Category Archives: mobile

microsoft, mobile, windows

Surface Reflections: it can only get better

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Microsoft has released Surface RT, its first own-brand PC (if you can call it that) and also one of the first few devices to run Windows on ARM, formally known as Windows RT. I have been using Surface RT with the “Touch” keyboard cover intensively since its launch; it is a fascinating device, and the reactions to it from early purchasers is also interesting to watch.

Surface has various problems. It is designed for the new-style apps called Metro, or Windows Store apps, but the truth is that the selection of apps currently available is small and many are trivial or poor. There are many gaps. On the other hand, I have found workarounds for most issues, and there is plenty to like too.

Right now we are seeing Surface at its worst. Here’s why:

  • This is the first release of Windows on ARM. I have not found Surface particularly buggy or slow, but I would guess that performance will improve and bugs will be fixed as updates flow.
  • This is Windows 8, which is unfamiliar to many. It is not unfamiliar to me; but my guess is that for someone new both to Surface and to Windows 8, there will be some initial struggles. This will get better as users become more familiar with the operating system.
  • Better apps will come. Most developers are now seeing Windows RT for the first time; and it is remarkable that apps built for x86 Windows – like the ITWriting app – work as well as they do on ARM. On the other hand, I have also heard of performance issues, and certainly Pinball FX2 seems less smooth on Surface than on a Core i5 (not a surprise).

Here are a few details.

Annoying things

Password management. I use Password Safe, which does not run on Windows RT. I resorted to VPN and Remote Desktop to another machine to use Password Safe. There are some Windows Store password managers and I need to investigate; ideally I need one which supports Password Safe import.

Live Writer. My preferred blogging tool does not run on Surface RT. I am making do with Word. The only other option I know of is to post through the browser (self-hosted WordPress).

SSH connection. As part of the setup for blogging with Word, I needed to make an SSH connection to a Linux server. There is an SSH app for Apple iOS, but not for Surface. Not knowing any other way, I went the Remote Desktop route again.

Printing. I am staying with a friend and needed to print a boarding pass. He has a shared printer attached to a Mac. Windows RT found the printer, using the old-style Control Panel, but gave a message about a missing network driver and to consult my administrator. Next, it gave me a driver selection dialog and I picked one I thought might work. It seemed to install, but when I tried to print, I got nothing: no error, but nothing printed either.

Windows Update. I discovered that the final version of Office 2013 is available through Windows Update. I used Control Panel to find it. The update, which had to be selected manually, gave me an installation error. I looked this up and discovered it was because the Office Upload Center was running – thanks to my making a connection to SharePoint earlier. I terminated the Upload Center. Then the update failed with a different error. Now I am in limbo with this; Office 2013 final seems to be installed, but it is not listed in update history except as a failed update; however I cannot remove it nor reinstall it.

Word save error. Following a successful blog posting, I was unable to save the Word document. I got this file permission error:

Send As missing in Mail. The Mail app is working for me, connecting to my self-hosted Exchange server. However I make use of Send As in order to send mail as a different user. This works in Outlook but not in Mail. The workaround is to use Outlook Web Access, which does support Send As.

Good things

The hardware seems excellent. I love that the Touch keyboard gives me the ability to type at a decent speed and use a trackpad, but without adding significant bulk. I like the solid feel of the device and the kickstand. I am also realising that the reason Microsoft talks so much about the hardware is that there is less to show off about on the software side.

Skype. I have made several phone calls with the new Metro Skype client and it has worked very well, even without using a headset.

Music. Microsoft handed out Xbox music passes to early Surface customers. The music app works, and while I do not love the user interface, there is a lot of music available to stream.

USB. I’ve plugged wireless mouse adapters and storage devices into the USB port and they have worked fine.

Battery life. I debated whether to put this as Good or Mixed. I’d like longer, but at 8 hours or so it is decent. A good sign is that Surface seems to run nice and cool. No fan needed, so it is silent too.

