It’s hard to imagine that Apple, now the #1 technology company in the world in terms of brand value – some 1155 billion dollars, roughly the annual gross of an orthodontist, was once teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and extinction. And Windows which is a leviathan and by sheer weight of installations will remain a viable force for the foreseeable future, would grow old and demonstrate senile dementia………..but here’s the truth…..
Image via CrunchBase
Computerworld – The Windows 8 demo from the All Things Digital conference
left me kind of confused. More accurately, it left me thinking
Microsoft is kind of confused. Perhaps most important, it left me
thinking that most end users who pick a Windows 8 device are likely to
be confused.
Don’t get me wrong — despite the fact that I primarily write about
and work with Apple technology, I think Microsoft has a lot of good
ideas going on in Windows 8. (It’s worth noting that I said the same thing last fall about Windows Phone 7 as a potential iPhone rival.)
Let’s recap the really good ideas that we’ve seen:
- A new lock screen that displays basic information for the user, à la WP7.
- A new live tile-based start screen (which in December I suggested should be part of Microsoft’s tablet strategy).
- Simple tools for application development — Microsoft took an
excellent page from webOS here in allowing HTML5 to be a development
solution. - Unique gestures that haven’t been implemented on any mobile platform thus far,particularly the snap gestures.
- Easy access to the file system and network resources from the new
touch-centric interface; I give Microsoft huge props here over Apple‘s file management,or lack thereof, in iOS. - New apps optimized for touch.
