Another interesting article about a Microsoft that seems to be losing its way.

 

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/10/why-windows-just-cant-win/

Windows is about to release it's biggest launch in 20 years and I am in the market for a.......Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich

 

Looks like I will be using Windows 7 and FSX for many years to come in my den. Other then that I have no interest in where MS is going outside of my FSX hobby. It is too bad because I have been a very loyal MS customer since 1984.

 

Oh well

Honestly I think the Microsoft Surface is intriguing. My nose smells a technical success, and I tend to trust the old nose. Whether its a marketing success is a bird of a different color.

 

As for windows....... Kludging Metro (or whatever they are calling it now) onto the desktop strikes me as a hard sell. Nobody yet has offered me a compelling reason to be even remotely interested.

Honestly I think the Microsoft Surface is intriguing.

 

I've been looking at it too. Just not sure how well it can catch on following the success of the Ipad and the Android range. They are latecomers so only time well tell at this point.

 

You could buy anything from Acer, ASUS to Samsung and users choice if you want to put Android on it or Windows RT / Windows 8. I am going with Android.

 

I did beta test Windows 8 and it takes some getting used to. I just prefered the Android or Apple iOS interfaces over Win8/WinRT at this point, less clicking around to get to your apps....But that is just my POV

 

At the end of the day it is just an O/S.....Whatever easier to get my apps going is the one I will prefer. If I need to click around too much in an O/S then I won't like it.

You know, thinking about it, the devices have changed, but its really just the same OS players we have had for years. Microsoft with the Surface, Apple with iOS, and Android is just Googles version of Linux.

 

Now I am thinking of this video, but it took a bit to find a clean(er) version. :-)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63xVzSO0xt4&sns=em

That was a great article! The last paragraph really nails the proximate cause for most -if not all- of Microsoft's woes (N.B. red highlight mine):

 

The Metro name, the crapware, and the horrible release dates all point to the same problem: Even when Microsoft has a great product on its hands, even when its product, engineering and design teams manage to hit one out of the park, it won’t matter once the business team comes in and ruins it for everyone. Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Windows Surface — these are all potentially great products. But if past is prologue, that may not matter.

 

You could easily replace "Metro" with "Flight" without changing the essential verity of the statement.

The thought had occurred to me.

Ah, it's about Win8. Me likes my Win7. :smile:

 

I sometimes feel like they are writing number 8 down a bit and I also feel like 'computer people' also approach it with a negative bias in general. Whereas the customer side may not consist of overly critical people, more of those which use what looks cool or new or just what is there. I mean, some millions rave about a smaller iPad (announcement) while I'm standing there like :mellow: .

 

I actually run the Win8 Eval copy on some of my devices and it's cool for that tablet. Way better than Win7 on the same thing and, for me, still better than any Android or iOS. I actually wonder why e.g. the iOS stuff is sold that often. I would find a ton of points on that concept which drive me far, far away from even thinking about buying one of those. Not an Apple hater, more a 'wondering what to like about it' guy. Again :mellow: .

 

Well, if Win8 comes with new PCs and some tablets, I don't see that people will avoid it or that it will fail like predicted. I actually think that the tablet device with that thin keyboard makes perfect sense. So MS already has a nice hardware concept for their OS.

 

Ok, I saw they've spoiled some OEMs with those hw plans. Now that's a different ball game. But, in general, I don't understand the negative attitude towards the new OS. I personally don't need it (on my desktop), but I wouldn't call it bad.

 

If they focus on some Windows character traits instead of trying to copy the tablet OS thingies, I think they can keep quite a market. And, for a second, I've asked myself when this tablet trend will 'peak oil'. My gf can do lots of funny things with her iPad, some are useful and some really give an edge. But the device still comes in as a redundant entertainment gadget and may well follow the formerly hyped netbook trend some time. :ph34r:

There are some BIG issues with their products......

 

#1. Marketing - Microsoft's product demonstration commercials have no voice just music, these products need someone telling the consumer the importance of such a device and what it can do for them, I can accept the initial dub-step Surface commercial as you don't want your competitors to immediately copy your work, but the latest should have had a simple product demonstration with it.

 

#2. Timing - As Wired pointed out, their product releases and announcements are horridly timed right now, if they would have waited till after the elections (in the USA) to showcase and release their products they would have a MUCH bigger reception, on top of that if they were to also accompany this release in November and applied a "Black Friday" sale to their products to get them out into the public faster it would really help them get into a new market (for Microsoft) mush easier.

