Windows 8 apps are radically different in design and approach to their Windows predecessors, but Windows 8 can also run older apps. New usage figures suggest that most people running Windows 8 are taking full advantage of that, with more than half of them rarely running Windows 8-specific apps.
An analysis of 10,848 Windows 8 machines by management software developer Soluto found that around 60 per cent of desktop and laptop users launched a Metro-style Windows 8 app less than once a day. Even on tablets, which rely on a touch interface, that figure was 45 per cent.
We’ve frequently noted that Windows 8 offers better performance than Windows 7, and that it’s useful even if you don’t want to engage with the new approach. I definitely fall into this category myself; the only Windows 8 app I use with any regularity at the moment is Skype, and while it works well enough, it hasn’t made me want to use more apps with a similarly minimalist and keyboard-unfriendly interface. But that doesn’t mean I think upgrading was a bad idea, or that the right app won’t entice me.
Soluto [via Business Insider]
Comments
12 responses to “Windows 8 Users Don’t Run Windows 8 Apps”
I tend to only launch 2-3 apps on my PC a day anyways.
Chrome (or IE10)
Outlook
Sometimes a game.
That describes me. I run Windows 8 and I run less than 1 Metro app per day (on average, and every day…).
The tough decision for Microsoft is that if they tried to force me to go to Metro, it would be game over, as I suspect it would be for many others. Metro is the luminous threat hanging over my head – it’s not a good relationship for Microsoft to have with its customers.
I use metro apps occasionally, I do have a bit of an addiction to TapTiles, and I quite like the Westpac banking app, which i find just as quick to use as the website for internet banking.
I would be using at least 1 metro app, at least once a day, but as the main things I use on my PC are a web browser and full PC games, then I spend most of the time in desktop mode.
I love the westpac app too but i wish i could add a new biller from it like i can on the iOS app.
I like Windows 8 in general, but rarely use Metro Apps. I’ve played a few of the games, but the only ones I use with any regularity are the PDF/document reader, and the movie player when I forget to click “Open with VLC”
Windows 8 apps tend to be obtrusive, difficult to use on a desktop and lacking in features. That being said, I often use the music app, because I can dock it off to the side of my second monitor.
ive found myself using them more recently, but i just find that most of them are slow and have terrible ui’s which keeps me away, ive found myself using the start screen as a dashboard more then anything of great function
For those of us that boot to the desktop those Apps are mostly useless, in most cases there is a better made and more usable desktop program.
I think a lot of it has to do with most of us still using non-touch PCs. I have very little doubt that when the LeapMotion comes out I will be using Metro apps a lot more as touch-like interactions become far more intuitive and won’t require me to reach across my desk and over my keyboard.
If I were using a Win8/RT tablet, I’d be using Metro apps a LOT more. As it is, there are maybe half a dozen I run regularly but certainly not all of them every day.
I constantly use Multimedia8, which has been the best damn music / video player I’ve used in a long time (because I can dock it to the side!). I use the mail app fairly regularly, because I use Gmail and it integrates nicely with that, but asides from that, I don’t use many other apps, because they don’t notify me (like Mail does) and they don’t show up on my taskbar, so I forget they’re there.
Some games are touch-centric though, and I can’t stand that. The scramble game I downloaded (find words in a 4×4 grid) doesn’t let you type, just drag words. That’s fine for touchscreens, but I can’t get the high scores without being able to type!
I considered using the mail app when I first installed W8, but decided to just use Chrome’s application shortcuts and have it as its own window on the desktop.
Other than ebook reading apps like Kindle, I will only use them in tablet mode and usually only when regular desktop apps are too fiddly too get into a full-screen mode.
The modern Skype is hopeless running in the background as it doesn’t alert you to any incoming communications … unlike the stoopid java update scheduler which is quite happy to pop up in the middle of a full-screen movie to ask if you want to upgrade to the version you already have.