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"U.S. sales of Windows devices in the last month are down by 21% compared to the same period a year ago, with Windows-powered notebooks — generally in decline since the rise of tablets and smartphones — down by 24%. Desktop devices were down, too, but less, at 9%.

It gets worse. Microsoft has make a big bet on the touchscreen and tablets with Windows 8, but so far, NPD’s Stephen Baker says that Windows 8 tablet sales “have been almost non-existent.” "

http://goo.gl/NjyQV

Kinda scary when you consider that notebooks were replacing desktops.

I wonder whether the 9% decline in desktop Windows sales reflects an overall decline in desktop systems volume, or if the slack is being taken up by OSX and Linux...

just brew it! wrote:

I wonder whether the 9% decline in desktop Windows sales reflects an overall decline in desktop systems volume, or if the slack is being taken up by OSX and Linux...

I'd venture a guess to say some of it is OS X and Linux, but I highly doubt they would account for 9 percent of MS's losses. That's a decent number of Windows desktops.

just brew it! wrote:

I wonder whether the 9% decline in desktop Windows sales reflects an overall decline in desktop systems volume, or if the slack is being taken up by OSX and Linux...

Dell just released a new laptop with full Ubuntu support http://goo.gl/cCDdI

Not that it had any impact on sales but that it is a sign of things to come.

Yes, that has so much to do with desktop systems in the last year.

End User wrote:

Dell just released a new laptop with full Ubuntu support http://goo.gl/cCDdI

Not that it had any impact on sales but that it is a sign of things to come.

Dell had Ubuntu computers available years ago too. I'm pretty sure they took them off the product list because they weren't selling at all. I suspect Ubuntu sales from Dell don't even show up in these numbers.

DancinJack wrote:

I suspect Ubuntu sales from Dell don't even show up in these numbers.

Ubuntu may not be making a dent but *nix based smartphones and tablets are kicking ass.

I suspect that most people who are trying Ubuntu are either installing it on existing systems or building their own. I've never known *anyone* who bought a desktop with Linux pre-installed.

I would blame the economy over anything else as being the major factor. That and Windows 8 hasn't been out very long for the sales data to represent their tablet sales.

yogibbear wrote:

I would blame the economy over anything else as being the major factor. That and Windows 8 hasn't been out very long for the sales data to represent their tablet sales.

You mean this economy -> http://goo.gl/qu0QU

It is clear where the sales are going -> http://goo.gl/BcV3R

End User wrote:

You mean this economy -> http://goo.gl/qu0QU

It is clear where the sales are going -> http://goo.gl/BcV3R

Oh come on, you're smarter than that End User. I don't know why you had to throw the Apple thing in there...

I also read in that techcrunch article that the sales for W8 they had didn't include Surface. Not that it's selling extremely well or anything, but just that they didn't even include it. Probably because MS isn't releasing numbers though.

DancinJack wrote:

End User wrote:

You mean this economy -> http://goo.gl/qu0QU

It is clear where the sales are going -> http://goo.gl/BcV3R

Oh come on, you're smarter than that End User. I don't know why you had to throw the Apple thing in there...

I also read in that techcrunch article that the sales for W8 they had didn't include Surface. Not that it's selling extremely well or anything, but just that they didn't even include it. Probably because MS isn't releasing numbers though.

So what is your take on the slump?

In my opinion, it's at least partially related to a down economy. Just because people are buying more and more things online doesn't mean that they're buying more stuff in general.

How can you compare Apple to the others based on solely on profit? Doesn't Apple make a larger margin on per device sales than just about anyone else in the industry? Gotta look at market share to see what's going on there. It gets a little fuzzy when you include mobile devices though, I guess.

DancinJack wrote:

It gets a little fuzzy when you include mobile devices though, I guess.

I think it is very clear that mobile is taking a big chunk out of PC.

All the big players will be posting their next quarterly statements in Jan/Feb. I'm fairly certain it will be a bloodbath.