While Microsoft have announced that a consumer preview of Windows 8 will be made available at the end of this month, UK retailers can’t wait for it to arrive. Sales of PC’s in the UK and around most of the world have dropped off an awful lot, mainly because of the global recession. In the UK alone, PC sales have dropped by a massive 20 percent in the final quarter of 2011.

For the whole of 2011, sales had dropped 15.9 percent, which was equivalent to a drop of 2 million units. We also have to remember that this is a drop on 2010′s sales, which also saw a large drop from 2009 sales figures. So in reality the drop is a lot steeper.

Most major manufacturers saw a drop in their sales apart from Apple and Lenevo. According to Gartner, Acer lost 46 percent year on year, HP nearly 16 percent, and Dell 9 percent, with only Lenovo rising 14 percent. In fact, the market has contracted so much that now Apple accounts for 10 percent of the sales, a big increase from 4 percent in previous years.

UK retailers are hoping that Windows 8 will be able to give them a boost in sales, sooner rather than later. As the year progresses, we will becoming closer and closer to the final release date of Windows 8 and people will be reluctant to shell out for new Windows 7 machines when they know an update is only around the corner. This is unfortunate news for retailers, but it’s something that happens with every new release of Windows. However Microsoft did run program for the release of Windows 7 which meant that anyone who bought a Windows Vista machine in the run up to the release of Windows 7 got a free upgrade to it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft introduced a similar scheme for Windows 8, they’ll have to if they don’t want sales to drop off completely.

Retailers are also hoping that Windows 8 will get the consumer excited as well. The new Metro UI is sure to be visually appealing to consumers, particularly on the tablet side of things and should spur on sales there. UK retailers are also banking on sales of Ultrabooks to pick around the release of Windows 8 when Intel’s range of Sandybridge processors are brought to the market. Netbook sales have dropped off a lot and hopefully Ultrabooks can pick up where they left off.

“PC vendors face a long, uphill struggle to regain the interest of consumers. The introduction of Ultrabooks in late 2011 is desperately needed.”

So I know a lot of you guys are desperately waiting for Windows 8 to come out so you can play around with it, but it’s also clear that UK retailers really need it for a much needed boost in their sales figures in these recessionary times.

Source:

Gartner