I tried Windows 8 and went back to Windows 7. I am an old OS guy, working on Mac OS (system 6 and 7), then Win3.1, Win95, WinNT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and NOT Windows Vista. There may be some who like Windows 8, but the press is not amongst the fans.
When you run a Google News Search on "Windows 8," the top results are these news articles.
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“Windows 8 on mobile devices and tablets is akin to Dr. Jekyll: a tortured ... “On a regular PC,Windows 8 is Mr. Hyde: a monster that terrorizes ...
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Not necessarily stellar news for the Windows 8 team.
What comes to mind watching Windows 8 is the effort by Coca-Cola to introduce New Coke. Coca-Cola had plenty of market research to support the release of New Coke and its better faste. Does Windows 8 taste better than Windows 7,Vista, XP, or Mac OS X?
Market research
One of Coke's ads to promote the flavor change.
Coca-Cola's most senior executives commissioned a secret effort named "Project Kansas" — headed by marketing vice president Sergio Zyman and Brian Dyson, president of Coca-Cola USA – to test and perfect the new flavor for Coke itself. It took its name from a famous photo of that state's renowned journalist William Allen White drinking a Coke that had been used extensively in its advertising and hung on several executives' walls.[4] The company's marketing department again went out into the field, this time armed with samples of the possible new drink for taste tests, surveys, and focus groups.
The results of the taste tests were strong – the sweeter mixture overwhelmingly beat both regular Coke and Pepsi. Then tasters were asked if they would buy and drink it if it were Coca-Cola. Most said yes, they would, although it would take some getting used to. A small minority, about 10–12%, felt angry and alienated at the very thought, saying that they might stop drinking Coke altogether. Their presence in focus groups tended to skew results in a more negative direction as they exerted indirect peer pressure on other participants.[5]
The surveys, which were given more significance by standard marketing procedures of the era, were less negative and were key in convincing management to move forward with a change in the formula for 1985, to coincide with the drink's centenary. But the focus groups had provided a clue as to how the change would play out in a public context, a data point that the company downplayed but which was to prove important later.[6]
Microsoft had to have volumes of market data to support Windows 8 as better than Windows 7, Mac OS X, and older versions of Windows.
Coca-Cola changed back to original Coke less than 3 months after release.
Reversal
Coca-Cola executives announced the return of the original formula on July 10, less than three months after New Coke's introduction. ABC News' Peter Jennings interrupted General Hospital to share the news with viewers. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, David Pryor called the reintroduction "a meaningful moment in U.S. history".[37] The company hotline received 31,600 calls in the two days after the announcement.[13]
The new product continued to be sold and retained the name Coca-Cola (until 1992, when it was officially renamed Coca-Cola II), so the old product was named Coca-Cola Classic, also called Coke Classic, later justCoke and for a short period of time it was referred to by the public as Old Coke. Many who tasted the reintroduced formula were not convinced that the first batches really were the same formula that had supposedly been retired that spring. This was true for some regions because Coca-Cola Classic differed from the original formula in that all bottlers who hadn't already done so were using high fructose corn syrup instead of cane sugar to sweeten the drink.[41]
Coca-Cola surpassed its rival Pepsi in market share.
Aftermath
By the end of the year, Coke Classic was substantially outselling both New Coke and Pepsi. Six months after the rollout, Coke's sales had increased at more than twice the rate of Pepsi's.[42]
New Coke's sales dwindled to a three percent share of the market, although it was doing quite well in Los Angeles and some other key markets.[42] Later research, however, suggested that it was not the reintroduction of Classic Coke, but instead the less-heralded rollout of Cherry Coke, that can be credited with the company's success that year.[43]
