. We’re in a tough economy, so that’s a big jump.”