Pet theory: someone at MS saw Apple taking a 30% cut of app store sales. Hmm, people seem to tolerate gatekeepers on mobile/tablet more than on desktop. So the

Pet theory: someone at MS saw Apple taking a 30% cut of app store sales. Hmm, people seem to tolerate gatekeepers on mobile/tablet more than on desktop. So the obvious answer is to get into that business. But the competition has already got trained users. No worries, just make the next version of Windows work like MS tablets and phones. People take whatever they're told is the upgrade, so shortly after the upgrade there'll be a market of people ready to buy Windows tablets and phones, with MS getting a cut of sales. A while later, it didn't work out that way and 8.1 came out.