Microsoft faces a loss of relevance

The company is struggling to maintain its place in tech in the face of a badly received Windows upgrade

Microsoft Took another hard knock this month when top tech researchers laid much of the blame for dwindling first-quarter PC sales on the beleaguered Windows 8 operating system.

Estimates of first-quarter shipments, from both IDC and Gartner, paint a gloomy picture of the PC industry -- a sector that Microsoft still needs to be strong.

[ Windows 8 is here, and InfoWorld covers Microsoft's new direction, the touch interface for tablet and desktop apps, the transition from Windows 7, and more in the Windows 8 Deep Dive PDF special report. | Stay atop key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]

IDC said its estimate of a 14 percent decrease in worldwide PC shipments is the largest year-over-year decline it has ever seen in its nearly two decades of tracking those numbers. Gartner pegged the global PC downturn at 11 percent.

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This story, "Microsoft faces a loss of relevance" was originally published by Computerworld.

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