[Windows 8 General] e.mote:
All indicators point to "staying the course" as the MO for MS for this year and next. 8.1 is a more polished 8; Surface gen2 is a more polished gen1; but both are still basically the same. Statements made during the last financial analyst meeting affirmed same.

High priority for MS, as Terry Meyerson said, is to integrate the disparate platforms (phone/tablet/desktop/console) into one: standardized APIs and core services, a common store front and apps that work across platforms. Even though the Nokia buy won't finalize until next year, groundwork to integrate Nokia's assets into MS' devices division is presumably happening now. From recent rumors, integration is MS' immediate effort going forward.

This means that Windows RT's fate is academic. Presumably within next year, it will be merged with WP, which of course makes sense given the high commonality. The RT name was removed from the Surface 2 model, and Windows RT itself was downplayed in the Surface gen2 launch. It was a bad name to start with, given the confusion with WinRT the platform architecture, and presumably will disappear after this upcoming device cycle. This will bring it into line with iOS/Android, which treat tabs as basically upsized phones.

Integration with the desktop is more problematic, given Win8's poor reception, and the importance of keeping the vast Windows userbase onboard. One expects the WinRT underpinning will stay intact, but Metro would need a major overhaul, to reclaim some of the functionality of the traditional WIMP UI. Likewise, the precision and efficiency of mouse/KB input would need to be replicated for productivity work. Meyerson said that "satellite teams" will customize the core OS for each platform, but customization can only achieve so much. At some point, MS will have to critically assess its own-size-fits-all strategy. This won't happen until the reorg is done, and the new guy has learned the ropes. My guess: 2015 at the earliest. Windows will have at least one more incremental 8.x rev.

Given MS' terrible track record of successful UI design, including Metro, I'm pessimistic. Phone+tab integration is more doable, but because both are marginal platforms, synergy is minimal. Moreover, MS will need to do the heavy lifting on its own, now that OEMs have largely abandoned its ARM platforms. Its distribution channel, as shown with Surface gen1, is lacking and will take years to build up.

A lot will ride on the reorg and the new head. From all accounts, MS' company culture has long been dysfunctional, masked by the steady profits from its cash cows. In the best case, MS will emerge as a more unified and capable competitor. More likely, it'll be another in the long line of "legacy" tech companies.

The needs of desktop computing may be reduced to a smaller demographic, but they are still substantial, and don't disappear because MS said so. Now that Windows has gone the Metro way, I'm curious if any competitor will pick up the slack. Linux would be the obvious choice, but Canonical, the flagbearer of consumer Linux, is like MS wrapped up with its mobile efforts. There is a vacuum.

---------- Post added at 05:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------

One can see the half-heartedness in MS' new "devices & services" credo. MS is still torn between its old horizontal model of providing SW to its HW partners, and its new vertical "devices" model.

Putting aside price points, for the Surface line to be successful, it has to cover at least the major segments, which the present models aren't. The gaping hole is that there's no Bay Trail model, which presumably will be the most popular Windows device as a class, either in tablet or hybrid form. The obvious rationale is that MS doesn't want to compete with its OEMs in the most lucrative segment (the $1K+ Pro 2 and Metro-only Surface 2 are niche), but to be a _successful_ "devices" company, MS will of course need to compete.

MS is a bit in the twilight zone, neither here nor there. It will still be that way until the new guy shows up. Let's hope he's good.