Microsoft Corp. is restoring some old Windows features and rolling out new ones in a bid to reignite interest in its flagship operating system, after customers complained about the software’s usability.
Windows 8 debuted in October for tablets and personal computers with a tile-based layout for selecting programs, replacing a desktop design that let users start programs from a button. An update later this year will restore the start button, while adding search capabilities and other features, said Jensen Harris, director of program management for Windows.
Microsoft, which redesigned its main product to appeal to users switching to mobile, touch-based computing, has failed to jump-start growth in the ailing PC market with Windows 8. While tweaking designs and adding features will help, Microsoft needs more applications running on Windows and a greater variety of low-cost machines to stem the defection of consumers to tablets.
I’m not sure this helps them restore demand by itself, said Wes Miller, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington-based directions on Microsoft. Bringing people back to Windows is a question of apps and a device-cost question — right now you have to pay a premium price in general.
The update will let users set their machines to run the previous desktop design as a default, rather than the new tiled layout, Harris said. Windows 8.1 will also offer greater flexibility to tweak the start screen’s tiles, he said.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, said it will release a test version of the Windows update on 26 June. The company will ship the final product later this year as a free update for Windows 8 customers, the company said.
Users who are unfamiliar with the new design of Windows 8 had complained about the removal of the start button and menu, and that Windows 8 machines only booted up to the new tiled design.
In the update, the start button is visible when users touch or move a mouse at the screen’s bottom-left corner. Previously, Microsoft had a small image in that corner which also brought up the start screen. The latest changes to Windows represent a move forward rather than a retrenchment, said Antoine Leblond, vice president of Windows program management.
This is anything but a U-turn, Leblond said in an interview. There’s no question that our view is this modern world is the future, and we want more apps developed on this part of the platform.
While Windows 8 allowed users to run two programs side by side, the update will add the ability to adjust how much of the screen is given to each one. For larger displays, the software will let users open as many as four applications at once.
The lock screen for Windows 8.1 will feature a slide show of photos, and users will be able to answer Skype Web-based calls without unlocking the machine. The automatically updating tiles come in new sizes, from a small one to fit more apps on the screen to a very large format that shows several recent e- mails.
The changes are being introduced as Microsoft faces a second straight year of shrinking PC shipments, according to IDC. While tablet shipments are projected to climb 59% this year and outpace PCs in 2015, sales of Surface, the Microsoft’s tablet computer featuring Windows 8, are off to slow start, falling short of predictions, people familiar with the matter said in March.
One issue, particularly for tablet customers, has been the lack of applications for Window 8, compared with more than 350,000 apps for Apple Inc.’s iPad. Windows now has about 79,000 apps, according to MetroStore Scanner, a website that tracks how many apps are in the Windows store.
While the Windows 8 update is a concession by Microsoft that the new operating system may have turned off some customers, the software maker isn’t backing away from its new design, Miller said.
That’s not giving in — that’s just changing it to be more usable, Miller of Directions on Microsoft said. People need to realize Microsoft isn’t just going back to the way Windows 7 was.
2013年5月30日星期四
Plummeting PC sales expose fiction of Windows 8 numbers
Hewlett-Packard posted its quarterly results late last week, and the results paint yet another horrendous picture for the future of Windows. Lenovo posted first-quarter results last week as well, and while the picture from China isn't as dire, it's far from comforting. Windows 8 is in a nosedive, no matter how you look at it, in spite of Microsoft's remonstrations to the contrary.
Gartner and IDC (both of which I reference with no small amount of trepidation) say that HP sold the most PCs worldwide in the first three months of 2013. Gartner says the number of PCs sold fell 23.6 percent compared to the first quarter of 2012, and IDC pegs the number at 23.7 percent. HP's financial statement for the quarter ending April 30 (PDF) shows a 24 percent decline in revenue from "Personal Systems" -- desktops, workstations, and notebooks. Since HP's financial quarter lags the calendar quarter by one month, it's safe to assume the screaming roller-coaster ride for HP PCs is still headed steeply down.
Gartner and IDC say that Lenovo, the second-largest PC manufacturer, held its PC shipments steady year-to-year for the first quarter. Lenovo's earnings report (PDF) doesn't break out quarterly PC sales, but claims "strong PC shipments growth of 10 percent year-on-year." In other words, Lenovo's worldwide PC shipments from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013 were 10 percent higher than April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012. Those numbers are in line with the analysts' reports of flatline PC sales in the first quarter of this year, compared to last year.
Some of Lenovo's reported growth (or lack thereof) in PC sales comes from its acquisition of CCE, a PC manufacturer and retailer in Brazil, the world's third-largest PC market. According to the last estimate I found, CCE was expected to sell 887,000 PCs in 2012. The CCE acquisition thus contributed at least 1 to 2 percent to Lenovo's flatlined quarter; if there had been no CCE acquisition, Lenovo's PC numbers surely would've shrunk.
