Microsoft’s official YouTube channel has a new video that features an interview with former Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates. This interview is obviously a promotional piece for the upcoming Windows 8, Windows 8 Phone, Office, and Microsoft Surface. Still, the information shared by Bill Gates speaks to the long-term goals of Microsoft and why exactly the Windows platform is taking such a dramatic step in the direction of touch.
“Microsoft is blending all the different forms of input,” Gates said. He emphasized how the PC of the future will incorporate a number of different input methods to meet a variety of use scenarios. Touch screens, mice, keyboards, speech, the Kinect and even your webcam are seen as potential control interfaces. Windows 8 certainly focuses on a more diverse set of input devices than any version prior.
He went on to state that Windows Phone 8 represents a step towards consistency for the Microsoft family. He said, “It’s evolving literally into a single platform. For the user, it makes it easy to move back and forth.”
Change has always been a pain point for users. It would appear that Microsoft is betting that the long-term benefits to marrying mobile with desktop experiences will make up for the short-term pain points brought on by this dramatic change to its desktop and mobile platforms. Come October 26th, we’ll start to get answers to these concerns as the general market begins to adopt (or refuse to adopt) Windows 8.
Bill Gates, a long-time proponent for the tablet form factor, has been using a Windows RT Surface for some time now. In the past, Microsoft has been only casually dedicated to the tablet market with special versions of its operating system geared toward tablets in addition to software and preferences for tablet applications included with Windows 7. It wasn’t until now, though, that Windows was built from the ground up to support touch interfaces. By bringing a desktop-class operating system to a mobile computing platform such as a tablet, Microsoft is actually going a step beyond previous tablet computing efforts.
The Surface represents, as Steve Ballmer indicated, a new era for Microsoft as hardware and software merge to create a more cohesive user experience. The Surface is the first Windows computer to be designed and supported entirely by Microsoft. It would be reasonable to assume that the Surface would represent the best of what Microsoft can offer. Compatibility issues and poor optimization should (we can hope) not be an issue with the Surface as it could be on devices designed and supported by a third-party OEM.
When all is said and done, we can just sit and wait to see how the general public views Microsoft’s latest attempt to revitalize its lineup of hardware and software.
While this article is fine, I’m having a major problem with
the “You may also like:” story suggestions.
Quite frankly, they are terrible, mostly because they are
shamefully old. Consider the stories I “may
also like:”
12/23/2009 — Ex-Microsoft Employee – Microsoft Today ‘A Lot
Like IBM Was In 1985′ (http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2009/12/23/ex-microsoft-employee-microsoft-today-a-lot-like-ibm-was-in-1985/)
6/23/2010 — Bill Gates, The Disembodied Face Of Microsoft (http://www.lockergnome.com/uncategorized/2010/06/23/bill-gates-the-disembodied-face-of-microsoft/)
1/20/2010 — The Height of Hubris, Or Another Advertising
Ploy? (http://www.lockergnome.com/uncategorized/2010/01/20/the-height-of-hubris-or-another-advertising-ploy/)
11/15/2005 — Gates Lays Out Vision of Future of
Supercomputing (http://www.lockergnome.com/uncategorized/2005/11/15/gates-lays-out-vision-of-future-of-supercomputing/)
4/21/2010 — Bill Gates – “most jobs in the private sector
don’t really work on the important problems.” (http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2010/04/21/bill-gates-most-jobs-in-the-private-sector-dont-really-work-on-the-important-problems/)
1/26/2010 — Bill Gates On the Economy (http://www.lockergnome.com/uncategorized/2010/01/26/bill-gates-on-the-economy/)
Seriously? Four stories
from two years ago, one from three years ago and one from seven years ago? Why the devil would I want to read such old
stories? I’m thinking some software
needs to be tweaked. Or maybe completely
destroyed and rebuilt.
approce
Its been like that for ages
I like it for comical effect.
Interesting video. I’m excited for Windows 8. I really like that they are bringing all the things they offer and bringing them together to form one thing, that will work the same across all the devices. I think that this is a brave move by Microsoft.