Microsoft Previews Windows 8 for Tablets and PCs

[MacNewsFix]

What's the reason they chose Windows 10-1 over Macs? I forgot.

Why? Two reasons:

1) Besides the entry level Mac mini, Apple only makes PCs that start at $1K USD and above (sometimes referred to as "premium computers"). Below that mark is pretty much a fool's game, as Microsoft designed it so OEMs would slit each others throat in a race to the bottom. Just ask HP who is abandoning the business. Pretty bad when you're averaging the same profit per device that your OS provider is making (~$50). When people do decide to go above the $1K mark the trend flips, and then people choose Apple more than 9 out of 10 times.

2) Building on reason 1 above, the average PC is usually cheaper. Not because of some perceived "Apple Tax," but because Apple knows what happens when you approach your product like it's just another commodity. The vast majority of people just need an entry-level PC and don't care about the overall experience or specs, so they usually go as cheap as possible. After all, do you really need a premium machine to do what the majority of office drones do (email, surf the web, create a spreadsheet, or type up a document)?

 

[AppleScruff1]

So why is Apple the King of the $1000 plus PC market? I forgot.


http://www.cultofmac.com/28713/report-apple-owns-1000-computer-market

Because its a niche market and the other manufacturers don't really target that market. It has nothing to do with Windows. It's still 10-1 Windows worldwide. Apple doesn't sell any computers that cost less than $1000. They went for the high end, high profit market which is great business sense as they had no hope of competing otherwise.

Flamesuit on. I think Apple is fine to have around, they make good stuff. If they ever got in trouble again though I wouldnt miss them. And OSX would be available on whatever we wanted without BS hackintoshing. So win win. It would get rid of the absolute worst disgusting fans ever which would also be a +.

1 mac = 20 PC's apparently. Steve had a vision remember. Also a beard. A beard .....does things to a man.

Oh and checks in the mail for my infringement on your quote : )

Thanks for the check and I have to agree about the fanboys.

 

[Bernard SG]

Microsoft spends more money on research and development than Apple and it shows. Look at the Windows 8 UI. Steve Jobs has been weeping since Windows unveiled Metro. It's a brilliant solution and it makes iOS looks like a Fisher Price toy. Here's why:

Icons suck. I personally believe that icons are yesterday's way of representing apps. Icons never change and that makes user experience harder. Tiles are better solution. It's easier to navigate through different shaped tiles than fixed, proportional icons.

Color is also important. Metro uses clean, flat colors, while iOS uses eye candy to create artificial texture. That makes it difficult for the user to distinguish between the different areas of the UI.

iOS relies heavily on visual cues, Metro relies on typography. So which is superior? Exactly.

Every once in a while a product comes along that changes our perception of how we use technology and how natural it can feel. That product is Windows 8.

Typography is more natural for you than visual cues?
omfg...

 

[Burger Thing]

Interesting. A desktop OS combined with touch based UI elements plus an app store. Some could maybe argue that MS is a bit late to the party and skating after the puck, but the demo looked interesting nevertheless. Not sure if Windows 8 will have a similar adaption rate as Windows 7, though. For most PC at work like offices and stuff, the features of Windows 8 are probably not compelling enough, and when replacing hardware (to make full use of the Touch UI) is also limited by budget constrains.

 

[jca666us]

They did dominate the phone landscape with windows mobile, but microsoft's dominance faded because they failed to continue innovation.

They needed apple to show them the way forward.

Two words: Justice Department.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Microsoft also dominated the phone landcape?

But now that the DOJ is no longer crawling up their ass, I suggest you grab some popcorn! And maybe sell a few AAPL

 

[Vegasman]

They did dominate the phone landscape with windows mobile, but microsoft's dominance faded because the justice department was crawling up their ass.

Fixed it for ya.

 

[Claefer]

Typography is more natural for you than visual cues?
omfg...

Apparently so. Everyone just loves Metro. It's stark minimalism makes iOS look like a mess.

Seriously. Take a look at Windows 8 start screen and iOS's home screen. Which looks more distracting?

 

[AppleScruff1]

Apparently so. Everyone just loves Metro. It's stark minimalism makes iOS look like a mess.

