DPE - Developer & Platform Evangelism Still Enterprise, it's a B2C or even in many ways in part B2B move. I'd say they probably sat down, took a deep breathe and thought "Ok, how I can i get the best bang for my buck across the Ux Platform spectrum" and given Java is still a language that could have equal or maybe even more with say C# developers, it's not a bad decision. Combine with the price points per unit on Android its probably the one piece of the tablet/mobility pie that makes sense to place some strong bets on instead of individual ones across multiple OS's ...
Also woolies aren't really known for their IT selection brilliance per say and retail outlets tend to keep the spending low to get as much as they can for little as possible. I wouldn't ignore a selection like that though...seems they went all in and I really wouldn't fault them on it.. its in truth where I'd argue for my company (Schneider Electric) to head towards given we have industrial software portfolio(s) that would prefer to keep unit sales low. --- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.riagenic.com On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 10:03 AM, ILT (O) <[email protected]> wrote: > Scott - what is DPE? I've missed this acronym. Is that an inernal > Microsoft department / unit? > > Re the enterprise / consumer split: Where would you place Woolworths' > transition to google apps and Chromebooks for > reportedly<http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/print/538469/chrome_replaces_windows_woolworths_/>175,000 > staff in Australia? > > "Google Chrome OS devices will account for 85 per cent of business > devices at Woolworths at the completion of the supermarket's technology > transformation, according to Woolworths acting CIO, Damon Rees." > ------------------------------ > > Ian Thomas > Victoria Park, Western Australia > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Scott Barnes > *Sent:* Tuesday, February 18, 2014 5:53 AM > *To:* ozDotNet > *Subject:* Re: [OT] WindowsRT the new Silverlight? and Windows 9 - a > triumvirate of products > > > > I don't know much about the future of Microsoft because I suspect not many > INSIDE Microsoft themselves have a clear definitive handle on that (not to > sound jaded, i honestly do believe they are still haggling over how to > raise the broken into fixable solutions). > > > > I would say this, the company has built up enough equity in the past to > make a full focused run at Consumer adoption for products that would > typically sell reasonably if not better in enterprise/smallbiz but they in > the end hit a wall. I think it was mainly they didn't understand the > consumers needs and were to busy trying to graph compete strategies they > have used on Enterprise into the same space as consumers (Internally > Microsoft can be quite aggressive and paralysed with fear around > competitive events - its a huge weakness imho). > > > > If you were to unpack Windows 8 today and really take a step back from it > all, there's not a lot of negativity associated with what they have done. I > look at Windows 8 as the parity release between Silverlight/WPF and all the > fixes customers (devs) wanted but it was delivered in a way that > traumatised the base. It could have been delivered with a softer approach > to change management in that instead of holding a gun to our collective > heads with the intent of "upgrade or else" simple things like namespace / > sdk related issues would have been enough to build confidence with the > developer base around migration / roadmap. A developer would be fine with > with Windows 7 WPF/Silverlight development today provided they know > eventually with a Windows 8 upgrade the performance and scaleability issues > would naturally resolve themselves (ie devs dont spend to much time > haggling over the rendering pipeline). > > > > If you then combine Windows Phone 8 (which is really still in many ways > the Silverlight behaviour) you again then tick the other box around reach > on mobility devices. You are still locking them down into a world called > "windows" which doesn't piss a lot of enterprise companies off, especially > with the current turbulence in the device market we see today. Enterprise > companies right now are a little paranoid or scared about their mobility > adoption strategies because its one thing to say "I want breadth" and > another to say "i want breadth and depth' when it comes to User experiences > that count. If a company wants to get their "mobility" story together, they > often associate mobility with web because breadth is far more attractive > story than a depth discussion. Breadth means HTML/JS because it means I > don't have to have specialist teams (Java, ObjectiveC, C#/Mono etc). Depth > requires the opposite because you can only put off that problem for so long > before someone within a team suddely comes to work wearing his/her "Java > Conference 1998" t-shirt and smells funny because they do Android > development. > > > > Microsoft had an opportunity to do a simple rinse/repeat on the > "Embrace/Extend" model with Windows and like I said, Enterprise would > likely have been fine to play in that sandpit (of course they'd keep > pushing on the "make my C#/XAML apps work on all" angle every step of the > way). > > > > In keeping Enterprise bellies full that would have stabilised at the very > least their largest piece of the profit share pie, in that they would have > bought themselves another 2-5 years to focus on Consumer more without > having to pay the tax on losing hearts/minds of business grade solutions. > This would have also given them more adoption metrics around the mobility + > desktop upgrade story because if a company buys 10-100 units of one piece > of hardware because it was easier to develop against well thats 10-100 > forced adoption(s) on users which after a while could turn into > positive/negative evangelist for those products (Forced adoption is not a > bad strategy ...its just ethically horrid). > > > > But.. sadly none of the above has happened, instead Sinofsky wen't rogue, > went aggressive not just internally but externally and let his own > self-inflated arrogance steer the ship in a direction of aggressive change > management which has backfired. Now the new heads of state have to figure > out how to salvage what they have left into meaningful pieces that can > essentially tap into the above behaviours. > > > > The article is right, you have really three options - fade out you core > business (enterprise) and go full retard on consumers adoption, reverse the > namespace/SDK engines and build a bridge between old and new but lose what > small foothold you have on consumers - or - abandon consumer focus and > retreat back to safety around enterprise/small business. > > > > I'd place my money on the 2nd option, bridge building but that's going to > be filled with a lot of apologies and the only way they can even attempt to > make that work is to ramp up their DPE practices beyond where it is today > (that is a lot of people on a lot of planes, apologising and seeding a > new/existing audience with solutions). The head of DPE (former CEO of > Skype) is a business development numbers guy who clearly has no real > passion for DPE, so i don't see how even if they find a way to build that > bridge can make that happen (it's an attitude issue as well as a technical > one). > > Building a bridge between old and new is not as scary as one would assume > (well i dont anyway), there is a lot of positive work put into the Windows > 8 SDK's .. i don't think anyone can say outloud that Microsoft doesn't get > their shit together technically when given the chance, there is and has > always been more positives in their technical abilities than negatives - it > just always always always comes down to the way in which they deliver the > message and react to developer/customer issues of the day. > > Is it really a case of just refactoring Windows 8 namepsaces or proxy > classes of some sort to convince Developers to continue on WPF/Silverlight > path? ... Is it a matter of just investing more in that "devigner" tooling > problem (Expression Blend makes a comeback but with less reliance of > "reflection" based property grids). > > > > *shrug* .. i can personally see a way they could rebuild and get on with > the Windows 9 approach and I don't think it requires a radical overhaul but > more architectural common sense. > > > > > > > > > --- > Regards, > Scott Barnes > http://www.riagenic.com > > > > On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 9:30 PM, ILT (O) <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have noticed in a few places discussions comparing the UI and API of > WinRT with Silverlight, and suggesting that it (WinRT) is preferable. > Mostly, these were quite old posts (a series of 6 or more at SharpGIS was > my first sense of this). > > It does raise the possibility that Windows / Microsoft will rebirth or > rethink some technologies. > > Related (in my eyes, anyway), apparently there is a wider discussion about > Windows 9 (based on leaks and conjecture) suggesting that there is to be a > complete rethink of Windows market segments in Windows 9 "Threshold". > > It's summarised > here<http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/cause-hope-windows-8-gets-the-heave-ho-in-the-next-wave-of-updates-232389>in > InfoWorld (December 2013) in an article by some bloke named Woody > Leonhard. > > He sets the tone in his first sentence: > > "If independent leaks are to be believed, Windows chief Terry Myerson > appears to be dismantling the Jekyll-and-Hyde monstrosity that is Windows > 8, instead replacing it with a triumvirate of > products<http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/microsoft-exec-hints-separate-windows-release-trains-consumers-business-232299>that > people and companies will actually want." > > I'll be interested in Scott's comments on the triumverate of products, > including the quote that refers to Terry Myerson's supposed intentions. > ------------------------------ > > Ian Thomas > Victoria Park, Western Australia > > >
