A Consumer Preview of Windows 8

Microsoft’s post-PC strategy to compete with Android and Apple

In the desktop computing world, many users are just getting their first exposure to Windows 7, even though that operating system has been around for a few years now.

So it may seem strange that Microsoft is releasing a new edition of Windows this fall. I’ve been playing around with the Consumer Preview edition of Windows 8 for a few weeks now and have some initial impressions to share.

Metro: Merging Desktops & Mobiles 

The first thing you notice about Windows 8 is how radically different it looks from previous versions. Unless you’ve used a Windows-based Phone or an Xbox, this may be the first time you’ve encountered a new Windows interface: Metro.

How to describe it? Metro is a mosaic of flat, “live” tiles that vary in size and colour. What it resembles (if you haven’t used it already on a Windows Phone such as the Nokia’s Lumia 800, or the Xbox 360 dashboard) is the screen of applications you’re used to seeing on an Android or Apple mobile device.

Right from the start, there’s a tile with the current date, time, and weather next to your location. Beside it is another tile for solitaire. Next to that is a tile for checking SkyDrive files. And between these, another tile that takes me to a conventional Windows program interface, if the touch-centric tile interface isn’t working for me.

But where’s the start button? If you’re in the conventional Windows interface, it takes a moment to realise that Microsoft has ditched the start button. No orb, button or anything — the left corner of the taskbar is empty.

Why? Good question, because it leads to a broader discussion about the principal reason for the launch of Windows 8, which is to provide consumers with the same user interface on all computing devices — desktops, mobile devices and tablets — running Windows operating systems.

Microsoft has had a “come to Jesus” moment. They’ve seen  the future and it has nothing to do with your boring old desktop PC. It’s all about tablets and smartphones now, and Microsoft is about to go to war with Android and Apple.

The Post-PC World

Rumour has it that Microsoft will launch a Windows-based tablet just in time for the Q4 holiday shopping season. Its partner is Nokia, the Finnish mobile maker now run by a Canadian CEO and former Microsoft employee, Stephen Elop.

Nokia was on its last legs when Microsoft came calling with a whack of cash and an offer Nokia couldn’t refuse: forget your Symbian operating system, concentrate on developing the Windows system for mobile use, and we’ll fund the launch of a new line of smartphones and tablets.

In February 2011, Nokia launched the Lumia, which runs on the Windows Phone 7 operating system. For all its positive reviews, its buzz has been lost in the adulation poured upon the Apple iPhone. Now, just as Statements goes to press, the two companies have released the new Lumia 900 — on Easter Sunday. To say that the PC press has been sarcastic is an understatement.

The New York Times reported that “nearly all 39 AT&T stores within proximity of Times Square in Manhattan were either closed for Easter Sunday or did not answer phone calls. The few that were open did not have the handset in stock.”

What a marketing disaster, which doesn’t bode well for the release of the rumoured Nokia 10-inch tablet in Q4 2012. But maybe Microsoft doesn’t care. If the Windows 8 operating system proves successful it will be adopted by companies such as Dell and HP. And Microsoft has the cash (more than $50-billion in cash reserves, held outside the U.S.) to buy Nokia outright, with some loose change left over to buy Research in Motion.

The Battle Heats Up 

Apple’s not perfect. The New iPad (as opposed to the “iPad3” or the “iPad 2012”) features a better camera and the high-definition retina display of the iPhone 4. But the new features require a bigger battery, which means a slightly larger device (so much for all those portfolio and keyboard cases you bought) and considerably more heat.

Would Steve Jobs have released an iPad that runs hotter than its predecessors?

Which means opportunity for Windows. Microsoft is pledging millions for the development of new apps, and that may be a boon to developers, who previously sold only to Android or Apple. Meanwhile, the Lumia is humbly priced at under a hundred bucks U.S., which may draw in the vast number of people who still resist the smartphone market.

Which brings me back to “Start.” For shortcut enthusiasts like me, a single tap of the Windows button on my keyboard flips me back to the Metro interface in Windows 8, where I can find and access all my programs. But for mouse enthusiasts — especially those who won’t care that they can buy a smartphone or a tablet and see the same operating system — the loss of the classic Windows start button on their desktop could be irritating.

They need not worry. We live in a post-PC world, where app developers have already stepped in to create a start button in Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Think of what they’ll do with the real thing.