Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's New Mobile Strategy: Create Windows-like App 'Experiences' For Smartphones (pcworld.com)
Microsoft is investing in Windows experiences on mobile devices, with a new app called Your Phone; a migration of Windows 10's Timeline productivity feature to phones; and an update to its launcher app for enterprises. The app, available on Android and iOS, is designed to provide a mirror of a phone straight to a desktop PC, and it will let Windows 10 users access texts, photos, and notifications from their machines. Features will vary depending on iOS and Android. From a report: While Microsoft is also expected to discuss some of the features of its next Windows 10 update (code-named "Redstone 5") at Build, the company indicated that it will be emphasizing cross-platform apps instead. Microsoft will discuss some of these in a Tuesday presentation by Joe Belfiore, who leads Windows "experiences" as the corporate vice president in the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft.
The idea, Belfiore said in a briefing in advance of the show, was that Microsoft needs to know what users are working on, across any device. "Whether you look at a Word doc on Android, iOS, or Windows, is irrelevant," Belfiore said. Belfiore was talking about Timeline, the feature that tracks your work in the Office apps or Edge, recording your activity in what Microsoft calls the Microsoft Graph. But Belfiore could have been talking about any hardware platform. Microsoft sounds like it wants to elevate Microsoft mobile applications to the level of importance of a PC -- making the actual hardware, and operating system, irrelevant.
The idea, Belfiore said in a briefing in advance of the show, was that Microsoft needs to know what users are working on, across any device. "Whether you look at a Word doc on Android, iOS, or Windows, is irrelevant," Belfiore said. Belfiore was talking about Timeline, the feature that tracks your work in the Office apps or Edge, recording your activity in what Microsoft calls the Microsoft Graph. But Belfiore could have been talking about any hardware platform. Microsoft sounds like it wants to elevate Microsoft mobile applications to the level of importance of a PC -- making the actual hardware, and operating system, irrelevant.
In Embrace, Extend, "Experience" and Extinguish.
Screens, I am just filled with anticipation ;)
;)
Just my 2 cents
Short of Office or Outlook (which my company requires I use), I don't use any MIcrosoft applications.
I'm sure as hell not inviting them onto my phone.
They might find themselves irrelevant if they keep focusing on telling us they'll do anything they want to our computers and think they're going to start competing on mobile phones.
Microsoft is fast on its way to becoming another IBM, one that used to be important but is now relegated to the "meh" bucket.
Microsoft doesn't "need" to know what you, I, or anyone else are working on. It's not a big deal to re-open a document on a different device without giving your life's story to Microsoft (or any other Big Cloud company).
This is just an excuse to loot your personal/corporate data under the excuse of a tiny bit more convenience.
Also, the functions of phones and "desktop" devices (not really desktops, could be laptops with a keyboard) are orthogonal. The first are for brief communications, (yes) talking, recording of data (e.g. fitness tracking), and media consumption. But they stink at content production, which "desktop" devices excel at. Try writing several pages on a phone or many tablets -- it amounts to torture.
aka "failure." you broke the user experience in Win 8 and plowed it under and used it as an artillery range in Win 10. get rid of the idea that big-screen PCs and little-screen phones are the same thing, they aren't, and stop trying to graft Presentation Manager or Quantum on top of Windows.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
"The idea, Belfiore said in a briefing in advance of the show, was that Microsoft needs to know what users are working on, across any device."
Just what is wrong with these people?
Wherever they come from, they should stop getting any more from there.
Maybe it's some sort of environmental damage.
I am an Apple user and many people have been talking about how amazing Microsoft products are so I will probably make the switch.
If you're looking at Microsoft's offerings for business products, they're making a big push to provide a unified experience across platforms. With 365 you can have your office docs and email on smartphone apps, tablet apps, browser, and what I'm going to to call "Office Classic" - That is the old office suite that is both ancient yet ubiquitous and still commands a lot of revenue.
One account controls all of the above (Apps are free to download, and you log in to use them) and provides cloud storage so your stuff is available everywhere. You can be part of an organization with shared storage, and outfits can create hybrid installations that merge on-site installations with the office365 versions.
The disconnect between mobile and desktop is still a bit of a problem. Getting your "Stuff" to and from your desktop in an automatic and intelligent way could be a real winner. Imagine just getting your "Microsoft deskop" app for your phone and running to get access to all the things you were doing on your desktop (And the other way around)
What's really good is Microsoft has given up on the idea that they're going to be a player in the mobile space and are embracing both Android and iOS
...MS should compile a special build of Windows for the top 5 selling phones, and sell it the way they sold it for computers. Let people install Windows on their S9, Pixel, iPhone, etc.