Office and SharePoint. The presence of Office makes a huge difference to how I use Surface. One thing I managed to do was to link up Explorer with my self-hosted SharePoint so I can easily open documents there. Unfortunately the way to do this is not something you are likely to discover by accident, but it does work, although with more prompts than I would like.

Split/Snapped view can be very useful. For example, Mail app docked while working on the desktop.

Mixed things

Windows desktop. I find I spend a lot of time in the Windows desktop. Applications I use regularly include not just Office but also Paint, Notepad, Explorer, Control Panel, Snipping tool, VPN and Remote Desktop. These apps greatly increase the usefulness of the Surface; but it should not be this way; ideally I should be able to get most things done in the Metro user interface. Desktop apps still have the problems that Windows has always had, like the ability to throw up mystifying and useless error messages such as the one from Word shown above. Surface cannot be the true breakthrough device it needs to be until that is the case.

Performance. Generally I have found performance fine, and slowness when it occurs usually the fault of a slow internet connection or site. It could be snappier though, and I am not sure how good it will be with long Word documents or large Excel spreadsheets. If you resize the Word window, you can see a slight delay as it repaints.

Some apps seem slower than they should be; I have had problems with Tweetro, a Twitter client, though this may be partly due to issues with the Twitter API. An Atom windows 8 machine I tried at an HP event was more sluggish than Surface; but who knows, perhaps that was an issue with that particular device. I intend to do some measuring to get a better understanding of this.

Price. By the time you have added a keyboard cover, Surface is expensive considering its specs. The quality of design and manufacture, and the inclusion of Office, mitigate that; but current price levels will limit the market.

Final reflections

Surface is a step forward for Windows, but this is a journey and the device as it is today does not fulfil all its promise. Even as it is though, it is highly capable and will probably get a lot of use from me as a device that does enough to make carrying a laptop or x86 tablet unnecessary. I recognise that some of that utility is only possible if you have knowledge of Windows, a flaw which needs Microsoft’s urgent attention.

I like the fact that you cannot install desktop apps, despite its inconvenience, not only for security and stability, but also because it forces Microsoft and its users into the new Metro world.

The worry is that so far Microsoft has failed to convince most software vendors and developers that this new platform is worth their attention. If that does not change, then Windows will continue its slow decline.

I like Surface RT though; it deserves to succeed, and I will be interested to see if a significant community gets behind it and make it better.

microsoft, mobile, windows

Blogging with Surface

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I generally post to this site using Windows Live Writer. Unfortunately this does not run on Microsoft’s new Surface tablet, since it is a desktop executable and Windows RT only allows Windows Store apps to be installed. So how to blog?

This site runs WordPress, and of course you can post using the browser. However I prefer to use an offline editor, and the only choice in this respect that I know of is Microsoft Word. I looked at this years ago and decided it was poor; but needs must.

One of the issues with using Word is that while it can connect successfully to the WordPress api for posting, it cannot apparently post images using the WordPress upload API – though if you know a way of configuring Word for this, please let me know. It does support FTP, so I set up an FTP server for this purpose. I did all this on the surface, though in order to make an SSH connection to the web server to sort out the DNS I resorted to VPN and Remote Desktop so I could use Putty, another Windows utility that does not work on Surface RT.

If you can see the image above, then it worked.

hardware, microsoft, mobile, software development

Windows 8 launches: key questions remain, but Surface shines

I am in New York for the launch of Windows 8. This morning was the general launch; the Surface RT launch is to follow this afternoon. Windows chief Steven Sinofsky introduced the event. I was intrigued by how dismissive he was about a key Windows 8 issue: the learning challenge it presents to new users. He gave the impression that a few minutes experimenting will be enough, though he also referred to a guide that may be new; yesterday I picked up a small booklet which I had not seen before, introducing Windows 8.

