Windows 8 Pre-Launch Adoption Lagging

Win7 early-adopter rate compared to Win8:

Why the big difference? Three guesses:

• Windows Vista was so awful and Windows XP was so long in the tooth, that pent-up demand caused Windows 7 early installs to skyrocket. There’s no such pressure on people to upgrade early to Windows 8, because they’re pretty happy with 7 — which has only been around a couple of years.

• Forcing the touchy-tablet friendly Metro Windows 8 Style User Interface onto the desktop has people clinging bitterly to their Windows 7 desktops.

• Folks are putting off everything while they eagerly await the arrival of the Microsoft Touch tablets.

That last point seems absurd. I’m betting heavily on the first one, with a bit of the second one in the mix.