Well, you don’t hear this all too often. It’s either smooth standard sailing, or dipping numbers. But Microsoft’s revamped modern operating platform has now begun stirring interest levels in tablets and other touch enabled devices.
As a result demand for Windows 8.1 is starting to increase.
According to this report that cites channel retailers, consumers are curious about the experience on tablets and hybrids, and have started to buy these feature rich devices powered by Microsoft’s latest operating system.
Asus, for example, is now expecting sales of its Windows 8.1 hybrids to reach the highs of 12 million units, while at the same time admitting that this shift of focus will negatively impact its laptop lineup.
Anyway, ultimately this would be good news for Redmond. Microsoft worked closely with its hardware partners in making sure that these new devices are optimized out of the box, while at the same time trying to ensure that Windows 8.1 becomes a better product than the core vanilla Windows 8.
And not to mention, the technology titan already promised an absolute avalanche of new products by the time its new OS launched — meaning hardware vendors were ready and prepared this time.
The company also brought along two of its latest Windows 8.1 devices soon after launching the new operating system, the second generation Surface tablets, Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2.
All Comments
I’m not sure why anyone is surprised. Adoption of the OS can pick up, now that people aren’t looking for reasons to complain.
That goes double for me.
Make it triple! Some of my friends have recently bought new devices and are surprised by how much they like it. Goes to show that all the hyperbole against it is just B.S. from the dinosaurs out there.
Hey, that too goes double for me. You know the problem with dinosaurs, they can’t smile 🙂
People finally started to realize wha a treasure it is?!! Was about time
At some point they need to make a ‘classic’ mode. The UI wasn’t the problem. Win7 UI was fine for most people (it was an easy transition from WinXP, for example). The half-baked hybrid Metro/Desktop mess is at best confusing and at worst dysfunctional to the point of being productivity destroying. Why force that interface on non-tablet devices? It’s not that business is going to ditch MS for Apple, but I do think we’ll see corporate holding firm on Win7 until Win8 (or Win9 or whatever comes after) has an option to use something closer to the traditional Win7 UI. Don’t be fooled by the ‘adoption’ rate that is linked to new consumer sales; ask how many 5K+ seat business are actively working on Win8 migrations (or even planning for a migration). Just like Vista, the answer is that they’re sitting on the sidelines.