Microsoft's Windows 8 took another knock Wednesday as research firm IDC laid much of the blame for the first quarter's historically-horrible PC numbers at the feet of the beleaguered operating system.



From Computerworld:

Yesterday, IDC and rival Gartner released their estimates for 2013's first-quarter PC shipments. The former painted a gloomy picture of the industry, saying that the 14% decline, year over year, was the largest ever in its nearly two decades of tracking.

Gartner pegged the global downturn at 11%.

While the drop was expected -- IDC, for example, had forecast an 8% contraction year over year -- yesterday's figures had one analyst searching for words. "It's brutal," said Bob O'Donnell of IDC. "These are disastrous numbers. Huge."

  Windows 8 takes blame for 'brutal' PC sales slide