Lenovo's growth in China isn't as great as some people assume. Lenovo's PC shipments in China grew 8 percent year-over-year for the quarter, "a significant result given that the overall China PC market was flat." It's entirely possible that China -- once thought to be the savior of the PC market -- has reached its zenith as well.
Lenovo benefits from an enlightened attitude toward installing and supporting Windows 7 on new machines and a surprising lack of concern about shipping "genuine" Windows with all of its new PCs worldwide. I confirmed that lapse last weekend at a major Asian computer mall.
One point worth pondering, from a Windows 8 point of view: Lenovo claims "consumer PC's unit shipments grew 22 percent year-on-year." Since total PC sales were up 10 percent, that speaks volumes about corporate PC unit shipments.
Dell, the third-largest PC manufacturer worldwide, embroiled in an internal struggle to go private, reported a 9 percent decrease in quarterly PC revenue, year-to-year (Dell's fiscal quarter ended on May 3, making comparisons challenging). Both Gartner and IDC put Dell's calendar Q1 unit shipments down about 11 percent from 2012.
Acer, No. 4 on both the Gartner and IDG lists, shows a huge drop in first-quarter shipments, at about 30 percent according to the analysts. Acer's seen the writing on the wall. Although the company apparently has a new 8-inch (1,280 by 800) Windows 8 tablet coming out soon, and Acer's president Jim Wong has toned down his anti-Windows 8 rhetoric, Acer's scrambling to sell $169 Android tablets.
At No. 5, Asus showed a considerable drop in PC shipments in the first quarter (3.5 percent according to Gartner; 19.2 percent according to IDC), but it has a tiger by the tail: According to the company's quarterly report, its Android-based "epad" sales accounted for 19 percent of Asus' Q1 sales, and that segment's revenue grew by 214 percent year-on-year. Asus sold 3 million tablets in the first quarter. (Can you spell "Nexus"?)
Windows 7 license sales were chugging along nicely at about 20 million per month last year. But this year, PC sales have cratered -- down anywhere from 9 to 30 percent from year-ago levels, depending on the manufacturer (except for Lenovo). How can that possibly be the case if, as Microsoft claims, Windows 8 shipments hit 100 million earlier this month, tracing the same sales arc experienced by the wildly successful Windows 7?
Short answer: It can't. Long answer: There's no way on earth Microsoft is selling as many copies of Windows 8 as it was selling Windows 7. Microsoft is undoubtedly using the same tricks I talked about six months ago. It's all fiction -- accounting smoke 'n' mirrors.
I have this recurring dream where a Microsoft exec asks one of the staff accountants, "How many copies of Windows 8 did we sell last month?" The response, with a grin: "How many would you like?"
The bad news keeps pouring in. Gartner's EU eulogy: PC shipments in western Europe were down 20.5 percent from Q1 2012 to Q1 2013. "Mobile and desktop PC shipments fell by 24.6 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively. Shipments to the professional PC market declined by 17.2 percent, while those to the consumer PC market decreased by 23.7 percent... HP and Acer both recorded declines of over 30 percent," Gartner reported.
We're just starting to see the devastating effect Windows 8 has had, not only on Microsoft but on the industry as a whole. And I wouldn't bet a feathered farthing that Windows Blue will make the situation any better. I predict a huge backlash if Microsoft puts a Start button on the old-fashioned desktop and ties it into the Metro Start screen. That kind of wretched experience and its concommitant bad publicity, like Chris Pirillo's iconic "Dad Test," will only make Windows 7 and XP users more cynical.
I'm sticking with my prediction that PC sales (net of returns) in 2013 will be around 20 percent lower than in 2012, except I'm starting to think the real decline might be closer to 30 percent.
While there are many contributing factors to the traditional PC business getting the stuffing knocked out of it, the Windows 8 train wreck has certainly accelerated the industry's hurtle into the abyss.
Gartner and IDC (both of which I reference with no small amount of trepidation) say that HP sold the most PCs worldwide in the first three months of 2013. Gartner says the number of PCs sold fell 23.6 percent compared to the first quarter of 2012, and IDC pegs the number at 23.7 percent. HP's financial statement for the quarter ending April 30 (PDF) shows a 24 percent decline in revenue from "Personal Systems" -- desktops, workstations, and notebooks. Since HP's financial quarter lags the calendar quarter by one month, it's safe to assume the screaming roller-coaster ride for HP PCs is still headed steeply down.
