Re: Tablet UIs on work PCs...

> people do not use a Desktop/Laptop the same way they do a

> tablet or a smartphone

Microsoft has a serious problem and forcing Metro down everyone's throat is how they intend to fix it.

Metro on WP7 is almost non-existent and is only a phone OS it cannot be used on tablets. Windows (XP, 7) on tablets is almost a non-event, it is expensive, doesn't work well and has been bought in only tiny quantities.

The 'standard' GUIs for phones and tablets is iOS and Android.

A Jazz musician was on the radio and his view was that if you played enough Jazz to people who didn't like it then they would like it, eventually. He set out on a tour of schools with his Jazz group to play concerts for free. ie force it down their throats.

Microsoft seems to think that the same will happen with Metro. They said that it will soon be the most familiar UI on the planet. The expectation is that eventually everyone will like it and want it on their phones and tablets.

The failure is that it will take several years before Windows 8 (or 9, 10) will have as many users as XP does today. By that time iOS, MacOS, Android and Linux will also have developed and many will be wanting those UIs on the desktops (or on what has replaced their desktops).

Android is already appearing on TVs, in cars, and on cameras (real cameras). Windows (and DOS before that) always has been in catch up mode, copying features that first appeared years before on DR-DOS, GEM, Apple, BeOS and many others. Previously when replacement of machines was of the order of 3 to 5 years this was not too much of a problem. People waited for MS's vaporware for months or years while MS wrote the code to catchup to their competitors.

Now with replacement cycles for phones and tablets of a year or less to 2 years maximum, being over a year behind the rest of the market is complete failure. Buyers aren't going to wait until next year for a Metro (Apollo) phone or tablet, they will buy an iPad or Android, especially as an iPad2 is now cheaper.

Buyers also aren't going to buy a WP7 phone (maybe a few will) because WP8 will make them obsolete, there will not be an upgrade of current phones to WP8. WP7 phones are single core and WP8 will require dual core.

The other problem is that MS will require licence fees for Windows 8/WOA and for Office which will price them at least $100 above that for iOS or Android on equivalent hardware. For Windows 8/Intel tablets these may be even more expensive.