I held out so much hope for the Surface. And Windows 8 looks great. But come on, how could a company this smart not address the most fundamental need of all new hardware – applications. This is what happens when a software company does hardware and forgets software. Developer ecosystems have never been more important and this is why, at least out of the gate, Surface will fail. None of the critical web apps I depend on are available or barely work. Here is what Walt had to say.
And there is more bad news about apps. This first edition of Surface uses a variant of Windows 8, called RT, that can’t run the vast array of traditional programs many Windows users rely upon daily, like Google Chrome, Adobe Photoshop, Apple iTunes or even Microsoft’s own Outlook. A second edition of the Surface, due in January, will run the full version of Windows 8, and most of these standard Windows programs. But it will be heavier.
A lot of that is developers, as microsoft cannot force people to write. Outlook is partially covered in mail, calendary and people apps, which are seperate and there already. Walts review apperas the domain of somebody who is quite enamoured with the ipad. To the point of commenting on facebook not having an app. Well, one, the webpage is more functional than the app, even on the ipad. and two, windows 8 or RT is not officially released yet, or WP8, of which will ahve uniform code for ‘metro’
We’re trying to build great apps for Windows (www.markermetro.com), and there is a lot more coming, but it has to be accepted that not everyone is going to develop an app pre-market launch. How many brands had iPad apps on day 1, and how many brands have taken quite a long time to deliver Android versions of their apps. By Q1 2013, it will be clear what the market opportunity is, and the benefit of Windows is the massive Microsoft developer community that can easily move into app dev.
Windows RT is a mistake. I understand the reason from a MS point of view, but it is going to confuse the market considerably, and takes away the big value proposition of Win 8 tablets over iPad/Android.