{"id":77252,"date":"2013-05-07T08:35:51","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T06:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=77252"},"modified":"2013-05-07T10:09:13","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T08:09:13","slug":"microsoft-hits-windows-8-landmark-mulls-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/77252-microsoft-hits-windows-8-landmark-mulls-future.html","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft hits Windows 8 landmark, mulls future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Corp<\/a> has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses in the six months since launch, roughly in line with the previous version, but wants to combat sputtering interest in its flagship software with a substantial update to make it easier to use, and compatible with smaller tablets.<\/p>\n

Windows 8 is the first Microsoft operating system primarily designed for touch commands, but it has failed to capture consumers\u2019 imaginations or make a dent in a tablet market dominated by Apple Inc<\/a> and Samsung Electronics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it perfect? No. Are there things we need to change? Absolutely. We are being very real about what needs to change and changing it as thoughtfully and quickly as we can\u201d, said Tami Reller<\/a>, co-head of Microsoft\u2019s Windows unit at the company\u2019s Redmond, Washington headquarters last week, where she announced the latest Windows sales figure, a number made public on Monday.<\/p>\n

Microsoft will be rolling out an update to Windows 8, provisionally code-named \u2018Windows Blue\u2019, by the end of this year, Reller said. Details of the update will be released in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Although Microsoft has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses since launch on October 26, matching Windows 7 sales three years previously, it looks unlikely that the new system will see progressively rising demand, as Windows 7 did, hitting 240 million sales in its first year.<\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s last Windows 8 sales update was in early January, when it broke 60 million, suggesting only around 40 million license sales in the last four months, well below Windows 7\u2032s average sales rate.<\/p>\n

Windows 7 was helped by the fact that it replaced the generally unpopular Windows Vista, whereas Windows 8 has confused many potential customers with its new-look \u2019tile\u2019-based start screen and the omission of the traditional \u2018start\u2019 button.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe learning curve is real, and we need to address it,\u201d said Reller. \u201cWe\u2019re not sitting back and saying, they will get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reller did not say whether the \u2018Blue\u2019 update would restore the start button, but she said Microsoft would pay more attention to helping customers adapt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve considered a lot of different scenarios to help traditional PC users move forward as well as making usability that much better on all devices,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Touch laptops<\/h3>\n

Consumer alienation, and the lack of affordable touch-laptops that can make full use of Windows 8, has held back computer sales, according to industry tracker IDC<\/a>. PC sales had their sharpest drop on record in the first three months of this year, plummeting 14 percent.<\/p>\n

Reller hopes that new machines from firms including Lenovo, ASUS and Hewlett-Packard will change that this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know customers like touch laptops, but they are also price sensitive,\u201d she said. \u201cOur partners (hardware makers) have to bet on volume, so that they get price breaks, and get that moving into the (retail) channel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Microsoft is also tweaking Windows 8 to make it compatible with smaller seven and eight inch tablets, which would allow hardware makers to compete in the fastest-growing segment of the tablet market against Apple\u2019s iPad mini<\/a>, Samsung\u2019s Galaxy Tab, Google Inc<\/a>\u2019s Nexus 7<\/a> and Amazon.com Inc<\/a>\u2019s Kindle Fire.<\/p>\n

Reller declined to comment on whether Microsoft would make a smaller version of its own Surface tablet.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has not made much of an impression in the tablet market so far, notching only 900,000 Surface sales in the first quarter, according to IDC, compared with 19.5 million iPad sales and 8.8 million Samsung tablet sales.<\/p>\n

Overall, Reller hopes the \u2018Blue\u2019 update and a slew of attractive touch-laptops will fire up interest in Windows machines in all forms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that touch will be mainstream in consumer laptops,\u201d said Reller. \u201cI think we\u2019ll be pleased with the progress we\u2019ve made by \u2018back to school\u2019 and by holiday (year end), we\u2019ll be at this tipping point where we will say, \u2018Now I see it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Microsoft shares closed at $33.75 on the Nasdaq, after hitting their highest level since January 2008 earlier in the session, as the S&P 500 reached an all-time high.<\/p>\n

More Microsoft news<\/h3>\n

Microsoft Surface SA launch window announced<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Microsoft ending support for Windows XP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Google rivals to be consulted on antitrust offer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Corp has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses in the six months since launch, but wants to combat sputtering interest by making it compatible with smaller tablets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340871,"featured_media":77254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[36,123,451],"class_list":["post-77252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-active","tag-microsoft","tag-windows-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77256,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77252\/revisions\/77256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}