Slashdot Mirror
MS Hypes Win7 Tablets For CES — Again
jfruhlinger writes "About a year ago at this time, we were all hearing exciting news about Windows-based tablets that Microsoft would be unveiling at CES. They would transform the industry and strangle the iPad in its cradle! Well, now the hype machine is starting again, for the same products that never materialized last year. This time around, though, the market has changed so much so quickly that Microsoft's tablet bid isn't cutting edge; as Ryan Faas points out, it's desperate."
Why haven't MS developed a touch-based shell for Windows 7? They could sell it as Windows 7 Tablet Edition. Yay, they'd get a new product to sell, too!
I've used Windows 7 as a touch OS, and I can tell you it's no pleasant experience. You know the virtual keyboard that iOS and Android pops up as you give a text box focus? Yeah. Windows 7 doesn't support that. It has a virtual keyboard, but you can only click to open it manually. Click to open it. Every time you want to type. Oh, and the dpi setting support to make things easier to point and click at? Well, Windows applications don't use to have good dpi setting support. Their GUI's will break, or simply ignore the setting, and keep using small fonts. And what about window management? Clicking at window borders to resize them, to give room for... Wait a minute -- why do you have to window manage at all? That was taken out of iOS and Android, for a reason.
There are a dozen more reasons it'll make your skin crawl. It's an as poor OS for tablets, as Windows Mobile 6.5 is for mobile devices. It's as if Microsoft didn't learn! Why hasn't Ballmer learnt? Why is he so stubborn. It's his job to understand these things, and lead his company in the right direction! Windows 7 Tablet Edition should have been developed *along with Windows 7* itself! Because even back then, after Windows Vista, did visionaries in the tech industry see this as becoming huge in the future. But no -- MS seem to be willing to repeat their Windows Mobile mistake again. Trying to shoe-horn an OS design in a form factor and a human/computer interface it was never intended for.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Someone mod parent up about WIMP !
As a game programmer, designer, and the UI work I've done, I've found the exact same thing. Right-Click. Nope. Tooltips. Also can't do those on a touchscreen. Vertical/Horizontal scroll bars? Functionally the user can "scroll" by dragging _anywhere_. The more I use iPhone apps, the more I am impressed with the set of controls, and the SDK Apple has provided. Just the screen lack of screen real estate forces you to consciously priority WHAT and HOW MUCH info you show to the user.
The Nintendo DS can use the IMP* metaphor because you have a touch pen. Finger touch-screen needs to use IM** metaphor.
WIMP = window, icon, menu, pointing device
*IMP = icon, menu, pointing device
**IM = icon, menu
Android-based tablet, pre-Honeycomb, running 2.1 and with a 2.2 Froyo upgrade in the pipeline
I can just imagine Steve Jobs reading that comment, thinking about all the billions of people who don't understand a single word of it, and laughing maniacally all the way to the bank.
Microsoft still has the chance to beat Apple
I think this is the type of thinking that is why MS is behind Apple. Apple doesn't seem to give a damn about beating MS or Google or HP or Dell. Steve Jobs for years has said he doesn't care that Apple doesn't have a huge marketshare in computers. The fact that they make money and that they have loyal customers is their primary focus. Apple cares only about putting out products that they think are good products and will make them a lot of money. It just happens that their last series of consumer products starting with the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad have taken the market.
MS has always defined itself and its strategy on the market and competitors and not the goal of being the best. They have only wanted to beat everyone else. When they beat Netscape they let IE languish for years until Mozilla and Chrome started to eat their marketshare. They let Window Mobile stagnate until Apple and Google made them almost irrelevant.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.