[G Tablet General] AmericanDane:
Windows and mobile

I am looking forward to Windows 8, as I think both Google and Apple need a shot in the arm. My only concern is that MS has never done well in the mobile space. But they have surprised me with Windows 7 so maybe they can work their magic again.[/QUOTE]

I sure wouldn't want to counter anything you said as you're the king of the tablets as far as I can tell, but I think you're comment about MS (which is an opinion shared by many) is heavily influenced by very recent history I think. Up until the full blown development of the capacitive touch screen in the Apple phone Microsoft's Mobile OS was the preferred choice. I had an Axim 5 which did most everything we're talking about with tablets but with a lot less elegance and functionality. Microsoft was the first major manufacturer to advance touch screens in portable devices. I had a Fuji "tablet" computer years ago and it was pretty slick BUT it used a resistive touch screen which made touch features less than elegant.

What microsoft (and others) missed was the capacitive touch screen and how it changed the world. Apple had an early in to this technology since they first adopted it for their iPod controller wheel and that led to their incorporating it into the main display. Capacitive touch screens had been around a long time but they couldn't be controlled precisely until recently (can't remember the company who did it first but it was Apple's key supplier to iPod wheels). So in the blink of an eye the slickest Blackberry or windows smart phone looked crippled compared to the slick interface the multi-touch capacitive touch screen apple produced. Since then resistive screens have actually gotten pretty good, but the technology of choice is multi-touch capacitive.

I don't know if MS will do the Windows 8 with a trimmed down tablet version or not, or even if they do it, will they do it well. But, I do know they have many more engineers than Apple and a base kernel in Windows which is fabulous to build on. Heck if they just gave me that interface on my current netbook I would be thrilled.

Why Microsoft was so late to the mp3 player and why they let Mobile Windows falter is a mystery. I did have one MS engineer (proj mgr on Office at the time) told me they took their eye off the ball on mobile as they kind of looked to the entertainment (xBox) div to push that stuff and they just never got beyond game systems.

Microsoft also missed on the spreadsheet for many years and had a couple attempts which didn't cut it (multiplan was nifty but too hard to use) but when they came out with Excel they conquered. Same with Word. Same with console game boxes, and even to some extent with keyboards and mice and web cams.

You'd think I "liked" MS. I don't really. I much prefer Linux and the whole GPL scheme of things, but I give the devil her due. I use microsoft products every day and I have to say they do a terrific job. No other tech company I know of could match them on taking care of their past customers. That legacy in many ways has been a blessing and a curse. That said, I wouldn't count them out by any means and they will do very well in mobile/tablets when they embrace the touch interface. I'm not sure about phones. I've never really seen the vision of a phone-size computing device. To me a phone size is all about sync and media (photo, music, and light video media), and of course, phone. Tablet is your GPS, planner and organizer, newspaper and email, heavier duty mobile media consumption and phone (skype). Laptop is the primary working device to actually earn an income from, and the desktop is simply a legacy for all that stuff you still want to interface with and stream on your local network.

I think MS's mobile image was damaged quite a bit by them virtually abandoning Windows mobile, the low takeup of the Zune and the piling on of the apple community. That caused MS to go after a phone which was a disaster. In a nutshell there wasn't a failure of note until the iPhone in the middle of 2007 which has led (largely) to a remake of the MS image in this arena. They certainly deserve their lumps, but like you pointed out Win 7 was great and if they do get that interface they are showing on Win 8, watch they roar back in the mobile space.

I do wonder about another competing "app" development framework. It would have been nice to see that part of the interface somehow stick with the Android model. I'm sure MS will produce a free dev kit of some kind but that doesn't replace all the work for good developers to get up to speed.