The problem with Microsoft...

[Wayne Orwig]

Did anybody here use the older Windows Mobile phones or PPC CE based phones? I did for many many years. They were Windows CE based, and had a start button much like the pre-win8 start menu. Thinking back on it. One of the first things I would do to them was to install a graphical launcher to replace the start menu. Negotiating that start menu on a touch screen, even with a stylus, was a PITA. I'm convinced that the only mistake MS has made with the modern UI and the start screen is that they should have done it three or four years back.

 

[pallentx]

Yep I had one of these.

That was one of the big changes when the switched to the Pocket PC branded version. A full screen, graphical launcher replaced the start menu. One of the things I loved about the old Pocket PC/Windows Mobile was all the utilities out there that allowed you to tweak the UI.

 

[tonyz3]

I believe once technology catches up for ms than it will take off for them. Slimmer and more battery. Most people have selective amnesia just how bad android was for the first couple years. It did not even get slightly tolerable to use until ics.

 

[Ruffles]

The 100 million is to both end users and OEMs. OEMs don't buy any more licenses then they think they will be able to sell. The PC slump has NOTHING to do with win 8 and EVERYTHING to do with bad economy, phones, tablets, and no compelling reason to upgrade. 2-3 year old PC's still run fine so people are instead buying new gadgets instead. We would be in the same slump even if no new OS had been release. Finally, like I've said before, NO ONE is walking into the store with money in hand to buy a PC and after looking at Win 8, turning around and leaving empty handed. Face it man, Win 8 is not the failure you think it is and far far far more people love it than hate it.

Here's an article about the slump in 2010. PC sales have been slowing long before Win 8. Global PC sales charts in 2010 HP first ranked

People can we stop with the 100 million licenses sold business? This is NOT NOT NOT sales to end users. This is sales to OEM's and Retailers at the wholesale level. Since these manufacturers pretty much have to put Windows 8 on all new computers they have no choice but to buy a license. The 100 million sold is NO INDICATION WHATSOEVER of public demand. What IS an indication of public demand is the absolute cratering of PC sales. PC's are unbelievably cheap right now. If there was public demand for Windows 8 don't you think sales would be improving? The ability of some of the MS fanboys in here to say that PC sales imploding over the last year has NOTHING to do with Windows 8 is hilarious. Of COURSE it has everything to do with Windows 8. The entire message of Windows 8 before it came out was that it was going to save the PC market.

And why is there a Windows Blue so soon after the initial release, because Windows 8 has been such a hit? Windows Blue is no minor tweak, it is a major update. Why, because of some tiny minority screaming for a Start Button? Would MS actually do a major update to satisfy a small minority (an update, by the way, the do NOT want to do)?

But MS does seem to be getting the message. Looks like they are going to make Windows Blue much more friendly to desktop users and Windows Tablet prices look to be coming down across the board. This doesn't make MS visionary. MS wanted NONE of this. The are being dragged kicking and screaming across the finish line by some VERY unhappy OEM's.

 

[Ruffles]

Yup. I worked for ATI back in the day and was stationed on site at MS. I did the Radeon CE 5.0 video drivers. I think I still have my HP iPaq around here someplace (Apple didn't come up with the i* prefix either).

Did anybody here use the older Windows Mobile phones or PPC CE based phones? I did for many many years. They were Windows CE based, and had a start button much like the pre-win8 start menu. Thinking back on it. One of the first things I would do to them was to install a graphical launcher to replace the start menu. Negotiating that start menu on a touch screen, even with a stylus, was a PITA. I'm convinced that the only mistake MS has made with the modern UI and the start screen is that they should have done it three or four years back.

 

[J515OP]

Posts 33-40 are all good points. I just want to know how dumb would the hardware companies have to be to buy 100 million copies of an OS that they blame for the loss of PC sales all while knowing that consumers don't want it but they are still going to put it on their PCs for consumers to use. OEM meeting some place in the backrooms of factories in Asia:

Sony: "Guys MS is killing us with this Windows 8. We can't sell a single PC with this OS. The users don't even like it and never will. I'm going to buy 25 million copies and force consumers to buy it in order to jump start sales."
Asus: "Yeah, you're right. I'll take 25 million copies."
Lenovo: "Me too."
Acer: "Now that's a plan. I'm in for 25 million too and will make a press release to assure the consumers that if MS makes just a few tweaks we can be taking care of the world's PC needs."

Three days later:

"When we were talking to Microsoft, our input to them is balance,” said Acer President Jim Wong. “The world in the next five years is not going 100 percent to touch. Although touch makes a lot of possibilities for PCs, you need to take care of the rest of the world that doesn’t need touch."

Executives from computer maker Acer have noted that Microsoft is being more "considerate" to its partners and has begun adopting suggestions made by partners "at a high percentage."

All: "Double digit PC growth can't be more than a quarter away now!"