Next Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green and Michael Angiulo came on to show off a few details about the Windows 8 user interface, followed by Ballmer who gave what is for him a muted address about how great Windows 8 is going to be. Solid facts were few, but Microsoft did mention that over 1000 devices are certified for Windows 8.

So what is Windows 8 all about? It’s a tablet, it’s a laptop, it’s a PC we were told, in other words, everything. But everything is also nothing, and my sense is that even Microsoft is struggling to articulate its message, or at least, struggling to do so in ways that would not offend key partners.

Personally I like Windows 8, I find it perfectly usable and appreciate the convenience of the tablet format. That said, I look at all these hybrid devices and my heart sinks: these are devices that are neither one thing nor another, and pay for it with complexity and expense. Will they win over users who might otherwise have bought a MacBook? I am doubtful.

Windows RT and Intel Atom devices are more interesting. If Microsoft and its partners can push out Windows 8 devices that inexpensive and work well on tablets without keyboard clutter, that is what has potential to disrupt the market.

That brings me on to Surface. It is all in the body language: the conviction that was missing from the Windows 8 keynote in the morning was present in the Surface keynote in the afternoon. Even the room was better, with stylish Surface fake pavement art in the corridor and smart white seating.

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General Manager Panos Panay showed off little details, like the way the rear camera angles so that it is level when the Surface is set on its kickstand. He talked about Microsoft’s drop tests, claiming that they had tested 72 different ways to drop a Surface and designed it not to break. He demonstrated this by dropping it onto a carpet, which was not too challenging, but the fact that Sinofsky successfully used it as a skateboard was more impressive.

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No doubt then: Microsoft has more enthusiasm for Surface, described by Panay as “the perfect expression of Windows”, than it does for the 1000 certified devices from its partners, though the company would never admit that directly.

What is the significance of Surface? It goes beyond the device itself. It will impact Microsoft’s relationship with its hardware partners. It embodies an Apple-like principle that design excellence means hardware designed for software designed for hardware. It shows that the “OK but nothing special” approach of most Windows hardware vendors is no longer good enough. If Surface is popular, it will also introduce demand for more of the same: a 7” Surface, a Surface phone, and more.

Despite its quality, the success of Surface is not assured. The biggest problem with Windows 8 now is with the lack of outstanding apps. That is not surprising given that the platform is new, and you would think that users would make allowance for that. On the other hand, they may lack patience and opt for better supported platforms instead, in which case building app momentum will be a challenge.

mobile, tablets, windows

Windows 8 FAQ: the real Frequently Asked Questions

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Since there is a certain amount of puzzlement around concerning Microsoft’s new version of Windows, or I should say, two new versions of Windows, here are the answers to the questions many are asking.

Why is Windows 8 so odd?

Windows is the most popular desktop operating system in the world; but is on a trajectory of slow decline. A combination of Macs at the high end and iPad or Android tablets in mobile is eroding its market share. You might not mind that, but Microsoft does, and Windows 8 is its answer. It has a tablet personality which is Microsoft’s tablet play, and a desktop personality which lets you run your existing Windows applications. The two are melded together, which makes Windows 8 a little odd, but ensures that neither one will be ignored.

Why did Microsoft not make a separate tablet version of Windows, like Apple’s iOS and OSX?

Many users think Microsoft should have made the tablet personality in Windows 8 a separate operating system. However, when they say that this would have made more sense and be less odd and intrusive, what they mean is that if it were a separate operating system they could ignore it and get on with their work in old-style Windows. That would achieve nothing for Microsoft, since the tablet-only OS would fail in the market.

Furthermore, Microsoft did in fact make a separate tablet version of Windows. It is called Windows RT (see below).

Why did Microsoft make the desktop side of Windows 8 impossible to use without touch input?

Actually it is fine to use with keyboard and mouse, it just takes some getting used to. When people say it is impossible to use, they mean that they have only tried it for five minutes in a virtual machine and did not like it. If you stick at it, you discover that Microsoft actually thought hard about keyboard and mouse users, and that the new Start screen is a better application launcher than the old Start menu, particularly in combination with the most used applications pinned to the taskbar. Some will not get that far, in which case they will stick with Windows 7 or even buy Macs. That is Microsoft’s calculated risk.

