The Chart
By Ed Moltzen
How Windows 8 Beta Could Underwhelm Us
February 08, 2012
Most of the PC-using corporate world is still in the middle, or even just at the early stages, of migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 and now along comes the Windows 8 beta in the next few weeks.
We’ve had the chance to look at the Windows 8 developer preview for a few months now, and we’ve got even more questions about Microsoft’s next-generation OS than we’ve ever had. As the weeks go by, we’re beginning to get that knot-in-the-stomach sensation that Windows 8 could be more like Windows Vista than Windows 7.
The Windows 8 beta could underwhelm us in three key areas. Because it will be beta software, and not a final release, there will be time for Microsoft to fix them. But depending on what we’ve seen from the developer release, they may not be quick fixes.
First of all, we’ve already been underwhelmed by the dearth of announcements by major Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that they will optimize their applications for the Metro interface that will come with Windows 8.
If you don’t believe new application software for a new platform is a big deal, just call over to HP’sTouchPad marketing department.
Metro has the ability to make desktop and laptop personal computing much more efficient and user-friendly, as well as optimize touch-based displays and use patterns. But let’s see Adobe Photoshop optimized for Metro and touch, or AutoCad.
Heck, let’s see some Microsoft software like Visio go there.
The fact that so few marquis ISVs are talking about their ground-breaking plans for Windows 8 applications is unsettling. Without major ISV buy-in or development for Windows 8 on PCs, the OS will be a tough sell.
Second, we’re not convinced that Windows 8 will offer enough value across hardware platforms to make it worth the disruption of upgrading right away.
Take a look at Apple. The look and feel of its iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion operating systems are distinctly different from each other -- even with the Launchpad added to Lion last year. But that doesn’t matter all that much because the applications leverage the iPhone, iPad and Mac hardware platforms equally well and with consistency. Applications like Facetime, iCal, Contacts, iTunes and Reminders work equally well on the mobile iOS devices as they do on the Mac.
From what we’ve seen in pre-releases of Windows 8 on industry-standard PCs, as well as Windows Phone 7 (which is very similar to Windows 8 Metro), there still appears to be a lack of consistency in how applications will function on different hardware platforms. You’ll still have to make significant adjustments in apps like Outlook and Skype between devices. That adds complexity that rivals like Apple and, to a lesser extent, Google, have been able to remove.
If the Windows 8 beta can’t show progress in breaking down complexity between hardware platforms, it will be a let down.
And, a third area of concern is migration costs. Even with Windows 7, which was a major improvement over Windows Vista, there were still ridiculous barriers to migration from one platform to the next. Early upgrades from Windows XP to Windows Vista gave many solution providers fits. When Windows 7 arrived, Microsoft refused to provide a straight upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. Instead, it gave us silly, circuitous options like “Windows XP Mode” in Windows 7 and Windows 7 “downgrades” for enterprises that wanted a lot of lead time to make the upgrade.
With the lion's share of enterprise desktops still running Windows XP, who wants to bet that straight XP-to-Windows 8 upgrades will be just as slick? The Windows 8 beta will begin to provide us with some answers.
We’re rooting for Windows 8 because we love when technology gets better and enables us to do more, do it more efficiently, and do it better. But seeing will be believing and we’ll start to see in a few weeks.
Three New Features For Business We Want In iPad 3
January 30, 2012
Apple’s iPad and iPad 2 have been, and continue to be, game-changers and it’s unclear in what direction the Cupertino, Calif.-will take the tablet when its next version is launched.
But given what we’ve seen from the Android side of the tablet market over the past year, and where Apple may face its toughest competition, we do believe there are some relatively easy adjustments Apple should make in the iPad that would make it an even easier sell for businesses.
Why should Apple focus on improving its platform for business now? For starters, the Android platform has been continuously becoming more business-friendly with PC companies like Samsung, Toshiba and Lenovo each throwing tons of R&D and new hardware features into the market. Microsoft will also begin targeting businesses with forthcoming Windows 8 tablets -- seducing enterprises with desktop application-compatibility.
