Sorry, Windows 8 Is Not Going to Save the PC Industry

? It's no secret that the PC business is pretty lousy these days. In recent weeks, Hewlett-Packard and Dell have posted weak quarterly earnings because so much of their business still relies on sales of PCs. On Friday, Intel became the latest behemoth to weigh in when it warned of third-quarter revenues of $13.2 billion, plus or minus $300 million, vs. the previous estimates of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion.

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In years past, the sluggish sales might be blamed on consumers waiting for an OS upgrade. When Windows 8 hits stores next month, it will have been more than three years since Microsoft released Windows 7.

Yet no one seems to be banking on a huge lift from Windows 8. David Daoud, research director of personal computing at the research firm IDC, predicts a 5% jump in U.S. PC sales for 2013 mostly because of Microsoft's new OS. That's a nice boost over a projected 1% rise this year, but not transformational. Worldwide, PC sales should increase 6.5% next year, though much of that is attributed to emerging markets rather than Windows 8 per se, according to Daoud.

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Compare those figures to the halcyon days of Windows 95. For those who are old enough to recall, Microsoft launched that OS with a $150 million campaign replete with use of the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up." The hoopla resulted in a 30% jump in PC sales for the fourth quarter of that year.

The more conservative estimates for Windows 8 reflect a new reality in which Microsoft's influence has waned as it has so far failed to adapt to a changing market. "I don't think [Windows 8] is going to turn [the PC industry] around because nothing's going to turn it around," says Mike Gualtieri, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "The thing that's in forward motion is the move to a multi-device world."

Indeed, if you lump in tablets with PCs, as Canalys does, the industry is doing great. Thanks to the spread of tablets (which offset disappointing sales of ultrabooks), overall sales will rise 12% this year. By Canalys's estimates, Apple is the biggest player in the market with a share of 19.4%.

Including tablets with PC sales illustrates why Microsoft is no longer as big a player as in the past. While consumers have flocked to the iPad, the bring your own device (BYOD) trend has wreaked havoc in another Microsoft stronghold, the business arena. A Q4 2011 Forrester survey of 9,900 employees around the world found the average employee used two and a half devices for work. Thanks to gains by Apple and Google, only 63% of respondents reported using a Microsoft OS one one of their work devices.

Of course, Microsoft is well aware of this trend, which is why Windows 8 is not primarily a PC OS, but one that straddles PCs, smartphones and tablets. However, Microsoft's track record so far with its critically lauded yet commercially unpopular Windows Phone has cast doubt on the Redmond software giant's ability to reclaim the market.

Simply put, no matter how good Windows 8 is, it may not matter that much. Says Gualtieri: "Windows 8 is really focused on merging these worlds together, but they're really playing catch-up."

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sorry-windows-8-not-going-save-pc-industry-112949498.html

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