Seriously. Take a look at Windows 8 start screen and iOS's home screen. Which looks more distracting?

Should you look at it with or without your Apple glasses?

 

[jca666us]

Actually if you did research you'd find apple spends much less then MS on r&d, but gets a much higher ROI then Microsoft does.

Metro UI is different, but it reminds too much of the crappy 90's web portals. Metro tries too hard to be easy to use, and appears to be a bit more convoluted.

Btw, I know you're not a UI designer, but visual cues are superior to typography.

People react quicker to visual cues.

Microsoft spends more money on research and development than Apple and it shows. Look at the Windows 8 UI. Steve Jobs has been weeping since Windows unveiled Metro. It's a brilliant solution and it makes iOS looks like a Fisher Price toy. Here's why:

Icons suck. I personally believe that icons are yesterday's way of representing apps. Icons never change and that makes user experience harder. Tiles are a better solution. It's easier to navigate through different shaped tiles than fixed, proportional icons.

Color is also important. Metro uses clean, flat colors, while iOS uses eye candy to create artificial texture. That makes it difficult for the user to distinguish between the different areas of the UI.

iOS relies heavily on visual cues, Metro relies on typography. People react quicker to text than visual cues. Metro makes use of large font and in addition to tiles it's less distracting than iOS's home screen.

So which is superior? Exactly.

Every once in a while a product comes along that changes our perception of how we use technology and how natural it can feel. That product is Windows 8.

 

[Bernard SG]

Apparently so. Everyone just loves Metro. It's stark minimalism makes iOS look like a mess.

Is it so?
How many WP7 phones sold to date again?

 

[jca666us]

Stark minimalist? I think it looks under designed.

I'll give Microsoft this, it looks different. Different is unequal to better.

Apparently so. Everyone just loves Metro. It's stark minimalism makes iOS look like a mess.

Seriously. Take a look at Windows 8 start screen and iOS's home screen. Which looks more distracting?

----------

Microsoft's dominance faded because of their failure to innovate. Maybe if you read it a second time, it'll sink in.

Fixed it for ya.

 

[Vegasman]

Microsoft's dominance faded because of their failure to innovate. Maybe if you read it a second time, it'll sink in.

Yes. And when and why did that start again?

 

[Claefer]

Actually if you did research you'd find apple spends much less then MS on r&d, but gets a much higher ROI then Microsoft does.

Metro UI is different, but it reminds too much of the crappy 90's web portals. Metro tries too hard to be easy to use, and appears to be a bit more convoluted.

Btw, I know you're not a UI designer, but visual cues are superior to typography.

People react quicker to visual cues.

Early impression of the new UI has been very positive and nearly everyone says it's superior to iOS. Microsoft's philosophy of use of flat, solid colors and large typography seems to be better than Apple's use of textures, gloss, and eye candy.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Yes. And when and why did that start again?

Appleonians don't like facts.

 

[jca666us]

Because Microsoft to lazy and thought their monopoly in desktop operating systems would extend to mobile without putting any real effort into it.

They got lazy in mobile and have been very lazy wrt their desktop operating systems.

That's why the iPhone and iPad took the industry by storm.

Yes. And when and why did that start again?

 

[Claefer]

Is it so?
How many WP7 phones sold to date again?

I've acknowledged that the iPhone 4 sales have been great.

McDonald's sells a lot of burgers. Does that mean they make a tasty burger?

 

[deannnnn]

Idk, I'm typically not a big Microsoft fan, but I really do like that the traditional desktop interface is accessible from a tablet device in addition to a tablet interface. I can't tell you how many times I've wished my iPad could do a simple computing task that would be easily accomplished with a traditional UI.

 

[Vegasman]

Because Microsoft to lazy and thought their monopoly in desktop operating systems would extend to mobile without putting any real effort into it.

Or maybe they got lazy when they couldn't do what they knew was the right thing to do for the consumer. Complete and seamless integration of their products. Like Apple does. Like they were doing with Internet Explorer. Like their product map indicated was going to happen with all their products.

Enter DOJ and scrap the product map.

