>>>>Did you listen to anything Microsoft said about WIn8? And why do you think upgrades were $40?
>>>
>>>I thought the upgrade at $40 was a good idea - which they rolled back to $100 +. So as Win 8 became more familiar as new boxes were sold with it, current Win7 users who might have been expected to consider upgrading would become less likely to do so as the price became steeper, and those early adopters who just couldn't wait to upgrade for whatever reason and would have paid $100 got it for $40.
>>>
>>>I think MS is greatly in need of adult supervision.
>>>
>>
>>Perhaps they are just testing new models - trying to build pressure for the now yearly new release some hint at ?
>>More interesting IMO is when will they drop XP from the update offer ;-)
>
>I think what they are building is indifference. The Win8 users will be people who did not already own a power desktop and laptop last year and will get a new OS with a new box and greet the new OS with a resounding "What-ever".

Not clear if they plan to have a 20-50$ per year update for the shortened circle. What-ever won't sell each year. Barring XP users might let them slip off the MS hook.

>Meanwhile new sales will be Android and iOS and many people who see "devices" as big phones/tablets of different form factors will not even be looking for an MS product.

I looked and found it better, but not compellingly better to switch in phones. Perhaps using tiles via MSTSC might change that in a few months. In the meantime PCs are getting squeezed like middle level HW was when those pesky little 80386 were beginning to swarm. As long as there is no better experience checking out the WIntel system from WP8 there is not enough to pry me from my comfort zone to a WP8 phone. MS is loosing it at the "personal" front, and they have to stem that tide as cloud backbone more often is linux based. No idea where future revenue should stem from.