Re:After 15 months, Windows 8 has sold 100 million fewer cop...
by gumby on Thursday February 13, 2014 @10:41PM
(#7236740)
Your message made me realize something I should have known all along.
You wrote,
> Getting people and businesses to upgrade again when they just did so in the past few years is a tougher sell. [...]Only in the past 3-4 months have the updated models from most manufacturers made it into stores ...[which serve as] reasons for people to actually want to buy a new PC.
Microsoft needs the Win8 upgrade so they can get revenue. They also needed to get new features into peoples' hands (security, new APIs including touch, etc). But the customers aren't crying out for these features, as seen by the continued demand for XP.
Apple needed the Mavericks upgrade so they could get new features (security, new APIs including tighter integration with iOS, etc). But like Microsoft's customers, Apple's customers aren't crying out for these features either.
I don't know what Mavericks' penetration in the Apple base is but I would guess it's still under 15% if some articles from December are to be believed). Better than Windows 8, though: how big is the Windows upgrade market vs wait-for-a-new-PC market? I'd bet at this point the Windows upgrade market is close to nil.
Since Apple makes their profits from hardware and add ons (a few apps, plus the huge iTunes ecology) they can afford to do this. Microsoft cannot.
You wrote, > Getting people and businesses to upgrade again when they just did so in the past few years is a tougher sell. [...]Only in the past 3-4 months have the updated models from most manufacturers made it into stores ...[which serve as] reasons for people to actually want to buy a new PC.
Microsoft needs the Win8 upgrade so they can get revenue. They also needed to get new features into peoples' hands (security, new APIs including touch, etc). But the customers aren't crying out for these features, as seen by the continued demand for XP.
Apple needed the Mavericks upgrade so they could get new features (security, new APIs including tighter integration with iOS, etc). But like Microsoft's customers, Apple's customers aren't crying out for these features either.
Which is why Apple priced it for free, and was "rewarded" by huge uptake (in their much smaller installed base: according to this they are about even with Windows 8: http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share....)
I don't know what Mavericks' penetration in the Apple base is but I would guess it's still under 15% if some articles from December are to be believed). Better than Windows 8, though: how big is the Windows upgrade market vs wait-for-a-new-PC market? I'd bet at this point the Windows upgrade market is close to nil.
Since Apple makes their profits from hardware and add ons (a few apps, plus the huge iTunes ecology) they can afford to do this. Microsoft cannot.