They cost too much.

The explosion of netbook sales a few years ago trained consumers to think that they could get Windows PCs for ~$400, Thurott argues. And now that the PC makers are trying to sell new Windows 8 "touch-screen" PCs for twice that much (or more), consumers just think the machines cost too much.

As an example of the lousy PC sales, Thurott cites some recently released NPD data showing just how low the average selling price is these days for Windows-based PCs: