APPLE SALES DOWN TOO. From the article:
Bolstering his view that Windows 8 was not the primary reason for the PC industry’s problems was the fact that Apple also experienced flat sales in the U.S. Apple was as affected by competition from cheap touch tablets — including its own iPad and iPad Mini — as were Windows-powered PCs.
“The market is flat, and no one is outperforming the others,” said Baker, including Apple.
NPD’s data on Macs, collected at point-of-sale for both brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy and online outlets such as Amazon.com, was out of sync with the estimates from IDC and Gartner. The former pegged Mac shipments as down 7.5% for the first quarter, while the latter tagged them as up 7.4%, an irreconcilable 15-point difference.
Apple will reveal its first-quarter sales figures Tuesday, April 23, in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. Meanwhile, Microsoft will release its quarterly revenue data, including that for Windows, on Thursday, April 18.
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Has anybody considered these factors:
1) Most computers purchased within the last five years can still perform admirably today.
New computers are noticeably better, but for the large swath of consumers who are turning to phones and tablets for all their casual computing, the necessity of regularly buying a new computer has become less pronounced. For those who sit in front of a home PC just a handful of times a week, they are probably fine extending the life of a slightly creaky machine.
2) Even if Windows 8 were the most well-received and critically acclaimed operating system ever, PC sales would probably still slump.
Why? Tablets.
It couldn’t possibly be that people just don’t have the money for the newest, fastest, sparkly computer on the market right now and have decided to make do with what they have. Most of the time unless you are a gamer or heavy graphics/number cruncher you really don’t gain much for the expense.
Windows 8 , what ever you call that opening screen, is worthless. It was designed for kids and touch screens or something. Does anyone make a consumer touch screen laptop? Why would you force the main part of the market to suffer through windows 8 if it is designed for a small minority sector of the market?
Since the iphone 5 release was such a yawner, it would be a surprise if apple sales are up. Love my $100 tablet !