Consumers are Hesitant to Make the Switch to Windows 8

A recent report shows that many consumers are hesitant to switch to Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest operating system. This news comes just days after the President of the Windows division, Steven Sinofsky left Microsoft.

The day before the release of Windows 8, Avast, a security company, polled 1.6 million users of its PC anti-virus product, and got 350,000 responses, including over 135,000 from U.S. Windows users. The results?

Some 65% of U.S. users replied from PCs running Windows 7, while 22% still used Windows XP, and 8%, Windows Vista. 60% of respondents were aware of Windows 8, which indicates Microsoft did a good job of marketing the product, as should be the case when any company spends $1.5 billion on an marketing campaign.

However, despite the consumers awareness, only 9% of U.S. respondents were willing to purchase a new computer in the near future just to have Windows 8, while more than 70% said they planned to stick with what they have for the time being. Not good for Microsoft, but it actually gets worse.

In the same poll by Avast, of 16% of the U.S. Windows who did plan to purchase a new computer, 68% indicated they would get one of the new Windows 8 models, while 30% planned to buy an iPad, and 12% planned to buy a Mac.

Wow, so 42% of the people planning to buy a new computer (who currently use Windows) are people who looking to purchase an Apple product.  Even if these people have multiple computers in their homes, that’s still scary if you’re Microsoft.

Could Windows 8 be Windows Vista all over? Only time will tell, but right now, it isn’t sounding too good.