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Samsung exec blames Windows 8 for PC sales decline, calls it ‘no better than Vista’

Windows 8 has had a tough run, and the number of people taking issue with the OS keeps growing. Now Samsung is complaining.

Windows 8 has had a tough run, and the number of people taking issue with the OS keeps growing. Now Samsung executive Jun Dong-soo has taken shots at the operating system, blaming it for not improving demand for PCs.

“The global PC industry is steadily shrinking despite the launch of Windows 8,” Dong-soo, the president of Samsung’s memory chip division, said in a meeting with reporters in South Korea on Friday. “I think the Windows 8 system is no better than the previous Windows Vista platform.”

Ouch.

Samsung sells a number of Windows 8 PCs, including laptops and laptop/tablet hybrids.

To be fair to Windows 8, global PC sales have been declining primarily because of the rise of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Still, the OS (which launched in October) did not help reverse the trend. Laptop sales in particular were quite ugly during the holiday season for 2012, with Windows notebook sales down 11 percent year-over-year.

Notably, Samsung doesn’t seem too impressed with Windows RT, Microsoft’s tablet-specific OS, either. Samsung is reportedly looking to stop sales of its 10.1-inch Windows RT Ativ Tab in Germany and other European countries.

Via The Korea Times

Samsung PCs running Windows 8: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

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