 

#3. The Product - Windows 7 is a very very stable operating system that is not that taxing on a computer, they finally got it right after the total failure that was Vista. Windows 7 is streamlined, people like streamlined products, Microsoft's idea to go with the "tiles" is just well... backwards, tiles are not streamlined and from the look of the Windows Phones currently out the tiles do not cover most of the screen making it feel smaller than it is. Something that would be a great success on a mobile platform would be a "globe" look where all your apps are in a "globe" circle in 3D and you can roll it in ay way to get the app you want, thus making it fun, intuitive, unique, and quick to access. If Microsoft was smart they would have stuck with Windows 7 and made it mobile and by doing so ensuring interoperability with current systems. Linking your mobile Phone to a Mobile tablet, to your desktop PC would be revolutionary for Windows and would not only entice the gaming market and individual user, but its professional and possibly its Government Markets (especially the US Military with its FFW Program). Windows 7 is completely capable of system interoperability all it needs is the appropriate "windows update" and software, done, then people have more of a reason to go to Windows 7 from XP or Vista (if Vista the reason is already there ).

 

Microsoft has great ambitions and they are willing to experiment to create something interesting, the problem is they are going about the same as they did with Microsoft Flight, where they have a product that is intriguing, and shows promise, but they leave out all the details and muck it up by not allowing users to give direct product input into its products, this can and will hurt them if Flight was not a lesson they have learned.

I think the dancing marketing was trying to tap into the coolness factor that is so much a part of the Apple brand. Certainly in the case of the surface, the actual physical units are much more design savvy then the ill fated Zune, which I knew was going to fail 3 seconds after I first saw one. I remember being in a Compusa turning the unit over and over in my hands and saying to the sales clerk "Brown? They're all brown??!"

 

(By the time they changed, the damage had been done)

 

That initial reaction to the look and feel can make a huge impression on where a product goes from there, so I am not surprised at the emphasis on intangibles like style and coolness as a first gambit. Unfortunately all the cues that work well for the Surface and Microsoft phone mean nothing to the introduction of that very same interface to the desktop where it dont think it fits. They are trying to do a top-down across all their platforms/devices in a way that seems forced to me.

 

Brown?

GUYS OMG I HAVE A GREAT IDEA!!!!

 

HOW ABOUT...

 

Microsoft makes a tablet version of Windows 8, compatible with any of those cheap Samsung tablets and whatever else is out there, and then they make a desktop/laptop version of Windows 8 that has a regular desktop and start menu???? I mean, swiping with your mouse just feels weird and unnecessary.

I saw that they offer some interesting input devices. http://www.logitech....e/touchpad-t650 As you say, the Win8 modern touch stuff doesn't make sense with only a mouse.

 

I also saw a number of guides showing how to revert Win8 back to the old look and feel. You know, Start Menu and things. Reminds me of when Win XP started with the colourful interface. Turns out, the system wasn't that bad, colourful or not. Pretty good actually.

 

To be watched with a in mind. The Net's reaction on Win8.

I am gonna think that if you spend a bajillion dollars to introduce a new feature set and most people immediatly ask how to disable it, you've kinda lost the battle. And once somebody has reverted to the regular windows look and feel, is your average user going to see a difference worth the cost of a new version of windows?

 

Tech geeks, might, but I doubt most people will see any reason to come off of windows 7.

 

Guess that's why the upgrade is so cheap...........

 

That might be the only thing that saves it.

I still run XP at home, intentionally. The Corporate types at work have us on Windows 7, but we've got to live with IE8.

 

Personally, I'm happy with a desktop machine, most of the time. I don't need a smart phone. I don't want to watch movies on a 3-inch screen, either. So, all these tablet and smartphone oriented systems with app buttons have very little appeal.

Guess that's why the upgrade is so cheap...........

 

That might be the only thing that saves it.

Good point. MS pulled some tricks in the past to make sales numbers look good. I think most new sales will start with the OEM installations and nobody counts the folks removing or not using Win8 and going for an older Win version instead.

 

Either way, I'm happy with it on my (now) older tablet and may indeed buy the non-eval version sooner or later. It's just way better than Win7 on that device. But I don't feel an urgent need to be honest.