14 DAY TRIAL // Toshiba has just joined the “criticize Windows 8” game thanks to Mark Whittard, managing director of the company’s Australian division.
Whittard said during a product launch in the land Down Under that Microsoft was the one to blame for the Windows 8 confusion, especially because it brought several flavors of the same operating system to the market.
”I think one of the challenges is, there was a lot of confusion with Windows 8, my personal view is that they (Microsoft) confused the market with a couple of different flavours,” he said according to The Australian, with an emphasis on “personal view.”
Microsoft has already acknowledged that consumers still need training on Windows RT, but Whittard explained that many buyers couldn’t even tell the difference between the tablet-oriented operating system and the full-featured Windows 8 Pro.
Finally, the price Microsoft has announced for Windows 8 devices is clearly scaring away users, he explained.
“They were going even cheaper than the traditional RRP (recommended retail price), so the gap wasn’t just the $100 [€76] or $200 [€152] from non-touch to touch, it was $400 and the customer’s going: ‘Hang on a sec, that’s starting to get unpalatable, that price differential, and I’m not sure about this Windows 8 thing,’” he added.