To hear the technopundits squawk, you’d be certain that Apple is once more beleaguered, that Steve Jobs exit as CEO is the beginning of the end, and that, simply put, Windows is back, baby!
What’s That Noise I Hear?
That sound you hear is Windows. It’s coming. And, if you believe the technopundits who drum up controversy until the cows come home and leave again, the second coming of Windows will be greater than the second coming of Steve Jobs.
Windows 8 is coming to a PC and a tablet near you. Soon. Someday soon. Maybe next year.
How do I know? Because Boy Genius Report says so. In Sorry Apple, Windows 8 ushers in the post-post-PC era, we learn of the demise of the iPad. Microsoft sure hopes Windows 8 on a tablet does better to stem the iPhone’s growth than Windows Phone 7 did.
What’s so good about Windows 8 that the good old boys at BGR went into a lather? It’s Windows Everywhere deja vu all over again.
One platform to rule them all. The technology exists to enable users to carry a single device that is as portable and usable as a tablet, but also as powerful and capable as a PC. It has a battery that can last all day, but it can also run Photoshop, Excel and Outlook. It can weigh next to nothing and slip into a slim case, but it can also power two monitors and run proprietary enterprise software.
Poor old Zach Epstein drank the Redmond Kool-Aid and still can’t get down from the sugar high.
A tablet that can be as fluid and user friendly as the iPad but as capable as a Windows laptop. A tablet that can boot in under 10 seconds and fire up a full-scale version of Adobe Dreamweaver a few moments later. A tablet that can be slipped into a dock to instantly become a fully capable touch-enabled laptop computer. This is Microsoft’s vision with Windows 8, and this is what it will deliver.
The way I understand it, Microsoft announced Windows 8 at a developers conference and had it running on a steam driven tablet for all the world to see. From a distance. Remember when Apple announced the iPad. It was a touchy feely moment. As in touch the iPad and feel the iPad. 30 or 40-million iPads later and you can still touch and feel one.
We’ll Get ‘Em Next Year
What of the Microsoft tablets running Windows 8? Next year. Maybe. The current noise generated by Windows 8 running on a tablet is the fan. The Microsoft fan base. And, yes, the fan. The one in the tablet to keep it from overheating.
Someday we may have the pleasure of running Microsoft Office on a tablet-like device. When that happens will 100-million iPad users toss their handheld device of choice in the trash, and run out to a Microsoft store, stand in line for hours, and buy a– here it comes– Windows tablet? They’ve been around for years and no one bought them. Why now?
Because, the Windows tablets will run everything (like the old Windows tablets). Because real work is done on Macs and PCs, not tablets running Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. They are so toast, sayeth the punditry class of Windows-using spawn.
Maybe. But those cute little floating tiles on Windows Phone 7 didn’t exactly catch the eye of the smart phone buying public. So, put those same tiles on a tablet and what do you have? A big smart phone that nobody wants. Add Windows 8 to the mix and what do you get?
Wait. Aren’t people trying to get away from using Windows?
The death of the iPad? Me thinks Windows apologizers doth promote too much. Reports of the death of the iPad, and the original post-PC era, are greatly exaggerated. But, we’ll have to wait until next year to see.
“Windows Cult” is alive and well.
“Steam driven tablet”
+1
18 months after the iPad was unleashed and all MS has is a 2 lb., personal space heater, complete with fans, 3 hr. battery life and pre-beta software.
My Schadenfreude knows no bounds.
It’s amazing what a load of crap people are being sold.
Windows 8 preview is missing all of the important features and applications, and it needs heavy-duty hardware to run.
Here are some quotes from a PC ADVISOR review of the Samsung 700T tablet that is being used to show off Windows 8:
“At two pounds, this is the heaviest of the tablets we’ve seen”
“You know how your laptop fan kicks in, and just spins and spins and spins? Yup, that’s what the 700T did with Windows 8.”
“The fan rarely shut off while I used the tablet in my hands-on, and the constant whirring noise was an unwanted distraction compared with the blissful silence of the iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab 10.1.”
“Even though the fan engaged often (and loudly), the 700T got hot super toasty. Sure, it needs to cool that hot Intel Core i5 CPU inside, but the heat, coupled with the fan noise–and the next point, battery life–are tradeoffs that many consumers won’t want to make on their tablets. The display emanated heat, and the back was warm to the touch, in spite of the generously sized air vents at back. It wasn’t hot enough to cook my breakfast scrabble on, but it sure was too hot for its–and my–own good.”
“The battery life on this preview unit was abysmal. Windows’ desktop interface reported about 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life, and it drained down fairly quickly in use.”
And the price for all of this loveliness… “£999″ or about $1,600.
Uh, yeah….
Absolutely right. It should be pointed out that WIN 8 tablets have a fan – with some developers carrying a fan to fan the fan so nice design, MS … and the new blue screen of death after 1 day. What’s NOT noted is that WINDOWS has been poisoned by MS – it is seen as the OS of LAST resort and the one they will reluctantly accept if it’s “free” on a cheap PC. MS has poisoned the WIN brand by 15 years of poor design, crashes, malware and seen as the OS you get at work like your desk lamp. So, unless MS intends to give it away for $199, outside of enterprise, they will sell a few thousand. And Ms has never delivered an OS on time so look for it in 2013 or 2014?
We’ll have to wait until next year to see. Or the year after that, or the year after that.
Wow. So MS hands out a few thousand free Windows PCs shoe horned into a tablet form factor, with a beta version of an operating system and suddenly MS has invented the post-PC era? That’s got to be the ballsiest techno revisionsism to date. Call me when Windows 8 can actually run on a tablet or a phone and provide the same features they are touting now, and then I might believe MS has something. But for now, they are still stuck in the PC-era, no matter how much lipstick they, and their cohorts, slather on that pig.