As we noted, the iPad platform still maintains leadership. But let’s hope that its R&D folks can focus on three, straightforward flourishes that would boost iPad for business:
1. Biometric Security
Apple already provides password-protection and a support for a number of neat encryption apps. But fingerprint- , facial recognition- or retinal-scan features would make iPad an undeniable leader in mobile security. Apple could even call it the “iPad-Secure” version and charge an extra hundred bucks.
2. A metallic-silver finish to match MacBooks
Black and white options for the iPad are just so…black and white. By offering a metallic silver (with the Apple logo) as a design, Apple would provide a consistency to its lineup that makes sense and would be an instant hit. Look-and-feel consistency has been a reason why ThinkPads have traditionally done well in the corporate environment. That could help with Apple’s client devices as well.
3. Siri and business-ready voice recognition
Siri isn’t perfect (it’s actually, technically, still in beta.) But tablets are designed for mobility every bit as much as smart phones, and so iPads should be able to provide the same benefit of the Siri app as iPhones for those on the go or in untethered jobs. In particular, healthcare and legal vertical markets, where voice recognition and transcription are big deals, could see some ready benefits.
It’s now somewhat of a parlor game to try and predict when Apple will launch its next iPad and, when it does, what it will look like. But in the event the R&D folks in Cupertino are still at it, they now have our wish list. It’s not lengthy, but these features would help keep daylight between iPad and Android tablets.
How Meg Whitman Can Save WebOS
November 10, 2011
Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman says that she and her team will need another few weeks to figure out what to do with the WebOS property it bought from Palm, after the company has pulled the plug on the TouchPad devices that used it.
WebOS is elegant software, it offers nice differentiation from mobile platform competitors Android and iOS, and it works. But with Microsoft now about to launch versions of Windows 8 for tablets and smartphones – and act very aggressively along the way – Whitman must decide whether HP is in a strong enough position to fight a bloody battle for a fraction of market share in the mobile operating system space.
It could try to license WebOS to other manufacturers, but those other manufacturers would be in the same position fighting for a few points of share in a competitive market.
But there is a solid alternative for HP that would leave WebOS in a strong position:
Put WebOS immediately under the control of HP’s Imaging and Printing unit – which is perhaps the company’s most successful business and arguably its most innovative. One of the strengths of the TouchPad was how simple WebOS made printing from the device itself; embedded in HP printers and imaging devices, WebOS could foster a powerful app ecosystem for its printing business, allow its channel partners to drive additional value into imaging and printing engagements and leave its I&P competitors struggling to keep up. It would be a powerful statement to HP rivals like Lexmark and even Canon, which have been working hard to build up their software intellectual property.
HP’s imaging and printing developers would be under far less pressure than the TouchPad team to turn WebOS into an immediate world-dominator (HP already has world-leading market share in printers.) And that unit also has strong insight into what works and what does not work in the enterprise – insight that Palm’s legacy team never appeared to demonstrate.
If HP decides it needs to build a WebOS-based mobile device after all, that could be fine – with a device that focuses on imaging and printing. An HP-branded PrintPad or ScanPad, focusing on print management or data capturing and collaboration, would have instant credibility in enterprise and could be a natural fit with HP scanners or printers.
WebOS has value. The question for Whitman is whether HP will use it to play to its strengths or play to its weaknesses.
'Extra-PC Era' Describes It Better
October 21, 2011
It’s time to start ignoring those who are calling this the “Post-PC era.” They couldn’t be further from reality. We’ve been hearing it since the days when then-Sun Microsystems’ CEO Scott McNealy demonstrated his thin-client products seemingly every time he was out in public. We heard about it when the first Web browsers began taking hold, and when Java launched with the premise of writing-once-and-running-everywhere.
But the facts state otherwise. If the auto industry sold hundreds of millions of cars this year, would we be referring to it as the “Post-Automobile era?” Of course not.
Many have suspected that tablets will simply replace PCs. They are thin, light, have hundreds of thousands of apps to download at the tap of a button, and do everything we need from a PC. Except for a few things:
A brand-new PC, with stellar performance and 1 TB of on-board storage, can range from $499 to $699 -- or about the same as a tablet with between 16 GB and 64 GB of storage.
