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By:
Zach Epstein | Feb 29th, 2012 at 09:45AM
Apple’s iOS platform seemed to come out of nowhere and take the world
by storm in 2007. The introduction of the first-generation iPhone set
in motion a chain of events that lead up to the holiday quarter in 2011,
when
Apple recorded the most profitable quarter in technology history
thanks mainly to unbelievable iPhone, iPod touch and iPad sales. No
platform is selling as quickly as Apple’s mobile platform right now, but
iOS is still in its infancy and the fact remains: as hot as iOS is
right now, and as popular as smartphones and media tablets are, no
platform installed base on the planet even comes close to approaching
the size of Windows right now.
The Future
Microsoft said this past December that there are now more than 1.25
billion PCs running the Windows operating system. Billion, with a “B.”
Smartphones are the hottest segment in consumer electronics right now
and people are buying Apple’s iPad in droves, but even still, more
people around the world rely on Windows than ever before. This is
because the software that powers countless businesses from the ground up
is built on Windows. From web browsers to accounting software to
point-of-sale systems to 3D animation software to word processors to
custom proprietary solutions and far, far beyond… Entire industries are
built on Windows.
The future is anything but “post-PC.”
We are now entering
the post-post-PC era,
and its focus is the PC. A new, smarter, more versatile PC. A PC that
lets users browse the web casually in bed and work with massive
databases in SQL Server. A PC that can run a $0.99 news reader as well
as it can run proprietary $99,000 CRM software. A PC that is as ideal
for playing Angry Birds as it is for running a modeling environment that
allows its user to build schematics for a skyscraper. This is the
future of computing.
That is not to say Windows 8 is an “iPad killer” or that media
tablets are going away. Far from it. While their functionality may
overlap in a number of areas, light-duty tablets and full-fledged PCs
serve different purposes and will continue to coexist for some time.
What we will see, however, is media tablets becoming more capable and
more powerful as PCs become better suited for touch input. At some point
down the road the two categories may merge, but neither will “win” or
“lose.”
The OS
I’ve spent the past week
playing with and
working on a Samsung tablet powered by Microsoft’s new operating system. It’s nice to be able to work and play on the same tablet.
While Windows 8 is not quite in a state where it is ready to be released to the public, it is a completely different beast than
the Developer Preview Microsoft released more than five months ago.
During a meeting with Microsoft executives, I was told that the
Consumer Preview version of Windows 8 includes tens of thousands of
changes compared to the version that was released to developers in
September. Thousands of changes are system-level items that I’m sure I
didn’t notice, but thousands more are user-facing changes that have
helped improve the user experience dramatically.
One of my favorite features is the implementation of swipe gestures.
As can be seen in the second and third images within our Windows 8
screenshot gallery, Microsoft has tweaked the main menus used to
navigate the OS and perform a variety of key functions. While using a
touchscreen to interface with Windows 8, these menus are opened using
gestures.
A swipe from the bezel around the screen in from the right opens the
start menu, which includes a search button to search for files and apps,
a share button to share the current page via email or using other
services, a start button, a devices button that lists devices connected
to your PC, and a settings button that provides quick access to basic
settings such as brightness and speaker volume, as well as a link to
more system settings. A swipe in from the left switches between open
apps, and a swipe in from the left and back out to the edge of the
display opens the app-switcher. Within an app, a swipe down from the top
or up from the bottom opens app-specific menus.
While using a keyboard and mouse, gestures from the sides are
replaced by keyboard shortcuts or mouse touches to the corners of the
screen. A touch to the top-right or bottom-right corner mimics a swipe
in from the right and opens the start menu while a touch to the top-left
or bottom-left corners opens the app-switcher.
There are countless other great features new Windows 8 Consumer
Preview; from picture password, an enhanced security feature that lets
the user unlock a PC by tracing preset patterns on an image of his or
her choosing instead of using a simple alphanumeric password, to
“roaming,” which automatically syncs settings, apps and other data
between different Windows 8 computers. While one convertible slate can
handle duties as a tablet, notebook and desktop computer, Windows 8 is
all about choice. Some users may opt for a single device while others
will want a lightweight 7-inch ARM-based tablet in addition to an
eight-core beast of a desktop PC.
