Thurrott On The Sales Of Windows 8 Touch Devices
But I keep coming back to the same argument I’ve always had about the Surface in particular, which I’ll now make for all touch-based Windows 8 PCs/devices as well. They are too expensive.
And we’re reaching the point, given the actual sales data, where this too isn’t so much opinion as fact. Consumers are voting with their wallets, and the Windows PCs they’re buying today are cheap and non-touch-based. And the reason is that the touch-based machines are too expensive.
Is it just an issue of price? The iPad is sold at a minimum price of $500 and sells extremely well. I don’t see the logic that, for Windows 8 devices to succeed, their prices need to fall.
No doubt, lower prices would cause an increase in sales but I don’t think budget prices are required for anyone but Apple to succeed. I just think companies need to offer better products that can justify ‘premium’ price tags. Windows 8 has an ecosystem problem that it needs to solve. Android has usability problems.
The answer to “selling more” is not always price. I hate to see the market develop as it is currently, with Apple being the “premier” offering and everyone else battling at the budget level.