Microsoft troubled deep with Windows 8!
12 Jan
Windows 8 Pro 64-bit is now installed on my Dell Adamo laptop. And I rarely venture into the Metro UI unless if I’m forced to. – Brooke Crothers (CNet)
I knew it, I wasn’t wrong!
Almost a month back, I wrote a usability review for Windows 8, when I had first got my hands on it on a Laptop – and yes that wasn’t a good review. From that day forward, I did not receive a feedback or comment saying I was wrong. From novice users, to power users, from young enthusiasts to grand mother and from Gadget gurus to User Experience gurus and critiques they all agreed that “Windows 8 is a Solution from Microsoft that got deeper into Problems!”
You will love it of course on Tablet!
Of course if you’re one of the relative few who have a tablet like the Samsung slate or Microsoft’s Surface or a touch-screen laptop like Acer’s Aspire S7, yeah, then Metro is front and center, as it should be. But on a traditional laptop it’s problematic. – Brooke Crothers (CNet)
That’s why Apple, probably the biggest single force behind the rise of the touch interface, hasn’t done something similar with its OSes. Making iOS the launch point and default interface on Macs would not go over well,Steve Job’s edict nixing the idea of touch on laptops notwithstanding.
So, Microsoft is going where Apple won’t.
Despite 40 million Windows 8 licenses sold!
Despite Microsoft’s claim for selling record high Windows8 license, all those millions of users out there with their old PCs dont feel excited for the concept of a touch-based Start-Screen!
“Windows 8 may take a while to win over computer users” says Acer’s president. He further mentioned in his interview the Steve Jobs vision for a touch-based tablets will win him the market than injecting it into the regular Macs.
He noted that while Apple is good at coming up with new technologies like the Retina display, “surprisingly Apple did not adopt touch-screen” for its MacBooks.
In October of 2010, Steve Jobs said that Apple had done “tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn’t work. Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical,” referring to touch on laptops. And so far that philosophy appears to be intact at Apple, none of whose computer products — as opposed to its iPhones, iPads and iPods — feature touch screens.
Learning Curve is Steep – I told you so, and they agreed!
Windows 8 is a “new system that consumers must learn and the learning process will prevent the operating system from taking off quickly,” – PC maker agrees.
Until touch-based laptops and hybrids are both plentiful and cheap, Windows 8 may not gain much traction. And that may take a while.
Apps, Apps, Apps! Where are they?
While it’s true that Windows 8 can run legacy software just fine in Desktop mode, Metro apps are what will sell people. Some good apps currently available demonstrate the possibilities of Metro, but they don’t offer a compelling reason to change your entire work flow.
The strength of iOS is that Apple’s operating system is the cleanest around. Windows 8 app experience has yet to be defined, which could benefit Microsoft in that it has an open canvas to paint on.
Settings aren’t sexy, but they shouldn’t be confusing, either.
Microsoft ought to make some decisions, and fast, about cleaning up the confusing mess of its under-the-hood options. Sometimes they’re behind the Settings charm in Metro. Other times they’re buried in some Desktop mode window.
Businesses don’t look excited about Windows 8!
Solving the above problems alone won’t work without helping people realize what’s so great about Windows 8.
Windows 8 will struggle in a consumer marketplace that is increasingly turning to Macs to solve its problems.
How Microsoft can best do that I’ll leave to greater marketing minds than myself. Maybe there’s a killer “laptablet” coming at the beginning of next year, but there’s little doubt that Windows 8 has a hard path to trek in 2013.