In terms of performance, Windows 8 exhibited the smoothness and
stability we’ve come to expect in a post-Vista world, and this is just a
preview version. There were hiccups, of course, but overall the
experience was vastly superior than it has been with any other version
of Windows. The setup is remarkably fast and easy, touch responsiveness
is iPad-like and I was quite impressed with the versatility of this
platform. To understand the concept of
one device for work and for play
is one thing. To sit in bed hopping around lightweight apps and then
walk over to your desk, dock your tablet, and have desktop-grade
productivity software running on the same device is something else
entirely.
The machine I tested Windows 8 on is a pre-release dockable Samsung
tablet with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. Yes, it’s a
tablet with a fan. It’s also a tablet that can run your existing
desktop-grade enterprise software, consumer software and lightweight
Metro-style apps. Get over it.
The Endgame
Windows 8 gives us a glimpse at the future of computing, but it’s not
quite there yet. While the version I spent time with is merely the
Consumer Preview and not the release build of Windows 8, it gives us a
very good idea of what Microsoft’s new operating system will look like
when it launches. The concept is fantastic and I very much like
Microsoft’s execution thus far, but it still feels like a marriage of
two completely different operating systems rather than a fusion of two
experiences.
This is by design, in part. Because the function of a true PC varies
so greatly from the function of a media tablet (as we know this category
of devices today), Microsoft has created separate experiences for each
category. There is a tablet experience with the fantastic Metro UI, a
desktop experience reminiscent of Windows 7, and a bit of overlap with
each, intended to create some amount of cohesiveness. The end result,
however, is not a consistent experience.
There is a disconnect that can be felt across Windows 8. Again, this
is mostly by design. In what I call “tablet mode,” the user is presented
with an interface that is quite clearly built to be touched. It is
characterized by a cascade of large tiles that display live data and can
be poked to open apps. The Metro-style apps that are revealed house
nice big buttons and a touch-friendly design. Metro-style apps also take
up every last pixel of the display, which is a fantastic canvas on
which developers can paint terrific experiences.
In “desktop mode,” Windows 8 has the look and feel of Windows 7. In
fact, it basically is Windows 7. There are some elements of Metro that
spill over into desktop mode — such as the app-switcher and Windows
Phone-like lock screen, which displays notifications from up to five
apps — but they are effectively completely separate platforms.
Desktop mode has not been optimized for touch at all. In fact,
tapping in a text field while no physical keyboard is attached to the
tablet doesn’t even bring up the virtual keyboard. Instead, the user
must tap on a small keyboard icon in the task bar to open the keyboard,
and then he or she must tap another two buttons to close the keyboard
once finished typing. And while in desktop mode, by the way, I found
that the keyboard often obscured the text field in which I was typing.
Perhaps I can better illustrate my point about the disconnect with this simple example:
Windows 8 ships with two completely separate web browsers. One is
called “Internet Explorer”. The other is called “Internet Explorer.”
Internet Explorer is a fantastic Metro-style browser that is designed
with touch in mind. Controls are large and easy to poke, menus retract
and let web pages occupy every inch of the display, and pages load
lightning-fast in this lightweight tablet browser. Then, in desktop
mode, users can browse the web using Internet Explorer, the same robust
web browser hundreds of millions of people currently use around the
world on their Windows PCs.
Confused yet?
Microsoft’s inclusion of two completely different web browsers that
share the exact same name is indicative of the separation present in
Windows 8. One tablet OS and one desktop OS, together on the same
machine.
In the end, this disconnect is probably a good thing for now. Windows
users come in all shapes and sizes, and millions of people who will
upgrade to Windows 8 in the coming years will be terrified of doing so.
They are used to Windows as we know it today, and the look and feel of
Metro is a complete departure from the Windows they currently rely on
day in and day out. After the initial shock wears off, these people who
are so scared of change will find themselves eased into the new Windows
because desktop mode is so familiar, and
because “tablet mode” is so separate from it.
But this is not the future of post-post-PCs.
Windows 8 is the tip of the iceberg. The start of a shift that will
eventually see the “tablet” UI and the “desktop” UI merge into one
comprehensive user experience. Apple is taking a different approach; as
we’re seeing in
OS X Mountain Lion,
Apple is slowly readying its desktop user interface for a touch
environment by taking some of the elements from its gorgeous mobile UI
and adapting them for desktop computers. This varies dramatically from
the path Microsoft is taking with Windows 8, but the endgame is the
same: one experience that is as capable as it is versatile, and as
user-friendly as it is beautiful.
This is the future of computing.
Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview will become available to the general public on Wednesday as
a free download with an initial cache of more than 100 apps in the Store, all of which will be free during the preview period.
