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Microsoft has already conceded the mobile space. They're doubling down on desktop dominance.

WorldMaker 8y ago
If they were doubling down on desktop dominance they'd be doing something more interesting with Edge than conceding it to the competition. (Microsoft is doubling down on Azure and DevDiv, if anything.) This seems only to put the desktop at risk, especially with (EdgeHTML-powered) HTML+CSS+JS as the "third pillar" of the original Universal Windows Platform strategy, this only seems to further feed questions about Microsoft's overall confidence in UWP and thereby that middle word, Windows itself. This decision is directly showing a weak flank to "Chrome OS". What's to stop Chromebooks from attacking Windows for just being the junk drawer of old Win32 applications and games around a Chrome OS knockoff? There's certainly still a lot of value, especially in enterprise, invested in that "junk drawer", but is that enough any more? Yeah, there's just no way that this decision is doubling down on "desktop dominance".
- scarface74 8y ago
  What's to stop Chromebooks from attacking Windows for just being the junk drawer of old Win32 applications and games around a Chrome OS knockoff? That’s all Windows has been for years. There hasn’t been anything interesting happening nor any serious money invested in writing PC software for well over a decade. The only non game companies making any money selling desktop software are Microsoft and Adobe.
  - WorldMaker 8y ago
    That perspective is indeed why I think Microsoft is leaving themselves extremely vulnerable here (and I worry as tiny, tiny little shareholder). I don't think it is entirely true, mostly because of the giant amount of "dark matter" PC development that remains in the enterprise and industrial worlds, but it definitely feels true at least in the consumer space.
    - scarface74 8y ago
      There is nothing that Microsoft can do. Personal computers are big, bulky and not as a convenient for what most people do with their computers most of the time. Even from a corporate standpoint, enterprise deployments of desktop apps are cumbersome. That’s the reason that even corporate LOB apps have moved to the web. Besides a web site is the ultimate cross platform app.
mtgx 8y ago
It hasn't. Otherwise it wouldn't have developed a mobile Edge browser (also based on Chromium), and other mobile apps for Android and iOS.

If they were doubling down on desktop dominance they'd be doing something more interesting with Edge than conceding it to the competition. (Microsoft is doubling down on Azure and DevDiv, if anything.) This seems only to put the desktop at risk, especially with (EdgeHTML-powered) HTML+CSS+JS as the "third pillar" of the original Universal Windows Platform strategy, this only seems to further feed questions about Microsoft's overall confidence in UWP and thereby that middle word, Windows itself. This decision is directly showing a weak flank to "Chrome OS". What's to stop Chromebooks from attacking Windows for just being the junk drawer of old Win32 applications and games around a Chrome OS knockoff? There's certainly still a lot of value, especially in enterprise, invested in that "junk drawer", but is that enough any more? Yeah, there's just no way that this decision is doubling down on "desktop dominance".

scarface74 8y ago
What's to stop Chromebooks from attacking Windows for just being the junk drawer of old Win32 applications and games around a Chrome OS knockoff? That’s all Windows has been for years. There hasn’t been anything interesting happening nor any serious money invested in writing PC software for well over a decade. The only non game companies making any money selling desktop software are Microsoft and Adobe.
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  That perspective is indeed why I think Microsoft is leaving themselves extremely vulnerable here (and I worry as tiny, tiny little shareholder). I don't think it is entirely true, mostly because of the giant amount of "dark matter" PC development that remains in the enterprise and industrial worlds, but it definitely feels true at least in the consumer space.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    There is nothing that Microsoft can do. Personal computers are big, bulky and not as a convenient for what most people do with their computers most of the time. Even from a corporate standpoint, enterprise deployments of desktop apps are cumbersome. That’s the reason that even corporate LOB apps have moved to the web. Besides a web site is the ultimate cross platform app.

mtgx 8y ago

It hasn't. Otherwise it wouldn't have developed a mobile Edge browser (also based on Chromium), and other mobile apps for Android and iOS.