4 ms·

Microsoft Moves from Followership to Leadership

18 points by p0ppe 14y ago

barista 14y ago
If urgency is one of the qualities of a leadership then yes Microsoft seems keen to create new products rather than just sit on the sidelines until somebody creates a market. Microsoft has been burnt badly by following that approach. iPod, iPhone, iPad are all examples of that and that is why others are eating Microsoft's lunch.
lukifer 14y ago
If they were truly leading, they would apply the Metro UI to a 30-inch touchable drafting table, tilted at 45 degrees (see the original Jeff Han multitouch demos). Portable/casual computing has already been reinvented; it's time to do the same to the high-end professional workstation.
- cooldeal 14y ago
  You can already do that with a mount. Windows 8 is display size agnostic. Example of a 80inch TV with a touchscreen running Windows 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFv4C4fVzE&feature=player_detailpage#t=4399s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFv4C4fVzE&feature=playe...
  - lukifer 14y ago
    But they're hardly making that environment their flagship; instead, they're making a (pretty decent) iPad clone with a better keyboard and a stand. They should be focusing on the environment where both the iPad and the PC underperform (relative to the possibility space): knowledge work and the enterprise. Microsoft needs to leapfrog, not catch up.
shawnwall 14y ago
If Microsoft could actually release a desktop operating system that is properly designed visually and in terms of user experience, people could actually admire their PC's like they do in all of their stupid commercials. Their market share is so massive that a success in the desktop space could then drive growth in mobile as they actually have build a good UX there.
- WayneDB 14y ago
  They have. It's called Windows and it does have a properly designed interface which is very robust and flexible. People not only admire it, they adore it so much that they don't want Microsoft to change it in any way. I suppose that you think OS X is better? Well, that's like, your opinion man. I disagree and so do millions upon millions of other people.
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    OP was talking about user experience, not user interface. I don't know anyone who admires the UX of Windows, but lots that enjoy the UI. Examples of the differences: Windows will still show you focus-stealing dialogs that may result in a total shutdown of the OS if you're busy typing. Windows will still by default reboot if you walk away for 15 minutes and it decides to update. Application installation and uninstallation is still a pain for most users. Multiple monitors are not supported well. There are no virtual desktops. The user experience on Windows is distinctly subpar to every other operating system I've ever used. I know this is my opinion and I know that there are probably millions who disagree with me. But as I've said, I've not met any yet.
    - cooldeal 14y ago
      >Multiple monitors are not supported well What do you mean by that?
      - cryptoz 14y ago
        Let's say I have 20-30 windows open on a laptop connected to an external monitor (I do, right now). Windows 7 has one taskbar, and so it becomes extremely difficult/near impossible to quickly determine which window is on which screen. This could be improved by adding a second taskbar (I think this is coming in Windows 8?) but I think more is needed. Additionally: some application titlebars can be dragged so the window appears on a different screen, but some cannot. Excel, when maximized, cannot be dragged to another screen. Back to taskbar issues: My biggest complain pre-Windows 7 was that you could not reorder items. I thought they fixed it, but they actually made it a lot more annoying with W7. I think Windows assumes that each window of an application is related to the other windows (never the case with my workflow) and so you cannot separate them by dragging. Say I have 5 Firefox windows with a few tabs each, where each window's tabs represent a collection of related topics. Now say I have some Word and Excel documents also open that relate to the browser windows. I'd like to arrange Topic 1 from Firefox, Word and Excel on one monitor with their taskbar items together, Topic 2 on the second monitor with their items together, etc. It's very unpleasant and difficult to manage windows on Windows.
Toshio 14y ago
Showing the world some 2-years old tech doesn't turn a dinosaur into a cheetah.
marcusf 14y ago
Dear god what buzz-word laden soup. Switch out the brands and this article could just as well be about Nokia or GM or whatever BigCo.
- adrianb 14y ago
  The author's description is also a buzz-phrase: Randy Ottinger is an Executive Vice President at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations.
stcredzero 14y ago
Whether or not this article is fluff or insight depends on what Microsoft is doing: Are they creating a new product category? What if you could dock a tablet and run it with the power of a desktop PC? If the dock/undock experience could be made seamless, then this would constitute a new product category. (It would be somewhat like the OQO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO ) If there was a docking mode that wirelessly linked and activated the screens just on device proximity without plugging in, then you could make the workstation/tablet transition relatively painless. There would be some lag with the wireless mode, but it should be good enough for light, mainly read-only actions. Plugging in would seamlessly transition to the desktop mode. Add a wireless mode that links to the desktop display/input devices across WiFi, and you have a workable new product category.

