By Bill Rigby
Consumer sales of Windows-powered personal computers fell 21 per cent overall last month, figures released by a leading retail research firm showed on Thursday, indicating a lackluster debut for Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 operating system.
Many in the industry said Windows 8 might revive slack PC sales, but a report by NPD Group, which tracks computer sales weekly using data supplied by retailers, dampened those hopes.
On the same day, Microsoft announced pricing for its latest device designed to break Apple Inc’s stranglehold on the tablet and lightweight laptop market.
It is offering the Surface tablet running the full version of Windows 8 from Sh76,415 ($899), pitching it somewhere between Apple’s latest iPad and MacBook Air laptop. Since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, Windows laptop sales are down 24 percent, while desktop sales are down 9 percent compared with the same period last year, making an overall 21 percent dip, NPD Group said.
Usually, a Microsoft release boosts PC sales because many consumers hold off purchases for several months so they can obtain the latest software immediately. If the NPD’s sales trends are borne out over the rest of the holiday shopping season, it would be a huge disappointment for Microsoft and PC makers such as Dell Inc, HP and Lenovo.
“After just four weeks on the market, it’s still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for.” NPD’s data neither includes Microsoft’s first Surface tablet, which is only available in its own stores, nor takes account of sales of PCs to businesses, which has recently been a much stronger market.
Microsoft’s first Surface tablet runs a version of Windows called RT, created to work on the low-power chips designed by ARM Holdings, which dominate smartphones and tablets but are incompatible with old Windows applications. A larger, heavier tablet — officially called ‘Surface with Windows 8 Pro’ — will be on sale from January, running on an Intel Corp chip.—Reuters
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