Microsoft again clarifies that Windows 8 tablets won't actually run Windows apps

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  • Reply 21 of 135
    Quote:

    The company was unable to get PC users to switch from the iPod to the Zune, and equally unsuccessful at getting PC iPhone users to switch back to Windows Phone 7.



    It's an iPad market, not a tablet market. Balmer just doesn't get it.
  • Reply 22 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chris_CA View Post


    They can't.

    The Windows apps are running on a computer which is accessed by the iPad.

    The iPad is not running Windows apps anymore than your monitor is running Windows apps.



    Sure it can. iDOS lets me run Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Yes, it's emulation, but it's WAY more than Citrix.
  • Reply 23 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gmcalpin View Post




    People said the iPad was just a big iPod Touch, too. They were wrong. BADLY wrong.



    There's a lot that Metro apps will be able to do, and it will be more than just the equivalent of offline web apps.



    But there is a difference! The day the iPad was announced there were hundreds of thousands of apps that would run in it (1x or 2x). AIR, when the iPad was first delivered, 3 months, later, there were 50,000 (or so) native iPad apps.



    What can MS deliver, over a year from now, that can cause someone (or company) to buy a Windows 8 tablet over the then current iPad and all its apps?



    Especially when you consider that each app a user buys gives him an additional reason to stay within the iPad ecosystem.



    Android tablets don't seem to be able crack this nut after more than a year of trying -- what makes you think Windows 8 will be able to after another year or more delay.
  • Reply 24 of 135
    alfiejralfiejr Posts: 1,524member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by global.philosopher View Post


    Have to agree. Microsoft are creating the confusion by not giving up the Windows name. Why call it Windows 8 if it can't run Windows applications. What do they when people when people buy a Windows OS. MS want to use their Windows brand to sell a tablet that can't run Windows applications. How stupid. They are too nervous to give a completely different name.



    exactly. and the Windows 8 tablet probably won't be able to run the Windows Phone 7 apps either!



    the MS demo was a total fraud. x86 applications pretending to be ARM tablet Windows apps - none of which exist yet! Metro eyecandy running on x86 pretending to be the final ARM Metro OS, which doesn't exist yet either. and the fawning blogsphere ate it up hook, line, and sinker!
  • Reply 25 of 135
    Can these idiots please get this right....



    Apps (short for applications) are the name used to describe the programs run on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.



    SOFTWARE is what is run on a laptop or desktop computer.
  • Reply 26 of 135
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    So will ARM machines run some version of Windows for which new apps will have to be written? Or will they be Metro only?
  • Reply 27 of 135
    The reason many people got confused is that Windows 8 tablets will come in both ARM and x86 variants. The x86 ones will likely go for the hybrid desktop/tablet idea, where you pop the tablet function out of a dock to take with you. The other reason some people assumed an ARM-based tablet would run all Windows apps is that there's a contingent of people that, without knowing much about technology, are members of an Everything-MS-Does-Is-Wonderful contingent.



    I will give MS credit for trying something semi-radically new for them, (like WP7). I'm just not convinced that it will gain any market traction (like WP7). MS has depended on the market inertia of Windows installations to ensure adoption of subsequent versions. However, they still seem a bit stuck on the "we're going to make a tablet with everything the desktop does". The market has been pretty clear that Apple's view of it's a different device for different use cases is shared by the general consumer.
  • Reply 28 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sheff View Post


    So, the tablets will only run the start menu? From what I understand those apps are nothing more than HTML5. Will the apps have access to deeper level of the OS to run more sophisticated apps like 3d games and apps similar to garage band and photo shop? If not, there is really no point.



    I have Windows 8 sitting inside parallels on MBP. I gotta say, the start menu level is pretty useless. I would compare it to widget pane in lion (when you swipe all the way to the left). Sure you can get weather and twitter, but that won't compete with the iPad.



    Without the windows 7 desktop "app" that os is nothing more than a glorified widget screen with a giant WP7 web browser.



    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...troappsapi.jpg



    You can code Metro apps with XAML + C, C++, C#, VB and of course HTML5 + JS. So yes, the Metro apps have access to powerful APIs and your choice of programming languages. And yes, the Metro apps will be able to run apps like 3d games and similar apps. Each title is a dynamic representation of the apps. The apps themselves are programmed in the mentioned languages. And no, they're not glorified widget.
  • Reply 29 of 135
    >Worrying about what other people will find confusing is just plain silly.



    Huh? I would say not confusing your users is just plain smart. I agree with the previous post that the "Windows" name is overused on every product, even when those products are not that much alike. The "Windows" brand is starting to become a liability to people who want a new, simplified portable device (i.e. tablet).



    People on this forum are tech savvy, and know what to expect when you buy a "Windows 8 Tablet". The beauty of the tablet paradigm is not the form factor, it's the simplicity of the OS. Average people love the iPad because it has a more simple user interface then a full blown PC. Average people won't understand that their "Windows 8 Tablet" won't run Windows software. You will see a ton of returns as people figure this out.



    Contrast this with Apple's strategy... You want a PC? Then buy a "Mac". You want a simplified portable device? Then buy an "iOS device".
  • Reply 30 of 135
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KevinN206 View Post


    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...troappsapi.jpg



    You can code Metro apps with XAML + C, C++, C#, VB and of course HTML5 + JS. So yes, the Metro apps have access to powerful APIs and your choice of programming languages. And yes, the Metro apps will be able to run apps like 3d games and similar apps. Each title is a dynamic representation of the apps. The apps themselves are programmed in the mentioned languages. And no, they're not glorified widget.



