The following is an article from Computer World. We thought you’d you would be interested in it. Perhaps, more than every, all of us who use Windows better hope that Windows 10 is something special.
Chromebooks spank Windows
Last summer Microsoft talked its partners into trying to stop the growing popularity of Chromebooks in its tracks by making a big push during the holiday season. While full retail results won’t be in for a while, we do know the laptop sales results from the most important retailer of them all, Amazon. Guess what. With that retailer at least, Microsoft and its buddies failed. Miserably.
Amazon reports that its top three computers sold over the holidays were — drum-roll, please — Chromebooks. It was that way last year too. Oh, wait, I’m wrong; Microsoft did worse this year. In 2013, one of Amazon’s top three sellers was a Windows machine, The Asus’ Transformer Book, a Windows 8.1 “2-in-1” device that transforms from a 10.1-in. tablet to a keyboard-equipped laptop.
Forgive me, but I can’t resist the urge to extrapolate from those Amazon results and assume that the big Microsoft push was a bust elsewhere as well. If it turns out I’m wrong about this, I promise to rectify it by mentioning it in another column down the road. Watch this space.
But to continue assuming the worst from Microsoft’s point of view: This is so not what it had hoped for. Microsoft assumed that by pulling out the same old tricks that had put an end to Linux netbooks in 2009, it could do in Chromebooks as well. Wrong!
The plan was to offer OEMs Windows 8.1 With Bing essentially for nothing. Why such a low, low price? Well, back in February of last year, Microsoft had cut the price of Windows 8 on low-end devices by 70% and that had failed to get manufacturers or customers excited. The goal of the holiday “we can’t possibly go any lower” price was to enable vendors to sell low-end computers at bottom-of-the-rung Chromebook prices — from $199 to $249 — and still make a profit. The plan sounded like a winner to Microsoft and friends.
The OEMs certainly bought into it. Asus’ EeeBook X205 laptop and HP’s Stream 14 were offered for $199, while Acer offered the Aspire Switch 10 and 11 2-in-1 tablets/notebooks for under $400. So Microsoft and its buddies entered the last quarter of 2014 pretty darn sure that Chromebooks would be beat back and life would return to “normal,” where Windows would be the only real choice for anyone who wasn’t a tie-dyed-in-the-wool Mac fan… (read more)
Hi guys…This article doesn’t surprise me! This past Christmas I bought an Acer Chromebook from Amazon, my first laptop. After doing a lot of research the Chromebook had everything I was looking for in a laptop. I have been very pleased with my purchase and would definitely recommend Chromebook as a 2nd computer to anyone.
No wonder windows 8 and 8.1 are no good! They had something good and messed around and ruined it. That was Windows XP after that nothing they made was right. If they want to capture the public they need to bring back what the people liked and pay attention to them. Not cram what they want down peoples throats. You see what happened they went elsewhere to but their computers!! Windows was once a great product here is hoping it comes back to things people like again.
Microsoft is so not NOT into people they treat their customers like machines who blindly follow them and buy what it is they are selling. The number one thing they did was kill the best one they ever had and replace it with junk and excuse me but I am still upset over outlook express .
Please remove my name and email address from the above. Thank you.