{"id":800,"date":"2013-01-29T12:16:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T17:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=800"},"modified":"2013-01-29T12:16:03","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T17:16:03","slug":"microsoft-blames-oems-for-slow-windows-8-sales-plans-february-relaunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/01\/29\/microsoft-blames-oems-for-slow-windows-8-sales-plans-february-relaunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft blames OEMs for slow Windows 8 sales, plans February &quot;relaunch&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.techspot.com\/news\/51450-microsoft-blames-oems-for-slow-windows-8-sales-plans-february-relaunch.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/nccomputertech.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/01\/2012-10-12-teasercf5.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A report by The Register reveals that Microsoft blames OEMs for its relatively lackluster Windows 8 sales. Purportedly, Microsoft believes vendors didn&#8217;t adhere closely enough to its hardware recommendations, producing mostly non-touchscreen computers that didn&#8217;t showcase Windows 8&#8217;s touchable side. This information comes from a &#8220;well-placed&#8221; source familiar with the matter.<br \/>\nBetween its October 26 release and the end of 2012, Microsoft claimed to have sold 60 million copies of Windows 8. By comparison, it took Windows Vista about six months to sell the same number, but as some like to point out, statistics like these don&#8217;t always tell the whole story. Official figures on Microsoft&#8217;s Surface sales are still missing in action too, although Ballmer told a French news outlet that initial Surface sales were &#8220;modest&#8221;. Some analysts estimate that Microsoft has sold fewer than one million Surface tablets.<br \/>\nSomewhat unsurprisingly, the report also indicates that OEMs have turned the tables, assigning blame for lackluster Windows 8 sales to Microsoft. The primary reason computer-makers didn&#8217;t strictly follow Microsoft&#8217;s internal guidelines is that few companies were willing to risk producing millions of expensive, high-end devices that customers weren&#8217;t guaranteed to snap up.<br \/>\nIn spite of tepid sales though, Microsoft took numerous steps to make Windows 8 a success. The company hyped up Windows 8 as its most important OS since Windows 95, offered upgrades at record low prices and even created reference hardware to ship it on, in spite of possibly damaging its OEM partnerships. Interestingly, the report also uncovers a little-known effort Microsoft also bankrolled: a &#8220;contest&#8221; between computer manufacturers to create &#8220;Hero PCs&#8221;. Hero PCs were 10 hand-picked computers that Microsoft would have had retailers showcase globally. Disappointing sales though forced Microsoft to call off the promotion.<br \/>\nThe report claims that due to its underwhelming performance, Microsoft may be planning a February &#8220;re-launch&#8221; of Windows 8. What that exactly entails is unclear, but the Surface Pro and Office 2013 should also be landing on shelves that month. It sounds as though February may be a particularly busy month for Redmond.<br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.techspot.com\/news\/51450-microsoft-blames-oems-for-slow-windows-8-sales-plans-february-relaunch.html\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft blames OEMs for slow Windows 8 sales, plans February &#8220;relaunch&#8221; &#8211; TechSpot<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A report by The Register reveals that Microsoft blames OEMs for its relatively lackluster Windows 8 sales. Purportedly, Microsoft believes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,9,11],"tags":[927,1218],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microsoft","category-software","category-windows","tag-sales","tag-windows-8"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-cU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9932,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2025\/05\/16\/microsoft-makes-70-billion-cuts-3-of-workforce\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":0},"title":"Microsoft Makes $70 Billion, Cuts 3% of Workforce","author":"NCCT","date":"May 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/L0nyc9O5qYY On Windows Weekly, Paul Thurrott and Richard Campbell try to comprehend the sweeping employee layoffs happening at Microsoft in the wake of $70 billion in revenue. The company wants to increase its \"agility by reducing layers.\" Is this the return of Dark Satya?","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Microsoft&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/L0nyc9O5qYY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9902,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2025\/02\/11\/tpm-2-0-is-not-required-for-windows-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":1},"title":"TPM 2.0 Is Not Required for Windows 11","author":"NCCT","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/yjjCbOOpREg On Security Now, Steve Gibson talks about Microsofrt dropping the TPM 2.0 requirement from Windows 11.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Microsoft&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/yjjCbOOpREg\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9405,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/10\/07\/odorless-and-weightless-hackers-this-week-in-tech-687\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":2},"title":"Odorless and Weightless Hackers &#8211; This Week in Tech 687","author":"NCCT","date":"October 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/lb4rnqfNdas Chinese Spy Chips, Microsoft Highs and Lows, Pixel 3 Event Predictions, and More! Bloomberg reports that China used tiny chips to spy on Apple, Amazon, and the US government. Apple and Amazon deny it. How do we know who is right? All the news from the Microsoft Surface event,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/lb4rnqfNdas\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9320,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/04\/08\/this-week-in-tech-661-the-ant-man-canon\/","url_meta":{"origin":800,"position":3},"title":"This Week in Tech 661: The Ant Man Canon","author":"NCCT","date":"April 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/BOkNYwQ_k1Y Facebook issues the latest in a long string of apologies.YouTube shooter and the lure of fame. Apple plans its own chips for 2020, Mac Pro for 2019. Is Amazon spending too much on video? 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Host: Leo Laporte","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/gz77WILat9o\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}