Report: Majority of Windows 8 Users Ignore Metro / Modern UI Applications

Included in Soluto’s latest Monthly Insights Report is a rather interesting study of 313,142 Metro app launches across 9,634 unique apps and 10,848 Windows 8 computers that found something that we’ve suspected for quite some time: Windows 8 users are largely ignoring Metro / Modern UI applications in favor of the conventional Windows desktop.

More specifically, the study indicated that on average, Windows 8 users will launch a Metro application just 1.52 times per day with 60 percent of desktop and laptop users launching an average of less than one Metro app per day. This figure is only marginally increased for tablet users who on average launch 2.71 Metro apps per day and 44 percent who average less than one Metro app per day.

Form Factor	# of Metro App Launches Per Day	% with >1 Metro App Launch Per Day
Desktop	1.41	60.78%
Laptop	1.51	59.88%
Touch-screen Laptop	2.22	58.10%
Tablet	2.71	44.38%

Soluto’s study also, unsurprisingly, noted that the most commonly used Metro application was “Windows Communication Apps,” an app container that represents the Calendar, Mail, Messaging and People applications. With the exception of Netflix, the top 10 most popular applications have been developed by Microsoft and are often pre-installed.

Further information on the study’s findings and methodology is available at the source.

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wavetrex 5 years ago

Correction:
The majority of Windows users ignore Windows 8.

Other Comments

vmem 5 years ago

um, duh? the only a few of us bought windows 8 tablets is that we needed access to x86 software...
nlreynolds80 5 years ago

So how much longer is Microsoft going to insist on its current state of arrogant denial that they borked Windows 8? When will they listen to their customers and give them want they want instead of telling them what they need?
wavetrex 5 years ago

Correction:
The majority of Windows users ignore Windows 8.
IAmVortigaunt 5 years ago

So what's considered "launching" a Metro app? Once you launch one, you might typically just leave it running? Does that only count as one "launch", even though you might keep switching to it throughout the day? Also, how much time are people on average spending on their devices. If it's a home computer or tablet, I can see someone checking email (though they might check that on the phone), then watching netflix, and that's about it. Also, you say this means people are ignoring metro in favor of desktop, but how many desktop applications are they launching? Oh wait, you don't list that. And why is that? Personally, I think it's because you're not actually interested in a study of usage on Windows 8, but instead you're pandering to the commenters on Tom's that want to hear how Win8 is an unmitigated disaster...when it actually isn't.
IAmVortigaunt 5 years ago

So what's considered "launching" a Metro app? Once you launch one, you might typically just leave it running? Does that only count as one "launch", even though you might keep switching to it throughout the day? Also, how much time are people on average spending on their devices. If it's a home computer or tablet, I can see someone checking email (though they might check that on the phone), then watching netflix, and that's about it. Also, you say this means people are ignoring metro in favor of desktop, but how many desktop applications are they launching? Oh wait, you don't list that. And why is that? Personally, I think it's because you're not actually interested in a study of usage on Windows 8, but instead you're pandering to the commenters on Tom's that want to hear how Win8 is an unmitigated disaster...when it actually isn't.
icepick314 5 years ago

I'm guessing most apps open are games here and there, Netflix, and Hulu...
bigdragon 5 years ago

So this will kill Metro, right? Microsoft ditched the Start Menu because so few people used it. Apparently now we learn that way more people used the Start Menu than use Metro. Will Microsoft be consistent here? Probably not.
teh_chem 5 years ago

When there are two identical, separate, and non-synchronized versions of applications on both the "Modern UI" and within the "standard" desktop UI, it's no surprise that people begin to ignore one interface all together (and no surprise it's Metro that most people ignore).
It's dumbfounding why IE within Metro is not the same app as IE as launched from the desktop.
Regardless, as said above, the wording of this is quite poor--what constitutes "launching" an app? Also, the numbers are conveniently omitted for number of "desktop app" launches per day. If it's the same amount as metro launches, then we have no statistical difference between the two, and this study says nothing of value.
IAmVortigaunt 5 years ago

"Windows 8 users are largely ignoring Metro / Modern UI applications in favor of the conventional Windows desktop."

