Windows RT living on borrowed time

When Steve Ballmer threw Steven Sinofsky, the former president of Microsoft’s Windows Division, overboard, it marked a tacit admission by the company’s no-nonsense CEO that its client operating systems strategy was all wrong. Not just Windows 8, but Windows Phone 8 and, especially, the cuckoo in the nest: Windows RT. Further reading Crash Podcast: Samsung, Google, Phones & Windows RT Analysis: Windows RT struggles to win admirers Windows RT app developer abandons platform after making just £52 in one week Windows RT was developed as a belated ARM port of Windows 8 for use in tablet devices. This had followed years in which Intel had promised – and failed to deliver – a suitably low-power-consumption microprocessor that could be deployed in smartphones and tablet computers. The trouble is, apps built for legacy Windows or Windows Phone 8 are not compatible with Windows RT. Futhermore, while there is some compatibility between the two operating systems, Windows RT can only run apps in the new-style Modern-UI interface. The old-style desktop interface, which Windows 8 also offers, is restricted to pre-installed, Microsoft-produced software on RT. It also restricts the application programming interfaces (APIs) that developers can use, especially for web browsers. Even if Microsoft “allowed” alternatives to Internet Explorer in the app store, they couldn’t be used by applications. It is little wonder, therefore, that developers have not rushed to port their apps. The Windows RT app store remains relatively bare. Indeed, only recently has the Windows 8 app store crossed the 50,000 mark, according to MetroStoreScanner.com, making it even less well furnished than the BlackBerry 10 app store. Worse still, the split between the various client operating systems has confused customers, according to Samsung US senior vice president Mike Abrary, who said that Samsung’s research indicated that consumers did not understand the difference between Windows RT and Windows 8. Samsung therefore chose not to market its ATIV tablet computer in the US. As a result, only a handful of devices on sale run Windows RT, and only just over one million flagship Microsoft Surface RTs have been shipped – against an order of four million that Microsoft reportedly made prior to launch. Furthermore, the prices of the Microsoft Surface have been pitched on the high side – equivalent to, or more expensive than, the coveted Apple iPad. And while most of Microsoft’s Surface sales have been direct – rather than via John Lewis or other retailers – Microsoft’s direct sales organisation is not a patch on rival Apple’s and it lacks Apple’s global store network. Big mistakes Microsoft’s historic success, among other factors, can be attributed to the wide range of hardware its operating systems were able to support, often out of the box, combined with the support it gave to developers – as immortalised in the video of Steve Ballmer chanting “developers” over and over at a Microsoft sales conference to reiterate their central importance (http://bit.ly/1vRjWq). That combination enabled a wide variety of devices to be produced and enticing software to be developed in a self-reinforcing virtuous circle. Yet Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 currently run on only a very limited range of device hardware. All current Windows Phone 8 devices, for example, only run on Qualcomm chipsets. That, in turn, limits licensees’ ability to put together a range of different devices and to negotiate competitive hardware prices. In contrast, developers of Android smartphones and tablets can use a wide variety of microprocessors, all the way from ultra-competitive Chinese designers such as Rockchip and AllWinner to multinationals like Samsung and MediaTek. Yet Microsoft’s operating system confusion also reflects its own internal divisions, leading to an unnatural rift between Windows Phone and Windows RT that is absent from competing ecosystems. Indeed, the Courier tablet computer that was being developed by an internal rival to Windows 8 chief Steven Sinofsky, Jim Allard, was canned just weeks before the Apple iPad launched – leaving the field clear for Sinofsky, at the cost of a two-year delay for Microsoft. Yet RT has arrived at a time when both Apple and Google are looking to converge their own operating system efforts, with Apple reportedly mulling a shift to 64-bit ARM so that it can introduce a converged MacOS and iOS from 2015, and Google putting both its Android and Chrome OS efforts under one unified head. Indeed, the converged operating system of the future has already been demonstrated by Canonical with Ubuntu for Phones – a mobile operating system that can be used as a phone on the move, then plugged into a docking port with a monitor and keyboard to be used as a PC. In contrast, Microsoft’s plethora of client operating systems looks old-fashioned and backward. No wonder potential purchasers are confused and staying away – and not just from Windows RT, but seemingly from Windows Phone and Windows 8, too. Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/analysis/2261133/windows-rt-living-on-borrowed-time#ixzz2QcdE0WU8 Computing - Insight for IT leaders Claim your free subscription today.

  News source: www.computing.co.uk