… except that their phone/tablet strategy and all the failings that go with their metro/Windows Store/whatever-they-decide-to-call-it-tomorrow vision are leaking fail all over the desktop, and the “free 8.1 update” (ie Windows 8 SP1, except they can’t call a spade a spade after making such a big deal about no more service packs) has done near enough to nothing to alleviate it.
From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Ken Schaefer Sent: Tuesday, 24 September 2013 3:16 PM To: ozDotNet Subject: RE: Mark II The issue I have with that position is that the Surface Pro isn’t limited to the Windows Store, and since there are plenty of non-store apps (e.g. Office) that can be run on a Surface Pro, the proposition is more than just Windows Store. Surface RT, on the other hand… Cheers Ken From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com<mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com> [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Nathan Chere Sent: Tuesday, 24 September 2013 2:40 PM To: ozDotNet Subject: RE: Mark II The crux of what I’m talking about boils down to Windows Store, so both. From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com<mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com> [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Ken Schaefer Sent: Tuesday, 24 September 2013 2:37 PM To: ozDotNet Subject: RE: Mark II Are you talking about the Surface RT? Or the Surface Pro? They’re two different products. Cheers Ken From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com<mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com> [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Nathan Chere Sent: Tuesday, 24 September 2013 2:34 PM To: ozDotNet Subject: RE: Mark II I reckon Microsoft would be happy if they could get 50 good applications too. Even then, it’s not enough to have “good” apps. They need exclusive apps… and really, if you have an idea even remotely worth doing something with, why in your right mind would you choose Windows Store of all places to make it exclusive to? … which ultimately means apps aren’t enough. The platform is a failure. With the Surface they chose to consolidate Windows (desktop) and Windows Mobile while ignoring virtually all of the key strengths of the products they were bastardising (especially with RT). They’ve limited their niche to the kind of people who want to do more than they can with the currently popular idea of a ‘tablet’ but don’t want the power and versatility of a full-blown laptop. Had they gone down the road of Windows Mobile 7 with an optional but default app store instead of the almost complete re-imagining which was Windows Phone 7 (and 7.5, 8 etc) I imagine they would have built on the slice of the enterprise market they had with prior Windows Mobile instead of almost completely alienating the enterprise, continued to appeal to the hobbyist and amateur developer market (increasingly so with XNA – which they’ve also canned, another brainfart) and provided a convenient medium for accessing content for the average consumer. The pre-requisite of Zune to do anything useful reeks of all the fail of iTunes. Even though they’ve limited piracy, there’s virtually nothing in the store worth pirating anyway. Because no-one wants to use it, which means no-one wants to develop for it. I’d much rather target a platform with 60%-95% piracy rate (depending on who you believe) and a paying customer base of 100s of millions than a platform with 5-20% piracy rate (also depending on who you believe) but a single completely broken store with no quality control (even rewarding people for shit apps – “quantity over quality”) and a distinct minority customer base of whom the paying customers are an even more fragile minority. But why learn from the mistakes and failings of Windows Phone? Why not sink the tablet market as well, and do all we can to take down the desktop in general while we’re at it? </rant which started off as a one-liner but I get carried away so apologies for any beating of any dead horses and drawing of long bows> Click here<https://www.mailcontrol.com/sr/MZbqvYs5QwJvpeaetUwhCQ==> to report this email as spam. This message has been scanned for malware by Websense. www.websense.com
