Windows 8x: Love It or Hate It – It’s Another Microsoft Failure

I want to preface this by saying that we (EB and I) are not anti-Microsoft. We make a substantial part of our living because of Windows, and we don’t want to see Microsoft continue to fall further and further behind. Nothing will improve, though, if all of us who use Windows continually make excuses and close our eyes and pretend that Microsoft’s as relevant and vibrant as it was 10 years ago.

Microsoft cuts corners, rushes things to market, and doesn’t listen to its customers. There was a time when Microsoft was so revelant and so important they could get away with this; that time has passed.

We both really hope that Microsoft’s corporate shake-up and the return of Bill Gates will be the beginnings of a renaissance for Microsoft. Many of us, including EB and I, wouldn’t be using computers the way we do now, and who knows, the world might be a very different place if Microsoft had never been.

But ignoring the facts, isn’t going to help. If Microsoft doesn’t start listening to consumers, if it doesn’t climb down from its ivory tower and give consumers what it needs, if it doesn’t stop stumbling and trying to play catch-up with Google and Apple, it will wither and die. You’re either growing, or you’re dying.

Google and Apple continue to grow and Microsoft continues to stumble. It makes no difference if you love or hate Windows 8x — sales of the operating system show that it’s not a hit with users — PC sales continue to slump. All this arguing – “I love Windows 8”, “Windows 8 sucks” is meaningless. Sales are what matters to Microsoft and sales are not good. Would anyone like to argue that?

Microsoft gambled and cut corners – instead of making an OS for tablets and phones like Google and Apple, they tried to make a one-size-fits-all OS and failed. MS was counting on huge sales of touch-screen desktops and laptops — and that didn’t happen.

Microsoft seems to have Google-envy and Apple-envy. Their anti-Google ads are puerile and pointless — and even hypocritical. Apple comes out with iPod and Microsoft crawls around and makes Zune — how’s your Zune working for you. Apple debuts the iPhone, Microsoft seems caught by surprise — their response? Kin. How’s that Kin phone working for you.

You’d think by the time Apple had out-maneuvered Microsoft twice, they would turn to being innovators and not copycats playing catch-up. But nope. Apple released the iPad and Microsoft feverishly tries to catch up and Windows 8 is part of the result of that catch-up game. How about some statistics on Surface tablet sales compared to iPad sales. Now let’s throw Google and Android in the mix. Microsoft’s Bing? The only reason there’s a Bing at all is because there’s a Google. Microsoft was in the search game long before Google — remember MSN? How many people use MSN now? What percentage use Bing? What percentage use Google? Though Microsoft has spent billions (yes BILLIONS) promoting Bing, here’s how things stood in October 2014. And when you look at these numbers, consider that the biggest growth isn’t PCs, it’s smart phones and tablets. Smart phones and tablets are included under US mobile search:

Google — October: 66.9 percent; September: 66.9 percent; August: 66.9 percent
Bing – October 18.1 percent; September: 18 percent; August: 17.8 percent
Yahoo – October 11.1 percent; September: 11.3 percent; August: 11.4 percent

In terms of US mobile search share StatCounter offers the following breakdown:

Google — 88.1 percent
Yahoo — 8.1 percent
Bing — 3.4 percent
All others — 0.4 percent

Google is just over fifteen-years-old and its corporate value exceeds that of Microsoft, which is almost 4 decades old now. Google didn’t get where it is by sitting back and copying Apple, did it?

Let’s look at smart phones. What’s the most popular operating system ? Windows is hardly relevant, and Android has surpassed iOS (Apple). The following are stats from January 2014.

The fact is Microsoft at one time was a innovator – or not. Both Apple and Microsoft basically stole the OS GUI from IBM. They both stole it and ran with it. Apple decided to control its own hardware, Microsoft went for the buck and made DOS and subsequently Windows to work with all IBM (at the time) PCs. If the only thing that matters is money, the Microsoft beat Apple in the money game when it chose to make DOS, then Windows, work with IBM PCs of which there were millions, at the time.

Windows XP was Bill Gates’ baby — it was created from the ground up and it was years and years in the making — and still today, Windows XP ( with its death looming ) is still more popular than Windows 8x – which is now more than a-year-and-a-half old.

So it does not matter at all if you love Windows 8x or you hate Windows 8x, Microsoft is scrambling trying to update a poorly selling operating system that has been rejected by the enterprise and the average consumer as well. If this were not so, why has Windows 8 had major updates twice in just over 16 months. What other Windows OS had two major updates in 16 months? I can’t think of one. Maybe some of you who used Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 remember how many major updates those OS’s had in their first 16 months. I barely remember Windows 95, but I remember Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP, and Windows 7 — and I know for sure those systems didn’t have 2 major updates in the first 16 months.

Love it? Hate it? Windows 8x isn’t a winner. Microsoft gambled when it tried to cut corners, save time, and rush to market one operating system for three different devices — PCs, tablets, and smart phones, and failed to successfully pull it off. Whether you, personally, love Windows 8x or hate Windows 8x, is irrelevant. The majority of consumers don’t love it and the enterprise doesn’t love it. Sales are poor.

Microsoft has reacted to the failure of Windows 8x in more ways that just the rushed major updates – heads are rolling at the very top of Microsoft management.

Windows 8x, whether you like it, love it, or hate it, is a failure for Microsoft. It’s time that Microsoft forgets about Apple and Google, and innovates again. The first step? Listening to consumer. The second step? Giving consumers what they want. That’s seem so simple, doesn’t it?

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