Pent up Windows 8 demand and Laptop buying advice.

[techyguy717]

I am seeing a lot of interest with Windows 8 with my customers.
Many customers are still on the fence for different reasons.
One of the biggest reasons is a lack of good hardware. (Or laptops that my customers want)

For example:

One customer is looking for a 17 inch touch screen that is very light.

Most customers just can't decide what to buy.

For me, I can't find a convertible laptop with a 14 - 15 inch screen with a LAN port. The Lenovo Yoga is interesting but doesn't meet my needs.
http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/yoga/yoga-13/

 

[BillMoney]

as someone who is in retail and sells win 8 laptops alot, I think you will see more and more of ultrabooks w/ touch screens and more like the lenovo twist/yoga in a 14 inch and maybe a 15.6 coming eventually the market on these is still grow as the demand is not yet there for them

 

[HCHTech]

One customer is looking for a 17 inch touch screen that is very light.

Yeah, I love those requests. I had one the other day - "It needs to be really fast, but I can only spend $500". Sure! That gives us LOTS of choices!

Or just this morning a customer calls me who was surprised that the new computer she paid all of $350 for at Walmart wouldn't run the latest version of Dragon Naturally Speaking well. "Can you help me upgrade it?"

 

[Blue]

IIRC, The Register (?) ran a story which said Microsoft is not only blaming PC makers for the bombing of Win8, but that they're going to attempt a 'relaunch' of the OS in February in an effort to salvage possible sales.

I'll be curious as to how that will pan out. For your customers, I'll be hoping that better hardware will come soon, and at a reasonable price point. That way, we all win.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Here's the Register article you mention.

 

[techyguy717]

Iv'e found that many senior citizens want a big, clear screen. Many are starting to prefer Laptops, but have trouble accurately using a mouse or touchpad.
(That's why I recommend a touch screen)

Do 17 inch Laptops sell terribly? They seem to be going extinct, but I still see demand.

 

[compnet]

Do 17 inch Laptops sell terribly? They seem to be going extinct, but I still see demand.

There`s a demand til people realize they are lugging around the equivalent weight to a gallon of milk.

 

[tankman1989]

I would think a lot of the sales are due to the customer not having a choice between Win 7 & 8. Has anyone been running into driver issues where only drivers for Win 8 are made for the machine (especially laptops). This was a big problem for either Vista or Win 7 where you couldn't downgrade because there were no drivers for previous OS versions.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Suprising. Of consumers I've talked to, most want nothing to do with Windows 8. One or two seem to not mind it.

 

[nightkingdoms]

Suprising. Of consumers I've talked to, most want nothing to do with Windows 8. One or two seem to not mind it.

I'm in the same boat here.

 

[nlinecomputers]

At the risk of being labeled ON THE PATH TO EXTINCTION by some techs I am both not seeing a demand and recommending to my clients and customers to avoid Windows 8.

I also found this quote in the Register article interesting:

PC makers, though, are hitting back after Redmond's finger-pointing - countering that if they’d followed Microsoft’s advice they’d have ended up building very expensive tablets and would have been saddled with the costs of a huge piles of unsold units. Those who did buy Windows 8 PCs ultimately bought the cheap laptops not high-end Ultrabooks or hybrids.

And did anyone at M$ think that this trend which hardly is unique to Windows 8 was going to suddenly stop? PC buyers have been going on the cheap for years now and OEMs have fed it to the point of shrinking their margins below profitability. It is the vista problem all over again with hardware really not upto the needs of the OS. In this case touch screens. No one likes to use this OS with out one and otherwise there isn't any real benefit to going to it. Windows 7 works just as well so why upgrade?