Windows 8 Upgrade Deals May Not Work Out Well for Microsoft

Early this month Microsoft announced that you could buy an upgrade to Windows 8 for $40US making it one of the cheapest OS's you can buy from Microsoft.  But will this come back and byte Microsoft??  Will this be enough to offset the "phj34r of change" associated with Metro and the lack of a traditional desktop??

As a hardware enthusiast I don't think it will be enough.  Sadly when it comes to software sales the majority speaks and the Majority in this case are *NOT* hardware enthusiasts.

"Being forced by their employers to work on Windows XP has been driving people toward Macs and tablets," Johnson said. "Microsoft's future viability depends on how fast it can get new value in the hands of users. A high cost of upgrading has been slowing them down."

However, the upgrade incentives can be a double-edged sword, because touchscreens, touchpads and mice that support gestures are important to providing a good experience with Windows 8, according to Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst.

"Most PCs that will really make Windows 8 work well won't ship until the OS does. People upgrading older PCs is actually a risk for Microsoft because they may not be as happy as users that have new PCs tuned for Windows 8," Silver said. "Users that upgrade should ensure they have either a touchscreen or a touchpad or touch mouse that supports gestures in Windows 8."

I still don't see how the Metro interface will work in business, for the home user its golden but in the office environment workstations are dominated by keyboards I just don't see people flicking a screen and then moving back to the keyboard to finish their document.  On the same token I don't see artists using a touch screen to photos or do anything to create images, you need a little more control than that and fat human fingers are not going to cut it.

Related Web URL: http://www.pcworld.com/article/258921/windows_8_up...