Who didn’t see this one coming?

Well, of course, I did; I’ve blogged about it for several months now. So my guess is the only ones who didn’t get it are the top brass at Microsoft who foisted the disastrous Windows 8 upon legions of confused PC users.

According to this article, PC sales have taken a nose dive recently. They’re in the toilet, not that I’m happy with that. I like computers! But the article specifically blames the PC’s sudden, sharp demise on Windows 8.

I agree.

PC demand is slumping while tablet and smartphone sales are thriving — as I predicted they would. Once again, why have a PC when everything a person does can be easily handled by a tablet?

The PC started out as a hobbyists plaything, but eventually morphed into the ultimate office tool. Thanks to efforts by Microsoft, manufacturers, and budding Internet services, the PC forced its way into the home, where it’s been a stable piece of furniture for about 15 years.

People — humans — like stability and thrive upon mediocrity. The Windows operating system has been a stalwart of those two attributes almost since its inception. Subtle differences aside, you can sit before any PC running Windows and within a few seconds figure out what you need to get work done.

Not any more!

Windows 8 wasn’t designed to be easy to use on a PC. It was Microsoft’s thrust to transform us all into tablet and phone users. Specifically, Microsoft wants us to buy Windows tablets and Windows phones. Their goal, as always, isn’t to give us what we want, but simply to increase Microsoft’s corporate bottom line.

They failed.

And they’ve failed so completely that they’ve actually caused the opposite effect to happen: Now PC sales are down, which means Windows license income is down. Office income follows. My guess is that Windows 8 leaves such a bad taste in the consumer’s mouth that they flock in droves to Apple iOS and Android.

The same company that brought us the Zune didn’t see this one coming?

I’m not freaked out about about PC sales dropping. They’ve been doing so for years. The PC remains a tool for people who create things, so the numbers will stabilize after a while. But the big consumer crowd — that home or casual user that adopted the PC 15 years ago for games, email, the web, and social networking — they’re not coming back. They were leaving anyway, but Windows 8 has helped to show them the door.

Thanks, Microsoft!