Gartner and IDC say that Lenovo, the second-largest PC manufacturer, held its PC shipments steady year-to-year for the first quarter. Lenovo's earnings report (PDF) doesn't break out quarterly PC sales, but claims "strong PC shipments growth of 10 percent year-on-year." In other words, Lenovo's worldwide PC shipments from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013 were 10 percent higher than April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012. Those numbers are in line with the analysts' reports of flatline PC sales in the first quarter of this year, compared to last year.
Some of Lenovo's reported growth (or lack thereof) in PC sales comes from its acquisition of CCE, a PC manufacturer and retailer in Brazil, the world's third-largest PC market. According to the last estimate I found, CCE was expected to sell 887,000 PCs in 2012. The CCE acquisition thus contributed at least 1 to 2 percent to Lenovo's flatlined quarter; if there had been no CCE acquisition, Lenovo's PC numbers surely would've shrunk.
Lenovo's growth in China isn't as great as some people assume. Lenovo's PC shipments in China grew 8 percent year-over-year for the quarter, "a significant result given that the overall China PC market was flat." It's entirely possible that China -- once thought to be the savior of the PC market -- has reached its zenith as well.
Lenovo benefits from an enlightened attitude toward installing and supporting Windows 7 on new machines and a surprising lack of concern about shipping "genuine" Windows with all of its new PCs worldwide. I confirmed that lapse last weekend at a major Asian computer mall.
One point worth pondering, from a Windows 8 point of view: Lenovo claims "consumer PC's unit shipments grew 22 percent year-on-year." Since total PC sales were up 10 percent, that speaks volumes about corporate PC unit shipments.
Dell, the third-largest PC manufacturer worldwide, embroiled in an internal struggle to go private, reported a 9 percent decrease in quarterly PC revenue, year-to-year (Dell's fiscal quarter ended on May 3, making comparisons challenging). Both Gartner and IDC put Dell's calendar Q1 unit shipments down about 11 percent from 2012.
Acer, No. 4 on both the Gartner and IDG lists, shows a huge drop in first-quarter shipments, at about 30 percent according to the analysts. Acer's seen the writing on the wall. Although the company apparently has a new 8-inch (1,280 by 800) Windows 8 tablet coming out soon, and Acer's president Jim Wong has toned down his anti-Windows 8 rhetoric, Acer's scrambling to sell $169 Android tablets.
At No. 5, Asus showed a considerable drop in PC shipments in the first quarter (3.5 percent according to Gartner; 19.2 percent according to IDC), but it has a tiger by the tail: According to the company's quarterly report, its Android-based "epad" sales accounted for 19 percent of Asus' Q1 sales, and that segment's revenue grew by 214 percent year-on-year. Asus sold 3 million tablets in the first quarter. (Can you spell "Nexus"?)
Windows 7 license sales were chugging along nicely at about 20 million per month last year. But this year, PC sales have cratered -- down anywhere from 9 to 30 percent from year-ago levels, depending on the manufacturer (except for Lenovo). How can that possibly be the case if, as Microsoft claims, Windows 8 shipments hit 100 million earlier this month, tracing the same sales arc experienced by the wildly successful Windows 7?
Short answer: It can't. Long answer: There's no way on earth Microsoft is selling as many copies of Windows 8 as it was selling Windows 7. Microsoft is undoubtedly using the same tricks I talked about six months ago. It's all fiction -- accounting smoke 'n' mirrors.
I have this recurring dream where a Microsoft exec asks one of the staff accountants, "How many copies of Windows 8 did we sell last month?" The response, with a grin: "How many would you like?"
The bad news keeps pouring in. Gartner's EU eulogy: PC shipments in western Europe were down 20.5 percent from Q1 2012 to Q1 2013. "Mobile and desktop PC shipments fell by 24.6 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively. Shipments to the professional PC market declined by 17.2 percent, while those to the consumer PC market decreased by 23.7 percent... HP and Acer both recorded declines of over 30 percent," Gartner reported.
We're just starting to see the devastating effect Windows 8 has had, not only on Microsoft but on the industry as a whole. And I wouldn't bet a feathered farthing that Windows Blue will make the situation any better. I predict a huge backlash if Microsoft puts a Start button on the old-fashioned desktop and ties it into the Metro Start screen. That kind of wretched experience and its concommitant bad publicity, like Chris Pirillo's iconic "Dad Test," will only make Windows 7 and XP users more cynical.
I'm sticking with my prediction that PC sales (net of returns) in 2013 will be around 20 percent lower than in 2012, except I'm starting to think the real decline might be closer to 30 percent.
While there are many contributing factors to the traditional PC business getting the stuffing knocked out of it, the Windows 8 train wreck has certainly accelerated the industry's hurtle into the abyss.
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