PC Industry Starts To Turn On Microsoft

Long-time partners of Microsoft, especially the one’s that the big software Company is openly stabbing in the back, when they are down, are starting to turn on the Company.

This time it is Hewlett Packard who is blaming Windows 10 for a major drop in sales. Several executives from PC Companies who now find themselves having to compete in the notebook and tablet market up against Microsoft’s own products, have privately slammed Microsoft to ChannelNews. Some have described the Companies management as “right bastards”. “The only reason we don’t come out publically and criticise them is that they hand out money to PC Companies to sell Windows 10 and promote Office 365”. One senior PC executive said. At the weekend the CEO of Hewlett Packard, Dion Weisler took a pot shot at Windows 10. In the first quarter to the end of January, HP suffered a 12% drop in financial revenues to US $12.2 billion year-on-year. According to Weisler, that drop is down to lack of demand for Windows 10. Speaking to investors on a conference call on Saturday (Sydney Time), he said: “We have not yet seen the anticipated Windows 10 stimulation of demand that we would have hoped for, “we’re carefully monitoring any sort of price developments that could further weaken demand.” HP Inc is the part of HP which sells PCs and printers, the other part being Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. Sales of PCs and printers have both seen a steady decline in recent years, and a report from Gartner last month seems to back up Weisler’s view of Windows 10 being part of the problem. The report found a lack of Windows 10 uptake at the end of 2015, which was partly responsible for a year-on-year drop of 8.3% in the PC market. The latest financial results for HP Inc are the first since the company was split in two last year. It was expected that Windows 10 would help PC sales remain stable, but in HP’s case that seems not to have been the case. The company recently showed off its new HP Elite X3 at MWC 2016 this week – a device which Weisler hopes will help bolster sales in the coming year. Microsoft recently moved to also compete up against retail partners Harvey Norman and JB Hi Fi by opening a store in Sydney.

About Post Author

David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.