But now, with the DOJ gone, you can see the new trend already. It has only been a few months and already, the latest version of Internet Explorer is again automatically installed as part of Windows Update. XBox integrated in Windows. Hyper-V integrated in Windows. Phone integration. Windows Live fully integrated. Etc.

Two months ago, this was not possible. But it was all on the shelf. Just waiting for the DOJ to get the hell out.

Any of these integration would have had the competition screaming at the DOJ for an extention. XBOX => Sony. Hyper-V => VMWare. Phone => All phone makers. Windows Live => the maker of iCloud.

Microsoft was just marking time. Building the infrastructure it needed to make this assault.

That's what really happened here.

 

[AidenShaw]

It's Windows 19 to 1 over Apples

Oh boy. You better put on your flamesuit! The Appleonians will not take kindly to this.

What's the reason they chose Windows 10-1 over Macs? I forgot.

The worldwide numbers are 19 Windows systems to each Apple sold.

I just downloaded the beta (w/o signing into anything) in about 20 minutes total...

I'm still showing 5 hours - at least I'll have it in the morning.

No strings attached. Brilliant.

I've acknowledged that the iPhone 4 sales have been great.

McDonald's sells a lot of burgers. Does that mean they make a tasty burger?

It's about time for one of the sycophants to post some irrelevant nonsense about market cap or some poorly controlled survey statistics.

 

[peterdevries]

I've acknowledged that the iPhone 4 sales have been great.

McDonald's sells a lot of burgers. Does that mean they make a tasty burger?

iPhone 4 satisfaction is the highest of all smartphones (see reports by J.D. Power of only a few days ago). Your analogy doesn't work.

Edit: AidenShaw: there you go

 

[435713]

It's about time for one of the sycophants to post some irrelevant nonsense about market cap or some poorly controlled survey statistics.

Yeah I dont get what happened... I'll do it for em.

Record breaking....(fist pump) profits! Larger than exxon mobil in marketcap, and marketcap is all that matters. Macs last longer than any Windows PC, so technically it is cheaper. You dont need good specs since OSX manages things so well. 1 GB or ram and a Pentium 4 would be = to a win7 machine running the fastest i7 consumer processor available.

Steve Jobs is the most brilliant man that has ever lived, he and Apple changed the world. If Apple did not exist we would have no cars, phones, toilets, computers, or food.

 

[Bernard SG]

I've acknowledged that the iPhone 4 sales have been great.

McDonald's sells a lot of burgers. Does that mean they make a tasty burger?

My question is not about iPhone sales.
I asked how many of those WP7 phones with the wonderful Metro UI that "everyone just loves" are actually sold?
Why would "everyone" rather buy an iPhone that costs 200 to 500 bucks more than a WP7 handset if "everyone" loves Metro UI and hates the "distracting" iOS home screen?

 

[Claefer]

iPhone 4 satisfaction is the highest of all smartphones (see reports by J.D. Power of only a few days ago). Your analogy doesn't work.

Edit: AidenShaw: there you go

Fair enough. But this isn't about the success of the iPhone 4. This is about Windows 8. This is a revolutionary OS. It puts both Lion and iOS to shame because Windows 8 merges two concepts.

The Metro UI alone is stunning. No icons, big typography, flat colors, disproportionate tiles, no distractions, just awesomeness.

 

[jaw04005]

Anyone get the beta to work in VMWare Fusion?

 

[KPOM]

Because its a niche market and the other manufacturers don't really target that market. It has nothing to do with Windows. It's still 10-1 Windows worldwide. Apple doesn't sell any computers that cost less than $1000. They went for the high end, high profit market which is great business sense as they had no hope of competing otherwise.

Thanks for the check and I have to agree about the fanboys.

To be fair to Apple, it's a niche market where people care about the computers they buy. Most people buying a $400 computer are just getting something they have to have. In 2011, it's almost a necessity to have something to keep track of current events, send e-mail, or even just play music or videos. A $400 Windows 7 PC will do the job, and if money's tight, it's a logical choice. People spending $1000+ are doing so because they have the luxury of a choice and don't have to settle for a basic PC.