Windows 8 thoughts

Having gained some distance from Windows 8 now I am seriously beginning to wonder about what the true purpose of this OS is going to be.  I believe that the Metro App part of the system is probably going to be the make or break, not just for the operating system but possibly also for the company.

I say this because the underlying "desktop" part of the windows 8 system is really just windows as we know it.  We can use the applications that we are currently using on our current windows machines here, in much the same way as we always have with little interference from touch etc.  Metro, however, is touch focused and the real kicker will be if people develop metro applications for corporate functions such as Finance and HR.  Now when you start thinking that through questions appear, for instance: do you want the excel spread sheet you work on every day to have finger fat dimensions?  Or do you want to see as many numbers on the page as possible in a not very finger friendly view?  My suspicion is that you will do business in the "normal" desktop way to maximise information availability and that Metro apps will be reserved for Angry birds and weather applications etc.

If by some quirk of fate finger friendly business applications develop then it will be a race as to whether they are implemented on IOS or Metro first.  The truth here is that IOS is currently a much bigger market and it has a strong business fashion driver too.   Not only that I think that usable windows desktop tablets will be significantly more expensive than even the new iPad3.  In this race I think IOS will win.

We could truly be seeing the last few years of windows PC's, but my I think that actually this is a dual market we actually need a different tool to work on compared to the tool we consume information on.  For my part I am still really enjoying using my windows 7 tablet, and I thank the iPad for driving the convertible tablet to its death.