One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
This type of stuff reminds me of Terminal Emulator Apps who added GUI Buttons, and form like input boxes, to Make your old Console Terminal Based application look more like a PC App. The features are just to make sure people don't migrate off the old legacy system, and stop buying licenses for the Terminal Emulator. This is just screaming, Mobile makers don't make Windows irrelevant, we will give you this fancy tool so you don't go off Windows.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Where is the LUDDITE APPS guy?
That word shows they're a bit out of touch with what users want. They want programs and web sites to be reliable, fast, and have interfaces that make sense with features that are needed and without ones that don't make sense like "social" features.
Ever dealt with a user "experience" consultant? They talk a lot about how users feel or why they do things. It's never about getting actual work done. The five we've churned through wouldn't even look at web analytics. The last one refused since they claimed it didn't explain the "why." We use Piwik which is awesome for seeing exactly what people do. You can even track specific user sessions to see exactly what they do and how long each step takes and even more important where they bounce. I've found and fixed at least a hundred problems I found using Piwik, but the UX people wouldn't even login to it.
Title summarizes parent post.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
you already have models in Adroid and IOS, if it's the fact that you want a Windows kernel underneath for app developers then don't hold your breath Microsoft. Nobody wants to deliver for a platform that you constantly change or drop focus on from a business perspective. Of course Microsoft can port their own bloatware onto a phone with their own O/S but unless they pay third party developers to port popular applications, the app store will be a bit barren. Oh wait, that's like it is in Windows 10 now with about half the apps unusable.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
OK, Microsoft finally realizes that they kinda suck at creating a mobile-specific OS, (WinCE, Windows Mobile, etc) and that full blast Windows isn't a good fit on a mobile device. This is good. But Microsoft still needs to be a player in this space, hence a mirror application rather than an OS. I can see where this would make sense to Microsoft strategists.
Thing is, with apps like Good (as much as I personally dislike it) that already give encapsulated access to Outlook, and are more well known and a lot more mature, I'm not sure how successful Microsoft is going to be in this space. But I guess one can't fault them for trying. I'm thinking this'll drag on for a few years and then get quietly canceled, but hey, my crystal ball has been wrong before.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
It is really fascinating. MS consistently delivers bad quality, ignores their customers, messes around, and _still_ they rake in cash like crazy...
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
siphon off all their data; because that's what you really wanted, anyway.
There's supposed to be no such thing as "a Word doc" right? Wasn't Microsoft supposedly embracing document format standards by supporting MOOXML, and ODF, and 20 other formats in Word?
So what the heck is a "Word doc"? My gosh, one might think Microsoft all along was fudging, and never did mean anything they said about openness and interoperable formats.
Ya think?
If I'm understanding the summary, and I very well may not, this is exactly what BlackBerry Blend did on BBOS 10. It was quite slick being able to throw my device up on my big screen and use the PC keyboard to finish that email I started while on the bus.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
1989-2004 were the suckiest years in personal computers, ever. Why? Microsoft. And once I ditched them, everything got so much nicer, easier, faster, more reliable, etc. Microsoft should sell their phones under a different name. "Windows" is not a word people want to hear unless they're masochists wanting to be dominated, tied up, humiliated.
No sane person wants a Windows phone, presumably because it gives them a "windows-like" "experience" on their smartphone (since it runs feckin' windows.) and M$ wants to make OTHER things on phones act as shit as windows? Are they high?
I've been using this phone to pc integration for years.... it's called AirDroid.
I'd love to be able to come home, dock my phone into a charging KVM station, and use it like a desktop.
body massage!
(provided the phone is capable of running an OS that doesn't stink on the desktop)
Isn't this just like Zeitgeist, Gnome Activity Journal or Unity Dash? I've been using Ubuntu on the desktop for a number of years now and using Zeitgeist, Zeitgeist Explorer, Gnome Activity Journal and more recently Unity Dash to look at my document and application history and context. These aren't my only "go to" methods for finding historical activity on my Linux system but they are nicely integrated and useful at times. I'm pretty sure that Zeitgeist has been around since before 2008 and Gnome Activity Journal came in around 2009 with Gnome 3.0 and then Unity around 2011?
Is this another Microsoft copying a previously existing platform to promote as their own?
When shit hits the fan get some of these https://youtu.be/pY-GncsZ-UE
What's the deal with Microsoft replacing the words "software" or "solution" with "experience"? To me it just sounds odd, pretentious, and plain ugly.
smh tbh
For a new record for how many mentions of Microsoft you can get on the front page.
>> I'd love to dock my phone and use it like a desktop.
Have you tried this on your existing kit? A Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse works on my Android phone, as does a USB-C to HDMI adapter.
The trick is finding a bluetooth keyboard that doesn't suck.
I would imagine this is why MS is looking to provide their apps everywhere and deprecate the device/OS. Your data is in OneDrive, and whatever you are working on is available immediately in their experience app.