A report by retail sales tracker NPD Group said that since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, Windows laptop sales are down 24 per cent compared to the same period last year, while desktop sales are down 9 per cent.
On the same day, Microsoft announced pricing for its latest device designed to break Apple's stranglehold on the tablet and lightweight laptop market.
It will offering the Surface tablet running the full version of Windows 8 from $899, around £560, from January in the US, pitching it somewhere between Apple's latest iPad and MacBook Air laptop.
Usually, a Microsoft release boosts PC sales because many consumers hold off purchases for several months so they can obtain the latest software immediately.
If the NPD's sales trends are borne out over the rest of the holiday shopping season, it would be a huge disappointment for Microsoft and PC makers such as Dell Inc, HP and Lenovo.
"After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for."
NPD's data neither includes Microsoft's first Surface tablet, which is only available in its own stores, nor takes account of sales of PCs to businesses, which has recently been a much stronger market.
According to tech research firm StatCounter, about 1 per cent of the world's 1.5 billion or so personal computers - making a total of around 15 million - currently running Windows 8.
Source:-Telegraph
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