    Thanks for the explanation.
  • Reply 31 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    But, most likely, there won't be any Windows 8 ARM versions of their apps to buy.



    If it were something MS cared about wouldn't MS be demoing Windows 8 ARM versions of Word, Excel, PP on ARM tablets.



    By the time the Windows 8 ARM tablets are ready, Apple will have a 2 year plus lead running Pages, Numbers and Keynote on the iPads. I expect that we will see improvements in these iPad apps as the iPad hardware becomes more capable.



    MS has already demoed Office 2010 on Windows 8 SoC ARM during CES 2011 in June 2011. By the time Windows 8 is released in 2012, they'll have a fully functional Office suite for ARM. The big question is whether it'll be a desktop app or Metro app. I think it's the former.
  • Reply 32 of 135
    You can't run legacy Windows apps. But developers can re-compile their apps to run on ARM processors, if they so choose. So, you won't see a lot of high-end apps being recompiled for tablets, any more than you see such apps being reworked to run on netbooks.



    Windows 8 PC's will run all tablet/Metro apps. Metro tablets will only run Metro apps and recompiled PC apps.



    Running legacy apps, however, means dropping out of the Metro interface and switching to the legacy Windows interface; I doubt many people will want to do that. Also, legacy apps won't be able to take advantages of the feature-sharing built into Metro.



    I think that even though Metro is built off of the Windows 8 codebase, MS will either split the two, or make desktop Windows fully-Metro.
  • Reply 33 of 135
    After taking a look at windoze 8 with the "metro" interface my eyes were so tired! Seriously tacky colors and awkward interface.



    Not surprised they won't run desktop apps on tablets! I mean how can they do that and provide compatibility with all that mess? Not to mention battery life.



    I respect the fact that wp7 was not a blatant ripoff of iOS though and I hope they can bring something good out with a tablet
  • Reply 34 of 135
    To avoid confusion the product needs a different name, maybe a name that's a bit like Windows but different to differentiate it. How about Windoze?
  • Reply 35 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DennyL View Post


    To avoid confusion the product needs a different name, maybe a name that's a bit like Windows but different to differentiate it. How about Windoze?



    ...maybe Losedows
  • Reply 36 of 135
    I can see myself switching to MacOS if windows becomes fully tiled in the next few years...



    also if they have that metro layer running on top of an Aero (fracking hideous, thank GOD for DeviantArt) interface that's just poor design period.



    Give me a metro-ized legacy windows and an optional metro flow or whatever layer and I'll be happy.



    If that doesn't happen. Apple has a new customer.



    (I said Mac OS and not OS X because who knows what it'll be by the time I get to it...maybe OS XI)
  • Reply 37 of 135
    It just keeps getting better and better for Microsoft. They've pretty much lost the plot at this stage.



    Microsoft has minimal traction in the cloud, mobile and tablet spaces. In fact, they've lost a lot of ground.



    They're lucky most businesses' hopeless dependency on Wintel-Office will see Microsoft through to the end of the decade.
  • Reply 38 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    It just keeps getting better and better for Microsoft. They've pretty much lost the plot at this stage.



    Microsoft has minimal traction in the cloud, mobile and tablet spaces. In fact, they've lost a lot of ground.



    They're lucky most businesses' hopeless dependency on Wintel-Office will see Microsoft through to the end of the decade.



    they became content and seemingly cocky...



    honestly, if I wasn't a tinkerer (turning beast into beauty) I could see myself having left Windows years ago.
  • Reply 39 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Granmastak View Post


    After taking a look at windoze 8 with the "metro" interface my eyes were so tired! Seriously tacky colors and awkward interface.



    Not surprised they won't run desktop apps on tablets! I mean how can they do that and provide compatibility with all that mess? Not to mention battery life.



    I respect the fact that wp7 was not a blatant ripoff of iOS though and I hope they can bring something good out with a tablet



    The first thing people will want to run is some version of Office and Flash. Without these, I don't see how it is a real alternative to iPad or Android tablets.



    If Microsoft wanted to kick ass they could have engaged, I dunno, some of the top engineers in the world working for them to enable some sort of x86 compatibility or some sort of better plan on transitioning x86 apps to ARM. They would have marched into Adobe's offices and said, let's get Flash on Windows8 tablets 100% sorted.



    At the very least they should have come up with a bold plan to make Office for tablets. Why they are not doing this is a mystery. A massive percentage of people buying iPads have "Can I do Office on this?" as one of their first questions. Yes there are apps that do that for iOS and Android but surely it would pale in comparison to Microsoft Office for Windows 8 tablets... right? *Sigh*
  • Reply 40 of 135
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DennyL View Post


    To avoid confusion the product needs a different name, maybe a name that's a bit like Windows but different to differentiate it. How about Windoze?



    I'd say to name it Doors, but the impending lawsuit makes me think they'd never do that.



    "All rise, the case of Windows, Doors, and More vs. Microsoft Corp. will begin."



    *imagine a Savannah accent* "Your honor, it's bad enough that this upstart software company thought that they could name their ones and zeroes 'Windows', but now they want to defy all logic and reason and call it 'Doors'! What's next, your honor? What, and if I may be so bold, MORE?" *pause for effect* "?will these people try to do to us?! How further shall they sully our great name?!"
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