3 ms·

Metro on the desktop isn't about creating a better user experience for desktop users. It's about getting developers to make metro apps that provide a good user

by glennsl 14y ago

Metro on the desktop isn't about creating a better user experience for desktop users. It's about getting developers to make metro apps that provide a good user experience on tablets. Microsoft's biggest problem when entering the tablet market is the sad state of their ecosystem. And to try to fix that, they decided to sacrifice the desktop user experience. I think that's a pretty bold move. It's also a really really stupid move.

zmmmmm 14y ago
> It's also a really really stupid move. Why stupid? I think this demarcates where Android went wrong. Google allowed the tablet OS to ship and run all it's phone apps really badly. That set a terrible precedent and left people wallowing around in a sea of unoptimized apps (the oft repeated claim that Android has no tablet optimized apps is as much that people can't find them as that they don't exist). I think they would have been much better off drawing a line in the sand and promoting explicitly tablet optimized apps and relegating unoptimized ones to a clear secondary status. By contrast, MS is saying, if you want prime real estate for your app in Win8 then it's going to be Metro and hence tablet optimized by default. As a result I am sure that every major software provider is going to ship metro versions of their apps, if only to get themselves onto that metro UI that every user is forced to see by default and into the store in a priority position.
- glennsl 14y ago
  I agree that it will greatly benefit their tablet ecosystem. No doubt. But at the cost of a lesser desktop user experience. They're throwing away the market domination they already have (to some extent at least), which of course is the backbone of their business, to try to get the money to pay the entrance fee in a market dominated by others, as a late comer with slim chances.

3 ms·

Metro on the desktop isn't about creating a better user experience for desktop users. It's about getting developers to make metro apps that provide a good user

by glennsl 14y ago

zmmmmm 14y ago
> It's also a really really stupid move. Why stupid? I think this demarcates where Android went wrong. Google allowed the tablet OS to ship and run all it's phone apps really badly. That set a terrible precedent and left people wallowing around in a sea of unoptimized apps (the oft repeated claim that Android has no tablet optimized apps is as much that people can't find them as that they don't exist). I think they would have been much better off drawing a line in the sand and promoting explicitly tablet optimized apps and relegating unoptimized ones to a clear secondary status. By contrast, MS is saying, if you want prime real estate for your app in Win8 then it's going to be Metro and hence tablet optimized by default. As a result I am sure that every major software provider is going to ship metro versions of their apps, if only to get themselves onto that metro UI that every user is forced to see by default and into the store in a priority position.
- glennsl 14y ago
  I agree that it will greatly benefit their tablet ecosystem. No doubt. But at the cost of a lesser desktop user experience. They're throwing away the market domination they already have (to some extent at least), which of course is the backbone of their business, to try to get the money to pay the entrance fee in a market dominated by others, as a late comer with slim chances.