During conference calls this week to talk about their earnings both Dell and HP pointed to lousy PC sales as a problem. Dell actually came out and said Windows 8 anticipation had resellers drawing down PC inventory, but also acknowledged that any benefit the new operating system will have on sales would be delayed into next year.

RELATED:

MORE:

IDC backs them up. "Factors such as Windows 8 coupled with Ultrabooks could present a positive turn of events next year," says Jay Chou, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, "but it also faces some initial hurdles; chief of which is that buyers must acclimate themselves to an operating system that is a dramatic departure from existing PC paradigms. The PC ecosystem faces some work to properly educate the market."

HP doesn't name Windows 8 by name, but talks about problems selling PCs because of people are holding off until they see what's new later on. "[The] PC market remains weak, and channel inventory is high across the industry ahead of new product releases," CEO Meg Whitman said in the company's earning call, according to a . "Our PC revenue was down 10% year-over-year, driven by this weakness and an aggressive pricing from our competitors."