Why didn’t Microsoft simply make desktop Windows easy to use with touch input?

Microsoft tried, in Tablet PC and in Windows 7, but could not make it work. The biggest problem is that while Microsoft conceivably could have made the Windows desktop work well with touch input alone, it had no chance of fixing third-party applications, or older versions of Microsoft’s own software like Office.

Why did Microsoft remove the Start menu from the desktop?

This was not just to annoy you; but Microsoft would rather risk annoying you than have the new app platform in Windows be ignored. That said, there are third-party utilities that put something very like the Start menu back on the desktop if you prefer.

Why is the tablet side of Windows 8 locked down so you can only install apps from the Store?

Well, there are ways. But Microsoft observed Apple’s success with this model on the iPhone and iPad. Easy app discovery, no malware, and a stream of income from third-party sales. Aiming for lock-down was an easy decision; but the Intel version of Windows 8 will never be truly locked down.

Why are the apps in the Windows Store so few and so poor?

This is because the tablet personality in Windows 8 is a new and unproven platform. Software vendors and app developers are not sure whether it will succeed; and they are busy making apps for the two tablet platforms that already have a market, iOS and Android. If Windows 8 takes off, then the apps will start to flow. Unfortunately, the poor quality of the apps so far makes that less likely. Microsoft is countering by seeding the market with a few high quality apps, like OneNote MX, and hoping that Windows 8 users will create a strong demand for apps as the operating system becomes well-known.

What is Windows RT?

Windows RT is Windows 8 running on the ARM processor. The difference from the user’s perspective is that only new-style tablet apps will run on Windows RT. Your existing Windows apps will not run. It is not all bad news though. A Windows RT tablet or notebook will be more secure and run more efficiently than Windows 8 on Intel. If Microsoft has done its job, it should be more stable too, since apps are isolated from each other and from the operating system. Another bonus is that Windows RT comes with Microsoft Office bundled for free – though business users should beware of licensing issues which prohibit commercial use, unless you have an additional license to use Office.

Why are there so few Windows RT devices?

Microsoft’s third-party partners are not sure that Windows RT will succeed. They are a conservative bunch, and think that users will prefer compatibility with the past over the advantages in security, efficiency, and usability with touch, that Windows RT offers.

Why are most Windows 8 tablets complex and expensive hybrids with twisty screens and keyboards?

See above. Most of Microsoft’s hardware partners are not sure that users will buy into the idea of using Windows with simple touch-only slates, so they are playing safe, as they think, with hybrid devices that can be used either as slates or like laptops. Unfortunately the high price of such complex devices will limit demand. Microsoft is doing its own devices, called Surface, as examples of hardware that shows off Windows 8 to best advantage.

Should I upgrade to Windows 8?

If you don’t mind trying something new, yes. It runs better than Windows 7 in most respects. Yes, it is a little odd and has some annoyances, but nothing too serious. Give yourself a little time to learn it. If you hate change though, stick with what you like.

Will Windows 8 succeed, or is it the beginning of the end for Windows?

Ask me that a year from now. Let me add though, that the thing to watch is the Windows Store. If the Store flourishes and quality apps start to flow, it is working. If not, then Microsoft will have failed to achieve its goal with Windows 8, which is to establish a new app ecosystem.

See also:

Windows 8 survival guide for keyboard and mouse users

Windows 8 survival guide for tablet and touch users

audio, mobile, reviews

Review: Philips Voice Tracer digital recorder DVT 3500

I am someone who records interviews and events frequently, so have a keen interest in digital recorders. Earlier this year I started using a Philips Voice Tracer, reviewed here, so was interested to take a look at a new model, the DVT 3500.

