Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system is poised to give Apple’s iPad and Android-powered tablets some tough competition according to social chatter following Microsoft’s public unveiling of the OS earlier this month. Social media listening firm Mashwork analyzed Twitter conversations between June 15th and September 22nd of this year, and found that opinions of Microsoft’s next-generation operating system are overwhelmingly positive at this early stage. Read on for more.
The majority of the 65,968 tweets Mashwork analyzed were posted during the period in time surrounding Microsoft’s recent BUILD conference, of course, and the firm says the bulk of Windows 8 chatter comes from developers, tech savvy individuals and early adopters. About 15% of the tweets analyzed were comprised of people sharing their initial reactions of the OS, and the sentiment was positive; 47% of people were excited about Windows 8 while 20% were skeptical.
17,811 of the Windows 8-related tweets compared Microsoft’s upcoming platform to iOS on the iPad or to Android, and the chatter was overwhelmingly in favor of Windows 8. 63% of tweets comparing Windows 8 to iOS found Microsoft’s OS more compelling, and almost all conversation comparing Windows 8 to Android leaned toward the former.
Interestingly, early opinions of Microsoft’s next-generation OS favored tablets for the most part, and opinions on the platform’s potential on laptops and desktops — Microsoft’s bread and butter — were mixed. 44% of tweets discussing Windows 8 on traditional PCs did not believe Windows 8 would work well in this environment, but that could be due in large part to Microsoft’s focus on tablets and the Metro UI during its BUILD keynote. Almost all of the 5,271 tweets Mashwork analyzed discussing tablet hardware were optimistic or intrigued.
41% of all Windows 8 tweets analyzed focused on features. In this group, 34% people were interested in Windows 8’s speedy boot time, 24% were interested in Xbox integration, 20% discussed Microsoft’s Metro UI and 22% covered other features such as live tiles, cloud integration and Microsoft’s app store.
An infographic outlining all of Mashwork’s findings follows below.
