PC Sales Plunge, Windows 8 Gets Brunt of Blame

PC sales fell by as much as 13.9 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period of time last year. At least one industry analyst is directly blaming the lack of popularity of Windows 8 as the reason behind the drop in sales numbers.

We already reported that there has been one study that showed that people have been going out of their way to avoid buying computers that are outfitted with the newest Microsoft operating system.

It appears that the number of people who are actually avoiding the OS are more than even we imagined. The International Data Corporation (IDC) released their report today and it showed that a decline in sales was expected but that the actual decline was about twice what was expected.

PC sales dipped to a level that that the industry has actually never seen, since they started measuring these kinds of quarterly numbers in 1994. So why does IDC think that Windows 8 is to blame for this?

Vice president of Clients and Displays Bob O’Donnell said that the newest operating system “not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market.”

It seems as if Microsoft might be seeing an episode of Windows Vista part II only they seem to be seeing a backlash far faster than what they saw with Vista.

Part of the problem with Windows 8 is that the UI is so different and so new that people are apparently deciding that they don’t need a new computer if it means that they are also going to have to deal with learning how to basically learn to use their computer all over again.

IDC was quick to point out that it wasn’t just Windows based personal computers that saw problems. Mac OS computers also saw slower growth than expected, though they didn’t have anywhere near as bad a quarter as Windows did.

Do you think PC sales are going to rebound or are we on a permanent downward trend?