Microsoft is ready to offer discounts to PC makers, but that won’t help much

Mar 13, 2013 13:13 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is reportedly planning to offer significant price cuts to PC manufacturers embracing the new Windows 8, in an effort to boost sales of the operating system and to bring more devices running the software on the market.

But as far as Gartner analyst Tracy Tsai is concerned, this won’t help much, as Windows 8 remains a disappointing product that would barely boost its sales in the coming months.

Tsai told a media briefing that users stay away from Windows 8 for some other reasons beside the price, so Microsoft’s strategy is very likely to make almost no difference.

“Price is not the only factor that caused disappointing sales of Windows 8 PCs... Microsoft’s Windows 8 system is facing growing competition from Apple Inc’s iOS and Google’s Android,” Tsai said according to Taipei Times. “No applications are developed specifically for Windows 8 PCs and consumers do not know what is unique about Windows PCs.”

According to unofficial sources, Microsoft plans to offer discounts of up to $20 (€15.5) for PC makers depending on the devices they wish to bring to the market.