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.