The best explanation for Windows 8

ADRz

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There is little doubt that the merging of a mobile and a desktop OS in Windows 8 is highly controversial. In my opinion, it is disastrous for the usability of the product in both environments. The reason that Microsoft is attempting this is, in all likelihood, the maintenance of its income and profits. If Microsoft had designed a mobile OS for tablets based on its "Metro" WP7/7.5 OS, then it would have gotten a relatively low price per license (maybe $15-20 per machine). By giving the full Windows to tablets, then it expects to get the full license fee (anywhere from $35 -$55 per machine). As Microsoft expects the tablets to start substituting for desktops and laptops, this is the only way of maintaining a constant stream of income.

Unfortunately, Microsoft is not making any profits from manufacturing and selling its own tablets (like Apple does); nor does it have any serious income from advertizing (like Google does); Thus, the only way of keeping up profits in a world in which more and more mobile solutions substitute desktops and laptops is to provide a "full" OS to these devices and claim the whole license fee.

Of course, this strategy may backfire badly. Users of desktops/laptops may dislike the imposition of a mobile OS in their work flow, and users of tablets will find little benefit in having access to desktop applications that, by design, are not touch friendly. Thus, by trying to maintain the price per machine at the same level, Microsoft may be signing its own death warrant. At the end, the competition with Google docs (forcing a free cloud version of Office 2010) and the huge pressure by Android and iOS in the mobile space maybe just too much for Microsoft. It just does not have too many revenue streams (no hardware and no advertizing) and the only one remains the license fee per machine.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7
Right on the money (Excuse the pun!)

I posted this on the forum about a year ago. A very approximate support for your words.

"Windows (codename 8) is , imho, beginning to shape up as the biggest
disappointment ever for those who jump on the new release bandwagons. I
have read posts on this forum and others, regarding the reaction to the
"leaks". I have downloaded and tried the last two leaks. The so-called
"hidden" features are, at this stage, nothing to swoon about. Fwiw, I
see Windows 8, or whatever it may be called, not as a move on from the
superb 7, but an intermediary release, mainly dedicated to tablet users.
Tablets, in their many forms, are enroaching on Microsofts control of
the computer market. Windows 8 is an attempt to counteract it. For
normal, non tablet users, I do not see, (with the info so far available
to us), windows 8 bringing anything outstanding into our lives. -
Except, possibly, the touchscreen advancement? "
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Use several different computers during a day, so specs are irrelevant.
Right on the money (Excuse the pun!)

I posted this on the forum about a year ago. A very approcimate support for your words.

"Windows (codename 8) is , imho, beginning to shape up as the biggest
disappointment ever for those who jump on the new release bandwagons. I
have read posts on this forum and others, regarding the reaction to the
"leaks". I have downloaded and tried the last two leaks. The so-called
"hidden" features are, at this stage, nothing to swoon about. Fwiw, I
see Windows 8, or whatever it may be called, not as a move on from the
superb 7, but an intermediary release, mainly dedicated to tablet users.
Tablets, in their many forms, are enroaching on Microsofts control of
the computer market. Windows 8 is an attempt to counteract it. For
normal, non tablet users, I do not see, (with the info so far available
to us), windows 8 bringing anything outstanding into our lives. -
Except, possibly, the touchscreen advancement? "

An excellent article repeating really what I have earlier said.

Why 'Windows 8' Isn't What I Thought It Would Be -- Redmondmag.com
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7
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