The scary part is they have unintentionally interweaved the fate of all their different platforms togetherScary, but completely intentional.
Windows 8 is Microsoft's last chance to effectively leverage their large PC marketshare into the "post-PC" world of smartphones and tablets. They must aggressively push Metro onto their Desktop users, and hope that once Windows users make a significant investment in the Metro environment on their desktop, they'll naturally choose Metro Tablets and eventually Metro Phones.
And they obviously feel that they do not have the luxury of time. We've never seen them push so much change in so little time.
But if Windows users hate Metro, the word "Metro" will become as toxic as Vista and Zune in the minds of the public. And as we saw with Vista, it really doesn't take much for Microsoft's traditionally conservative Windows users to turn hostile. The transition from XP to Vista was a baby step compared to Metro.
Windows 8 is a crossroads for Microsoft. Do they follow Apple and become an important force in consumer computing and technology, or do they follow IBM and become a profitable but largely invisible business software vendor?
Scary, but completely intentional.
Windows 8 is Microsoft's last chance to effectively leverage their large PC marketshare into the "post-PC" world of smartphones and tablets. They must aggressively push Metro onto their Desktop users, and hope that once Windows users make a significant investment in the Metro environment on their desktop, they'll naturally choose Metro Tablets and eventually Metro Phones.
And they obviously feel that they do not have the luxury of time. We've never seen them push so much change in so little time.
But if Windows users hate Metro, the word "Metro" will become as toxic as Vista and Zune in the minds of the public. And as we saw with Vista, it really doesn't take much for Microsoft's traditionally conservative Windows users to turn hostile. The transition from XP to Vista was a baby step compared to Metro.
Windows 8 is a crossroads for Microsoft. Do they follow Apple and become an important force in consumer computing and technology, or do they follow IBM and become a profitable but largely invisible business software vendor?