Quote:
Originally Posted by xendula
MS did not choose to build Surface tablets with a full PC OS, they chose to build Surface Pro tablets with a full PC OS, and Surface RT tablets with something I would not even know what to call, their answer to Android and iOS.
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Your definition of a Windows PC is overly narrow, methinks.
Once upon a time, Windows NT ran on a superb Line of PCs from SGI that were not IBM compatible; no BIOS. It also ran on DEC Alpha-based PCs. Neither could run Legacy PC software natively yet both were unmistakeable Windows NT PCs. MS even had a version of NT for PowerPC from which code-base they developed the XBOX360. MS has *never* been comfortable with relying solely on x86 CPUs and has always ported Windows to real and potential alternatives as a hedge.
Their alternative to iOS and Android, WindowsCE also ran on pretty much every CPU architecture and still runs on a broad range of different architectures in industrial computing and embedded mission-critical systems. In fact, WindowsCE has seen use in actual PCs for sale in China and other developing markets.
A PC does not need an x86 processor or Legacy software compatibility to be a PC. This *has* happened in the past, most notably in servers.
Windows RT is the exact same Windows as Win8, minus the Legacy support add-ins like POSIX, Win16, and Win32. The Core OS is the same. For software development purposes Windows 8 apps are WinRT apps.
If RT ships with a relaively small catalog it is because Windows 8 also ships with a small catalog of Win8 (nee Metro) applications. Over time as the Legacy apps get updated the catalog for both will grow.
What we are seeing in the Surface RT and Pro isn't Microsoft responding to Android and iOS with a belated gadget OS but rather an attempt to leapfrog them both to get *now* to where Apple is only now starting to go: complete OS compatibility from low-end gadgets through mobile computers to desktops and larger.
It is a big risk: their conservative desktop-and-larger partners are worried that this move is too big a leap too soon while the mobility and gadget crowd don't think the extra functionality hidden in RT (emphasis on hidden, for now) adds no added value to *today's* market.
Both may be right.
But MS has made big leaps like this before and made them pay off.
This may be the one time they don't but if you take a big-picture look at the whole computing space the timing actually looks about right for a big forward-looking gamble. Both Android and Apple have been on the ascendancy for a while but a close look will reveal cracks in their foundations.
The thing to keep in mind is that Surface, in either version, is not really a 2012 product line. It doesn't need to unseat either of the gadget OSes. If it actually reaches the Analysts pipedream of 14% market share by 2013 it will be a major success. But even with lower penetration it'll still get MS where they want to be. Partly by prodding the hardware oems into less conservative designs, partly by raising the bar on the functionality people can expect out of tablet, and partly by laying the foundation for the *next* turn of the wheel in computing, a time where data portability across a person's devices wont suffice and where having the same OS on everything from the Smartphone to the mainframe will be a big plus.
As I said, I don't see a match for my *current* needs in the SurfaceRT. (I'm not a corporate Road Warrior.) But that doesn't mean I can't see a big market for whom a SurfaceRT (or its OEM brethren, let's *not* lose sight of other RT products) would hit the sweet spot.
This is just the warm-up act.
The real show has yet to start.
And the real show is bigger and deeper than most of us yet know.
Earthquakes lie ahead.