How ‘Metro’ is Microsoft?

I think everyone agree that Microsoft had a lot of fail recently in the consumer space. They continue to release peripherals – that very few people use, published an OS way before its time, and entered the tablet market far too late. Oh right, and what is this, I hear there is a new Microsoft phone coming out—they did not learn the first time?

But putting Tablets, Bing and the Zune player aside, Microsoft has recently had quite a bit of technological success. Here are some facts:

Microsoft Office continues to be the leading publishing and spreadsheet platform out there. Nothing, not even the new Works! from the Mac touches that user base.
Microsoft IE continues to be the leading corporate web browser–at least for now.
Microsoft Windows 7 is a very successful OS, and quite stable.
Microsoft SharePoint is now the leading and most innovative ECM platform (as per Gartner 2013, and probably 2014).
Microsoft Windows 8 is actually quite an improvement from Windows 8. Its about 10-15% faster, has a really good UI, and is very very stable.

The common thread here being that Microsoft is still a very strong contender in the Corporate / Enterprise space. Now, its a whole different story when it comes to the consumer market. Microsoft is still lacking the foresight, and now they have a lot of competition

Windows 8 (and now 8.1) had made monumental changes to the user interface. The corporate community cares a lot about productivity, and vanishing the Start button was a really bad idea. Don’t fret, their decision created a whole new market. Check out Start8 if you need a start button in Windows 8 (and 8.1 — as that start button is a cop-out as well). Just as an aside, I cannot believe they made this mistake. GNOME /GDE 3 did this exact same thing a year before Windows 8 shipped and the backlash was epic. Doesn’t anyone on the Windows dev team read Slashdot???
The Surface (and Surface II) Tablet is a solution that is still awaiting a problem. Its too big, too bulky, and its missing all the cool apps. Corporate community is not ready to switch to a tablet quite yet. When they will be, it will need to come with a giant dock that lets you attach the tablet, and use a regular keyboard and a dual monitor screen. The first company to make a tablet that docks will be quite successful.
The Microsoft app store is again, too late to the game. I mean, its slowly gaining traction, (mostly because its a publishing/marketing avenue for companies), but outside of that, there is very little value to the customer. Not to mention, think about it, for years we all think Google+Download when we want to install an app in windows. I bet most of you don’t even know how to get to the Microsoft App store! This is bad!
The last point for today is the Microsoft Mobile Phone strategy. I guess the last thing on their mind is innovation and new products. After a friendly settlement, Microsoft probably makes more money off of Android than it does off its own Mobile phone strategy. Have a look at the following Bloomberg article.

So what about the consumer space? Well, no matter how you cut it, Microsoft did embrace the flat design style and they did a wonderful job doing it. Their products look better than ever, are way more usable, and are increasingly more responsive.

As for Windows 8 — You can try and create a single OS that runs on multiple devices (i.e. PC, Tablet, Phone), but you will need to custom-build the GUI around the type of the device. A phone device is different than a tablet, which is still different than a PC, so the OSes must be custom-built around the form-factors and different input styles. This is the biggest issue with Windows 8. But I do believe that Microsoft will rectify the problem, and eventually remove the botched “Tablet” feel from the PC version of Windows (oh, and add a normal start button back). This is when the corporate community will commission an update, and the world will be happy again!