Day: November 24, 2012

Keeping a stiff upper lip, the British vote is in… not so interested in Windows 8! But, they might buy a Windows 8 tablet.

Less than half of British web users want Windows 8

“A new survey of British web users has shown a less than stellar appetite for the new Windows 8 operating system.

Toluna QuickSurveys received 2,000 responses from a broad internet survey of Britons and found that only 13.5 per per cent said they were ‘very likely’ to upgrade to the new Microsoft OS.

25.1 per cent of users said they would be ‘quite likely’ to upgrade to Windows 8. That leaves over 60 per cent of respondents who were either unlikely or very unlikely to upgrade, or just didn’t care either way.

Perhaps more tellingly for the PC industry as a whole, which is banking on Windows 8 to revive its fortunes, almost half of all those surveyed had no intention of buying a new PC in the next year.

Windows 7 still king

The study also asked users of their preferred choice of operating system. 14 per cent of respondents selected Windows 8, while 28 per cent opted for Windows 7.

This is likely down to the continued popularity of Windows 7 among users. Earlier this week we learned that only 1 per cent of PCs are running the new OS almost a month after it went on sale.

However, the report wasn’t all doom and gloom for Microsoft. When asked about tablet purchases, 13 per cent said they’d buy a Windows 8 tablet – the same number who mentioned iOS and Android tablets.”

They are ramping up on the number of available Windows 8 apps, and many, actually most, are free!

Windows 8 store adds 7,000 apps in two weeks to pass 20,000 mark, almost 18,000 are free

“The Windows Store in Windows 8 has passed 20,000 apps. It’s not clear exactly when it happened, but Win App Update, which keeps track of the totals, posted on Thursday that the milestone was likely reached on Tuesday.

The last time we covered Windows 8’s store, it was at 12,895 apps on November 5. This means some 7,715 apps were added in the last 17 days. That’s more than 453 apps per day, which means the store’s growth is once again accelerating (Windows 8 was sucking down a firm 500 apps daily after its launch, but it had dropped to the 300s more recently).

At this rate, the Windows 8 store will easily pass the 30,000 mark before the end of the year, and may even near 40,000 apps. This is to be expected as the holiday season nears and developers start preparing to ride the Windows 8 wave. There will be millions of Windows 8 devices sold this month and next, so it makes sense app creators want to take advantage.

It looks like Microsoft is doing just fine on the quantity side of things. 20,000 apps is pretty damn good for a new store to achieve so quickly. Quality, on the other hand, is a different story, and will take much longer to improve.”