Intel provided a glimpse of the power of a PC, for example. The CRN Test Center reviewed an unbranded demonstration model All-in-One PC from Intel, built with a DH61AG and a Core i5 240OT at 2.70 GHz. It was built with an Intel SSD 310 Series boot drive with 40 GB of capacity and a Western Digital 1-TB drive. Windows 7 Professional 64-bit was preloaded on the system. It came built in an AiO form factor with a 21.5-inch LCD, which supported finger-based touch.
Using Primate Labs’ Geekbench benchmarking software, the system ran up a score of 9,036, which put it in the upper echelon of PCs that we’ve reviewed.
What does the motherboard support?
On this unit, it was enough to support 4 USB 2.0 slots, two USB 3.0 slots, an SD card port, VGA, HDMI, DVI-I, Sata and eSata. It was built with 802.11n connectivity, as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port. So there are no compromises.
Michael Dell gets this. His company has regained lots of PC market share over the past five years, and Dell’s storage business is enjoying some success. Eventually, his company will come out with Android devices that will have enterprise stickiness to them (the streak so far just hasn’t caught on, but Dell doesn’t appear ready to give up).
Even HP seems to understand this, because its most recently launched notebooks have been quality, cost-effective notebooks with nice performance. The PC itself is still the most powerful, cost-effective bridge from the palm of the hand to the enterprise in the data-management stack. It’s where the eyes and hands go to do work. And work is still accomplished by people, not just some SAP back end.
Tablets will be a critical part of the market going forward, and a critical way to make sure a corporate workforce is competitive or, for example, a government agency is working as effectively as possible. But they won’t replace the PC.
So let’s just start calling it the “Extra-PC era,” because any Post-PC era is too far off into the future to ponder.
BACKTALK: Contact Ed Moltzen, managing editor of CRN Test Center, at edward.moltzen@ubm.com.
LibreOffice’s Bold Course for the Tablet
October 18, 2011
Microsoft now officially has a clock ticking – set to sound the alarm in less than two years – on its effort to port its Office productivity franchise in a meaningful way to the iPad and Android platforms.
That’s because the upstart, open-source community LibreOffice has announced its plans to port a working version of its document, spreadsheet and presentation suite to iOS and Android platforms. In a blog item on its site a member of the community wrote that for iOS and Android, the LibreOffice applications “will become products sometimes in late 2012 or early 2013."
While there are a number of productivity suites available on the tablet platforms, including Apple’s own paid iWork software for iOS, there are no significant, true cross-platform (iOS, Android, PC and Mac OS X)-based productivity suites yet on the market.
According to the LibreOffice community posting: "The LibreOffice Android and iOS port has the objective of bringing the office suite to iPads and Android tablets, and eventually smaller devices. The user interface work has yet to start in earnest but the bulk of the code is compiling."
In case you doubt LibreOffice’s ability to make it onto mainstream tablets, know that this is a community that puts its head down and works quickly.
LibreOffice, which splintered from the OpenOffice.org project following Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems (which had been shepherding that effort), has been making quick strides over the past 18 months. In addition to launching an official product under its own banner, LibreOffice is now the default productivity suite in the Ubuntu desktop. The launch of the next version of LibreOffice is slated for Nov. 7.
- How Windows 8 Beta Could Underwhelm Us
- Three New Features For Business We Want In iPad 3
- How Meg Whitman Can Save WebOS
- 'Extra-PC Era' Describes It Better
- LibreOffice’s Bold Course for the Tablet
- Leaving Your iPhone In The Back Of A Cab
- Analysis: Ubuntu's 'Open for Business' Sign To Developers
- Firefox Memory Leaks Once Again Causing Frustrations
- Microsoft’s Windows 8 To Do List Short, But Serious
- The Door Cracks Open for the BlackBerry PlayBook
- Today’s Daily App: Maven Web Browser for iPad
- Will Ubuntu Again Benefit From Industry Turmoil?
- Samsung Takes Swipe At Google With Its Windows 7 Slate
- Intel Inside Android, via McAfee Security
- Why Michael Dell Is Right About PCs, And HP Could Be Wrong
- Why 2011 Is The Year Of Open Source
- What If They Had A Tablet Price War And Nobody Came?
- Why Google Needs to Get a Grip on Security
- Google Puts the Blocks Up With Personal Blocklist
- Is Salesforce.com’s Chatter Just More Noise?
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