DigiPen

Somewhere to put the random things I find that don't make it onto my blog: thedigeratipeninsula.org.uk

Posted 1 month ago

Windows Phone 7, Windows 8: How Microsoft can reclaim its throne in 2012

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/01/windows_phone_7_windows_8_how_microsoft_can_reclaim_its_throne_in_2012.html

Microsoft hasn’t yet said whether it will let today’s Windows programs run on Windows 8 tablets. Jettisoning the old apps would be the right decision; no program developed for the desktop interface is going to work very well on a tablet, and trying to blend the two interfaces will turn Windows tablets into a neither-fish-nor-fowl mess

This is one thing that could help differentiate them, allow both, so you can use a mouse and keyboard with your tablet to use Excel (which sucks using a touchscreen but people still do), but then switch back to touch interface for touch-enabled apps.

The you have access to a ton of existing apps (so they suddenly leap to millions of apps, not just 50k).

Something else they forgot to mention: the legions of programmers who can develop Windows apps, way more than Object-C (probably more than Java I’d hazard too).