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If you thought PC sales were bad – Well, they were terrible. Gartner has reported that Q2 PC sales in Europe were 20% down yoy. Acer is hardest hit - down 40%. HP still largest supplier. But I liked the comment in the FT that said HP ‘may soon feel like a bald man in possession of a brush’.
Lots of reasons for this - from the Eurozone’s economic woes to the shift to tablets. But Windows 8 must bear its share of the blame too with so many individuals and companies just not prepared to buy a PC with W8. Given how huge the market intelligence operation is at Microsoft, you would have thought it would have been obvious to all that W8 would be a complete turnoff on non touch screen PCs. We reported the negative reaction on HotViews many times and a long time before Microsoft admitted they had a problem. I think this a very serious ‘own goal’ which just must land at the feet of Steve Ballmer (if this is not a mixed metaphor).
