I find it interesting how reporters and bloggers supposedly ‘In
the know’ can state a platform has failed before it even hits the general
public.
Their bias is obvious and not
well informed. The idea of having the
same interface (phone, tablet, pc) is intriguing to a lot of users. Yes, the differences between Windows 7 and 8
are glaring. Much like the differences
were between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.
Back then the media had the same mantra towards Microsoft. I've never been a pundit of any camp, and
have/had hardware from all, iPhones, Windows Phones, Android tablets, PC's
(both windows and apple).
Microsoft
has had some miserable failures (Win ME for short), but so has Apple (Newton,
PowerMac Cube, Apple III, Emate, etc..).
That is the nature of the business.
Steve Jobs was criticized for abandoning the PowerPC chip for the Intel
X86 chipset, but that turned out to be an amazing change in how the Mac’s
operate, giving even more power and flexibility to an already powerful
system. Bill Gates once said that we
would never fill a 20mb hard drive, now I dare you to find a modern operating
system anywhere that would fit on one.
For every (r)evolutionary step in computing you have to learn and
sometimes relearn the interface. The
same has happened to the different versions of Mac OS through the years. But saying a system failed just because you couldn’t
use software on a platform (that Microsoft already told you that you wouldn’t be
able to use) is like Chicken Little crying out about the sky.
Did you (the bloggers/reporters) say the same thing to Apple when they
announced the iPad when they said it cannot run MacOSx software? Of course not,
they have two completely different uses and interfaces. What Microsoft did here was give us a product
that while different, shared ‘some’ API’s and the basic interface across three
platforms (Phone, Tablet, PC) with the understanding that not all the software
on the PC can run on the Phone or Tablet, anything on the phone or tablet can
run on the PC. I think that’s the
biggest point people are missing.
There are hundreds of thousands of applications on the iPhone/iPad that
users use every day, but cannot access on their Mac. But now, if you have the App on your Windows
Tablet (RT or Pro) you can run the exact same app on your PC! Forget all the software we’ve been holding
onto for 10yrs that while works is completely out of date. Challenge the software vendors to make their
applications portable amongst all Windows devices RT/PRO/Phone etc!