18 points by p0ppe 14y ago

If urgency is one of the qualities of a leadership then yes Microsoft seems keen to create new products rather than just sit on the sidelines until somebody creates a market. Microsoft has been burnt badly by following that approach. iPod, iPhone, iPad are all examples of that and that is why others are eating Microsoft's lunch.

lukifer 14y ago

If they were truly leading, they would apply the Metro UI to a 30-inch touchable drafting table, tilted at 45 degrees (see the original Jeff Han multitouch demos). Portable/casual computing has already been reinvented; it's time to do the same to the high-end professional workstation.

cooldeal 14y ago
You can already do that with a mount. Windows 8 is display size agnostic. Example of a 80inch TV with a touchscreen running Windows 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFv4C4fVzE&feature=player_detailpage#t=4399s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFv4C4fVzE&feature=playe...
- lukifer 14y ago
  But they're hardly making that environment their flagship; instead, they're making a (pretty decent) iPad clone with a better keyboard and a stand. They should be focusing on the environment where both the iPad and the PC underperform (relative to the possibility space): knowledge work and the enterprise. Microsoft needs to leapfrog, not catch up.

shawnwall 14y ago

If Microsoft could actually release a desktop operating system that is properly designed visually and in terms of user experience, people could actually admire their PC's like they do in all of their stupid commercials. Their market share is so massive that a success in the desktop space could then drive growth in mobile as they actually have build a good UX there.

WayneDB 14y ago
They have. It's called Windows and it does have a properly designed interface which is very robust and flexible. People not only admire it, they adore it so much that they don't want Microsoft to change it in any way. I suppose that you think OS X is better? Well, that's like, your opinion man. I disagree and so do millions upon millions of other people.
- cryptoz 14y ago
  OP was talking about user experience, not user interface. I don't know anyone who admires the UX of Windows, but lots that enjoy the UI. Examples of the differences: Windows will still show you focus-stealing dialogs that may result in a total shutdown of the OS if you're busy typing. Windows will still by default reboot if you walk away for 15 minutes and it decides to update. Application installation and uninstallation is still a pain for most users. Multiple monitors are not supported well. There are no virtual desktops. The user experience on Windows is distinctly subpar to every other operating system I've ever used. I know this is my opinion and I know that there are probably millions who disagree with me. But as I've said, I've not met any yet.
  - cooldeal 14y ago
    >Multiple monitors are not supported well What do you mean by that?
    - cryptoz 14y ago
      Let's say I have 20-30 windows open on a laptop connected to an external monitor (I do, right now). Windows 7 has one taskbar, and so it becomes extremely difficult/near impossible to quickly determine which window is on which screen. This could be improved by adding a second taskbar (I think this is coming in Windows 8?) but I think more is needed. Additionally: some application titlebars can be dragged so the window appears on a different screen, but some cannot. Excel, when maximized, cannot be dragged to another screen. Back to taskbar issues: My biggest complain pre-Windows 7 was that you could not reorder items. I thought they fixed it, but they actually made it a lot more annoying with W7. I think Windows assumes that each window of an application is related to the other windows (never the case with my workflow) and so you cannot separate them by dragging. Say I have 5 Firefox windows with a few tabs each, where each window's tabs represent a collection of related topics. Now say I have some Word and Excel documents also open that relate to the browser windows. I'd like to arrange Topic 1 from Firefox, Word and Excel on one monitor with their taskbar items together, Topic 2 on the second monitor with their items together, etc. It's very unpleasant and difficult to manage windows on Windows.

Toshio 14y ago

Showing the world some 2-years old tech doesn't turn a dinosaur into a cheetah.

marcusf 14y ago

Dear god what buzz-word laden soup. Switch out the brands and this article could just as well be about Nokia or GM or whatever BigCo.

adrianb 14y ago
The author's description is also a buzz-phrase: Randy Ottinger is an Executive Vice President at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations.

stcredzero 14y ago

Whether or not this article is fluff or insight depends on what Microsoft is doing: Are they creating a new product category? What if you could dock a tablet and run it with the power of a desktop PC? If the dock/undock experience could be made seamless, then this would constitute a new product category. (It would be somewhat like the OQO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO ) If there was a docking mode that wirelessly linked and activated the screens just on device proximity without plugging in, then you could make the workstation/tablet transition relatively painless. There would be some lag with the wireless mode, but it should be good enough for light, mainly read-only actions. Plugging in would seamlessly transition to the desktop mode. Add a wireless mode that links to the desktop display/input devices across WiFi, and you have a workable new product category.