>>2% upgrading from WinXP choose Win8. 69% choose Win7.

There's no real point upgrading any more. People forget Windows for Workgroups brought local networking and file sharing- which really was something. An earlier iteration brought trutype which was massive- enough reason all by itself to buy Windows. Windows 95 brought long file names, 32-bit, multi-threading, cool CD Roms and multimedia, plug and play, task bar and much better connectivity- all features that we take for granted today but caused people to camp outside stores to be first to buy. Windows 2000 and XP brought some useful mostly technical stuff, but by now people weren't queuing to buy as readily as they did. Nobody queued for the newer OS. Windows 8 is a non-event for most unless somebody made you take it on a new PC. For corporates, it's the same reason you don't upgrade the flat-bed truck every 3 years: unless the new model does something compelling to pay for the cost of change, you keep the asset going as long as it remains financially feasible. There was a time when other vendors co-operated to force change by not having drivers for older OS but that contrived situation mostly is gone now too.