Analyst: Windows 8 hardware 'overpriced' and offers 'no clear benefit in switching from iOS or Android'
Summary: While market research firms are forecasting a PC sales growth of between 7 and 9 percent during 2013, one analyst thinks that this is too high and is likely to end up being closer to 2 percent.
Microsoft, along with its hardware partners, pinned an awful lot of hope on Windows 8 that it would be the catalyst that would inject new life into the stagnant PC industry. One analyst believes that while there will be growth, it will fall far short of what was expected.
While market research firms are forecasting a PC sales growth of between 7 and 9 percent during 2013, but Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu believes that the rally will be far more muted, and closer to 2 percent.
Wu sees the challenges facing the PC market during 2013 as three-fold. First, mobile devices -- in particular iOS and Android -- will continue to cannibalize PC sales throughout the year. Put simply, consumers and enterprise buyers prefer to spend their money on post-PC devices rather than on PCs.
Another problem facing the PC industry is that the adoption of Windows 8 has been slower than expected because of what Wu calls "a big but uncomfortable and unfamiliar change in its user interface."
Finally, and perhaps most importantly at a time when buyers seems price-sensitive, Wu finds the $500 to $1200 price tags slapped on Windows 8 hardware to be "uncompetitive" when compared to Android with prices as low as $99, and the iPad mini which starts at $329.
See also: Two must-have downloads that make Windows 8 more bearable
Wu has a lot to say about Windows 8, and most of it is quite negative. In a statement to ZDNet Wu claims that Windows 8 hardware is "overpriced" and offers "no clear benefit in switching from iOS or Android." He goes on to say that supply chain sources are reporting that "there is great confusion as there are too many form factors (PC notebooks, tablets, ultrabooks, and convertibles)" and that most of the OEMs "do not know what to build and will actually sell."
Wu also predicts that there will be a shift of power as far as the PC market is concerned, with Asia-Pacific players such as Lenovo, Asustek, and Samsung stripping market share away from established players such as Hewlett Packard and Dell. Apple, however, says Wu, will continue to gain share "due to its highly differentiated Mac."
Looks like 2013 is not going to be a good year for PC vendors.
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Talkback
Analyst: Windows 8
That could be a slogan for Apple products!
You so crazy DontUseMicrosoftAtAll
So take Shaw Wu's advice all the way
well in the planet where I live
Maybe is the tool that make the difference?
Note Im not complaining, in this competitive world is good to have an edge.
Self selecting
You know..
Then later, it happened to my iPad, barely a year old: iOS 5 came along and suddenly, my previously useful device became slower and crash-prone. Not as bad as iOS 4 was on my iPhone, but still, enough to establish a pattern of behavior.
Then I upgraded from Lion to Mountain Lion, and things became really slow on my MacBook Pro. Now, being a systems engineer, I figured no big deal, my MBP is less than two years old, and let's face it, upgrades are rarely the way to go anyway, so I installed Mountain Lion fresh. MUCH better! Still not quite as snappy as it was on Lion, but not bad.
Suffice to say, when my phone became a problem, I went to go and do the only thing Apple could really advise: "Upgrade to the NEW iPhone!" Luckily, the sales clerk took so long at the AT&T store that I had time to fiddle with the Windows Phone 7 devices of the time, and after finding out they had a 30 day return policy, I figured I'd give it a try.
Man was I shocked. WP7 was FAST, far faster than my iPhone had ever been. It was also more stable than my iPhone had ever been, especially after iOS 4, and within days I knew I wouldn't be returning it. I got nervous when updates came--Microsoft is famous for bloatware, would my Samsung Focus become a slug like my iPhone? No--it got *faster*. Each update brought more features and more speed and a smaller memory footprint--the OS was *shrinking* while getting better, exactly the opposite of Apple.
When my iPad got slow during iOS 5, I thought back to my iPhone, which was orphaned after its slowness appeared, so I decided to sell my iPad before the iOS 6 announcement, which I figured was likely to abandon the iPad--and I was right. Good thing I got out from under it when I did, because iPad 1 is now essentially a paperweight.
Eventually I opened up my MacBook Pro to see what might be a good choice for upgrading the hard drive, and was shocked to see the cheapest Hitachi piece of junk hard drive, the kind you'd expect to find in a $200 netbook, not a $1200 MacBook. So I upgraded the hard drive to a new SSD/HDD Hybrid and, figuring it was worth a look, installed the Consumer Preview of Windows 8. I was blown away by the OS--fast, smooth, stable, with an absolutely stunning modern UI design. Booting into OSX suddenly feels...archaic, like I'm looking at a relic from the past.
Fast forward awhile and I'm happily running Windows 8 RTM, and my next computer won't be Apple at all--it'll be a Windows 8 tablet with an Intel processor, probably Microsoft's upcoming Surface Pro. And with that, I'll be done with Apple forever.
See, whereas Microsoft used to make bloated software that got worse with age, they've learned their lesson and gone the opposite direction. 7 was smaller and faster than Vista. 8 is smaller and faster than 7. While Apple mucks around in UI paradigms they stole from Xerox 30 years ago, Microsoft has moved on to a fast, clean, modern UI that's easy to use.
I've dumped every Apple service I ever used and migrated fully into the Microsoft ecosystem, because even though it's a work in progress, it's already better than Apple's. And because I've now seen Microsoft consistently improve their products while Apple just treads water, I'm happy to have moved away, moved forward into the future and away from relics like OSX.
Thank you, Microsoft, for fixing everything that used to be wrong with you, and is now wrong with Apple instead.
Apple Didn't Steal Anything From Xerox
lol!!!!
jasongw aka MicroKlunk Redmond mole
Are you still using Windows 95?
I still maintain old Windows..
ITJohn - Guru? LMAO
I realise my response is quite childish, but I am only replying 'in kind' to a childish parroted post.
Oh, I use SSDs and have no need to defrag anything.
I still have a Compaq DOS computer
RE: "I realise my response is quite childish,..."
Windows 8 dude,
-A Computer Science Student-
I'm with you
Do you expect to be taken seriously and have credibility
Ya?
..and the far greater majority of OSX users