Despite everyone’s high hopes for Windows 8 reviving the slumping PC market, Microsoft’s operating system has exacerbated its losses instead. Windows 8 has been met with mixed reviews, and is often criticized for its steep learning curve and hybrid system of tiles optimized for touch-screen devices.
Bleak numbers from research firm IDC strongly suggest that the release of Windows 8 has contributed to the current free fall of the PC market. For the first quarter of 2013, IDC estimated that global PC shipments declined 13.9% year-on-year to 76.3 million units, worse than the 7.7% decline that it had previously forecast. U.S. PC shipments dropped 12.7% year-on-year. The Asia-Pacific region declined 10.3% year-on-year, with China and India posting the steepest drops.
Global PC shipments have declined for four consecutive quarters. This was also the PC market’s worst decline since IDC started tracking the PC market’s performance in 1994. Total quarterly shipments, at 14.2 million, also dropped to their lowest level since the first quarter of 2006.