Some interesting points made in the article, most prominently the argument that the low price point of Win7 netbooks changing consumer expectations of how much a PC should be and what the quality is.
However, I don't agree that PC prices have to come down to make Windows 8 a success. I believe the main reason why Win8 PC sales are low is because we haven't seen very many touch based laptops at all. Take a look for yourself and see if you can find one you'd buy ignoring whether you like win8 or not.
There are only 3 currently available touch laptops a sane person would consider:
- Lenovo Yoga
- Acer S7
- Lenovo X1 carbon touch
- Asus UX31a Touch
So despite the typical advantage Windows has had in the past with a Tom of breadth in make and models, its just not the case at this point with Win8 touch laptops.
If OEMs pump out more high quality touch laptops, we will see sales spike. Prices don't even have to come down.