Windows to get an ARM and (maybe) Some Legs

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-porting-windows-to-arm-in-case-intel-tablet-strategy-fails-2010-12' target='_blank'>http://www.businessinsider.com/micr...y-fails-2010-12</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"It looks like Microsoft may finally be taking the tablet market seriously: next month at CES the company will announce a version of Windows for the ARM processors used in most smartphones and tablets, according to a report today from Bloomberg."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/lpt/auto/1293028035.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>It must be difficult for the management at Microsoft to watch the global landscape for technology changing so radically that Windows, while still dominant and in many people's homes, losing marketshare in almost every way possible.&nbsp; Windows Phone 7 is off to a good start, but that is only after many, many years of Windows Mobile losing ground to the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices.&nbsp; The Xbox can also be considered a success though it still battles out against Sony and Nintendo for sales.&nbsp; Everywhere you look, Microsoft is being assaulted by new and different devices and form factors.</p><p>One major problem for the Windows platform in recent years has been only being able to run on x86 based CPUs.&nbsp; While fast and powerful, x86 CPUs are hardly frugal electronics.&nbsp; This is why phones and tablets have largely avoided them in favor of the much more battery conscious ARM CPUs.&nbsp; If Windows has been ported to ARM, it is big news indeed and opens up whole new possibilities for Microsoft.&nbsp; Of course, the CPU is only part of the equation, and there needs to be an interface that properly suits the different form factors.&nbsp; Will that come as part of the "revised" Windows package?&nbsp; I guess we will find out at CES.</p>

[Macguy59]

I've read in a couple of places that MS is talking about 2 years down the road. This can't be can it ?

[Jason Dunn]

I've read in a couple of places that MS is talking about 2 years down the road. This can't be can it ?

There's lots of back-peddling on the blogs now...seems like no one knows a damn thing except Microsoft. :rolleyes:

[Macguy59]

There's lots of back-peddling on the blogs now...seems like no one knows a damn thing except Microsoft. :rolleyes:

I'm shocked ! :p

[Sven Johannsen]

What a great idea.:( IMHO the reason Windows on a Tablet didn't take off is the state of the hardware at the time. It was running on XP on hardware that was barely adequate for that basic task for pete's sake. The implementations were horribly underpowered to keep the form factor small, or as heavy as a regular laptopfor the time. Neither was conducive to making the tablet interface appealing, except to some niche markets. Still see them in the medical field. With limited exposure there was no incentive for MS or software vendors to support touch/stylus interfaces for Windows software. So Windows got the rap of not being suited for tablets. Then the fruit company released a Pad based on their phone OS that was already very established as a purely touch interface. It's not the OS people, it's the apps. The part of the OS the consumer interfaces with is the row by column application launcher that is iOS. You can do that in Windows by just sticking all your shortcuts on the desktop. You could have even had folders way before iOS. Whoopee. Now you can launch apps, but with the apps written for iOS assuming nothing but touch and the apps written for Windows assuming a keyboard and mouse, guess which in-app experience is better. Still, when you want to actually get something done with an iPad a keyboard pops up, and so it goes with a Windows Tablet as well. You can buy numerous third party keyboards for the iPad, and even stylii, because guess what? people want them.

So the point here is that the problem with Windows on a tablet is not the OS, though there are some UI elements that could use a little size adjustment, but rather the apps. MS needs to make Office relatively finger friendly. Doesn't need to be totally touch IMHO. Folks are not going to write books on a tablet, but they are going to review/edit. They need to encourage apps designed for touch on a Windows Tablet. They don't need to shoehorn Windows onto underpowered hardware, so that the experience of the 'new and improved' tablet is on par with a cheap netbook. That's half of what was wrong the first time. And BTW, if you DON'T see a stylus, they got it wrong. If I'm going to have to type on a keyboard, I might as well get a real keyboard. If I am going to enter things on a Tablet I want to do so with a pen/pencil, not my fat finger.

[Macguy59]

I think it needs to be stylus friendly but if it REQUIRES a stylus then I think it's going to appeal to a much smaller market. Or rather if it's marketed that way.

[Sven Johannsen]

I think it needs to be stylus friendly but if it REQUIRES a stylus then I think it's going to appeal to a much smaller market. Or rather if it's marketed that way.
I think you are likely right. Actually even the current state of Windows 7 when it comes to Tablet is not really that bad, on a iPadish sized device. The desktop and Quick Launch icons are fine. Scrolling in IE, and even File explorer isn't bad. Zune and Media Center are pretty decent. There are a few apps around that take advantage of the multi-touch capabilities. Once in an Office app, You can pop up a much more configurable touch keyboard than exists on an iPad, and at that point you have a real option for using a pen to write with...assuming the screen supports it. Once in you hand, and holding the tablet, the pen operation as a mouse is really quit intuative. I think folks though have come to expect being able to do the vast majority of tasks, that can be don with fingers, with their fingers.

[Macguy59]

I think you are likely right. Actually even the current state of Windows 7 when it comes to Tablet is not really that bad, on a iPadish sized device.

Therein lies the problem IMO. I may be completely off base but if it's running stock Win 7 or a shell that looks and acts the same way I don't think it will sell very well. Why would you want to buy a touch based device that's running the same OS as your laptop or desktop ? I think the only chance MS has in getting traction in the consumer tablet market is to use a modified Windows Phone 7 OS. Something the consumer would see as different but yet familiar, fun and finger friendly with multitouch.

[Sven Johannsen]

Why would you want to buy a touch based device that's running the same OS as your laptop or desktop ?Oh, we're way on the other sides of the room here. That's exactly what I want, a very portable, use while moving, touch and stylus just like my laptop machine, without the keyboard odf course. I want the convenience of sitting in my lounger, holding my Win7 PC just like I do my iPad. I want to surf the net, check e-mail, and maybe take in some media. When I want to respond to e-mail, or edit a spreadsheet, I want that to be in Outlook and Excel. If someone sends my a Visio drawing to look at, I want to be able to open it. I could do that with the viewer, but only if I'm running IE on Win7. If they want to build a big WinPhone7, more power to them, especially if it forces them to address some of the shortcomings, but I absolutely want a Windows 7 Tablet, and not one hamstrung by being exclusively fat finger friendly.

P.S. check around the Mac forums before the iPad was released and still, to see how many of them were hoping for OSX. They acknowledged it wouldn't have been very finger friendly either they way it stood.