07-30-2010, 04:47 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 468
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The biggest problem I see is that Microsoft's current plans for tablet/slate devices is a disaster. At the moment, they are not planning on pushing Windows 7 much and won't allow Windows Phone 7 at all. Instead, they're trying to sell device makers on Windows Embedded Compact Edition (aka Windows CE) on to which the vendor would have to put their own UI, develop their own application infrastructure, etc. So, no Metro UI, no Windows 7 UI, not unless the vendor can recreate it and even then, the apps won't be compatible with Win7 or WP7.
Not good. And it hurts my brain to try to understand how Microsoft could think for a moment that this is a winning strategy.
The Metro UI on WP7 -- and also in Win7 via the Windows Media Center -- is a great fit for a slate device. Were I running Microsoft, I would leverage it, dividing the market into two segments.
The first group, who require lower powered devices, would get a slate running a version of WP7 optimized for the slate screen. Let's call this version "Standard." You'd get the Metro UI, compatibility with WP7 apps, in a light-weight, long battery life device, something fairly comparable to iPad. I'd probably through in some slick Windows Remote Desktop functionality to allow it to run Windows apps remotely, giving it a leg up on iPad. I'd also do touch+pen as another competitive advantage.
The second group would be the power users. For these folks, I'd offer the "Pro" version, which would actually be built on Windows 7 (not Windows Phone), but with a very similar Metro UI running on top of it. Windows app makers could leverage the new UI for their apps, but it would also be capable of running regular old Windows applications. I would also add a compatibility layer for Windows Phone applications so that it could run them as well. It would also do touch+pen, like the "Standard" device. It would have a faster processor, more memory, but would likely be thicker with less battery life. Probably more expensive, too.
There would possibly be some confusion in the marketplace between the "Standard" and "Pro" slates, but with a good marketing campaign, this could be overcome. The key difference would be that the "Standard" slates couldn't run Windows apps natively (though they could via Remote Desktop), but would be thinner, lighter, cheaper, and run longer.
The Metro UI running on the "Pro" version would likely follow to other Windows devices; laptops and desktops, where it might eventually be run as often as the standard UI we have now, especially as more apps are written to use it.
Anyway, that's my idea. Feel free to shoot holes in it. 
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