Where's your support for this statement? You don't even have desktop usage numbers. Are you assuming you know how many apps people open on the desktop? What is this based on? I bet there's a large segment of the PC using public that opens a browser and nothing else on the desktop for like 90% of their uses. Where is your comparison?????? Well?
dragonsqrrl 5 years ago

Anonymous said:

Also, you say this means people are ignoring metro in favor of desktop, but how many desktop applications are they launching? Oh wait, you don't list that. And why is that? Personally, I think it's because you're not actually interested in a study of usage on Windows 8, but instead you're pandering to the commenters on Tom's that want to hear how Win8 is an unmitigated disaster...when it actually isn't.

Yep, this is a Tom's Hardware News article. The news team sets the bait; the fanboys, haters, and trolls take it. It's yellow journalism at its worst.
codo 5 years ago

Its so easy to pick out the people that haven't used Win8. They are the ones bad mouthing it.
InvalidError 5 years ago

Anonymous said:

Its so easy to pick out the people that haven't used Win8. They are the ones bad mouthing it.

I use Win8 and don't have much positive to say about it. After about a week of trying to get used to Metro UI/apps, I quickly became fed-up with all-fullscreen apps all the time so I uninstalled all Metro apps, installed my usual desktop apps and installed Classic Shell Start Menu to get a start menu back and log directly to desktop.

As countless others and myself have said before: tile/touch interface on desktops was a wasted effort.
killerclick 5 years ago

Hahaha die Metro die!
Branden 5 years ago

is launching desktop mode included in these counts?
infiniteimp 5 years ago

I don't even care so much if MS admits that Metro is a big mistake, as long as they either A) get rid of it (not likely) or B) give me the option to use Windows 8 as I want to use it (Desktop with the original functionality of the Start button as my primary interface, Metro only if I specifically launch it). Until that happens, I'm using Windows 7 and installing it on client machines. Microsoft took a media consumption interface (tile UI) and forced it on a productivity environment. That approach does not work.
hfitch 5 years ago

I am the only guy out of 7 of my friends not to go to Windows 8 on PC. Out of the 7 of them four have already uninstalled Windows 8 and went back to Windows 7. Two others hacked Metro so it doesn't work anymore. Goes directly back to the standard screen and all apps launch in desktop mode. Only one loves Metro and he uses it all the time. So congrats Microsoft you have out of 7 people one liking your decision. I should mention he's the biggest pot head I know. So maybe you have to be high to like it. I refuse to upgrade or support Microsoft anymore. They havent listened to customers in a while. Not with their OS on PC, Tablets, Phone, and their music players. I refuse to buy Xbox One or any Microsoft products from now on. I even now switched 3 computers (one PC, one laptop, and one Tablet was on android I hacked) from Windows 7 to Ubuntu.which took a little while to get used to. Yet now I can run any application or game from it with very little hassle.
bored1ed 5 years ago

I don't mind Windows 8 on my Samsung Slate but I hated it on my desktop and laptop. I went back to 7 on both. I gave it a chance so I'm not just bad mouthing it. I think it should have been marketed as the tablet OS. Just my personal opinion.
kickmyjiminy 5 years ago

Wife just got a Win8 laptop a couple of days ago. It doesn't have touchscreen capability, but it is pretty responsive. I think the biggest thing to grapple with is that instead of clicking on the Start button, look at it like it has already been clicked open for you. Couple of the things I don't like is getting to the control panel is a pain, and IE and some other instances don't carry over to the desktop mode after they were initiated from the metro ui, which seems strange to me. It's like they are two different open instances.
wcnighthawk 5 years ago

Sounds about right. I have Windows 8 on my laptop and aside from logging in, I just keep Windows in the desktop enviroment (as soon as I log in I switch to desktop mode). I never turn it off either; I put it in sleep mode so when it powers back up, I'm back in the desktop enviroment. To me, metro is worthless and even though it takes more work to do something simple than it does in Windows 7, I'd rather stick with the desktop mode.
I'm sure Microsoft will just see this study and say "Not enough people are using Metro, we need to kill desktop" instead of just saying "hey, why don't we give the people a choice and slowly transition people".
TheMadFapper 5 years ago

Unfortunately, Apple plays this game well: What isn't broken doesn't need fixed. I'm not sure why Microsoft insisted that we need a brand new interface. Make it prettier, flashier, more stable and secure...but don't throw us a whole new ball game.

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