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It is the same kind of thing: a handheld recorder with a built-in microphone on the end and a small speaker so you can listen on the device itself if you have to, though you will get better quality from headphones.

Like my other Voice Tracer, this one feels a bit flimsy, but benefits from being small and lightweight, and the older one has proved perfectly durable.

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You get quite a few bits in the box: digital recorder with 2GB storage, rechargeable batteries, short USB cable (now micro USB), a standard set of earbuds, a cheap and not very cheerful pouch, and as a special bonus, a telephone pickup.

2GB is on the small side in my opinion, but there is a microSD card slot so you can easily expand it.

Here are some of the things i like about the DVT 3500:

  • Rechargeable batteries which are nevertheless standard AAA size so you can use standard batteries if necessary. Long battery life too, something like 40 hours recording from a full charge. I never worry about it.
  • Built-in stereo microphone and socket for external microphone so you have the choice.
  • Built-in speaker so you can playback without headphones if necessary; of course the sound is tinny.
  • MicroSD slot mitigates the somewhat small 2GB internal storage – though even 2GB is plenty for many hours of recordings, the amount depending on the format you choose.
  • Decent choice of formats from 8kbps MP3 to lossless WAV. I prefer the 192kbps MP3 which Philips calls “Super high quality”; note that this is not the default. WAV is silly unless you have a high quality external microphone and are recording music.
  • Little fold-out stand for raising the microphone when placed on a table.

The supplied telephone pickup works like this. It is a mono earbud/microphone which you plug into the microphone socket and stick in your ear. Hold the phone to your ear, and if you can hear the other person, then so can the microphone. I tried it and it is effective, but somewhat intrusive since you get a lower quality of call than you would get without it.

The ear buds on the other hand are remarkably good, clear and with surprisingly deep bass. They are fine for music as well as playing back interviews for transcription.

I compared it to my older model. Quality of recording is similar, though the built-in microphone on the DVT 3500 seems a bit better than the older one. Storage capacity is less but my old model lacks a card slot. The new model has an LED which glows red when recording, and flashing red when paused, a nice feature. Another neat touch is pre-recording mode, where it records a five-second loop in standby mode so that when you hit record, you get the previous five seconds as well.

What is most noticeable is that Philips has worked hard on the firmware, which is much improved. I would not call the DVT 3500 a pleasure to operate, but it is much less fiddly than before. A great feature is that when you scroll though recordings, it auto-plays the first few seconds of each, making it easy to find the right one.

In the old user interface, you use the central joypad to page through incomprehensible icons. The new interface has just four icons along the top, representing File, Record settings, Display settings, and Device settings.

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Select a menu with the joypad, and then navigate up and down the sub-menu. The new higher resolution screen allows the choices to be spelt out clearly, such as Format memory in place of the old FORM.

The settings are rather extensive, to the point of confusion. There are separate settings for Auto Adjust Rec, Mic sensitivity, Wind Filter, and noise reduction; I think I understand what all these do, but trying all the combinations to find the optimal results would take time.

If you are recording music I suggest turning off all the automatic adjustments and filters, but for voice where all I care about is a clearly intelligible recording, I leave it on auto adjust and it seems to work out fine.

Make sure you find the real manual, which is a PDF on the device or on the Philips web site. The printed getting started leaflet is short and confusing.

Note there is no radio in this model. It is mentioned in the manual, but that is because the manual covers several models which have different features. This bother me not at all.

When you connect to a PC or Mac the device shows as external storage and it is trivial to import the audio files. The supplied USB cable is irritatingly short though.

The only thing to add is that I personally prefer an external microphone. I did some test recordings, and found that you get much better quality when holding the device in your hand close to your mouth, as opposed on the table in front of you, but that is impractical in many scenarios like interviews. Another snag with the internal microphone is that you get inevitable slight noise when operating the controls.

My old model came with a tie clip mic as well, which I use all the time, sometimes as a tie clip mic, and sometimes just placed on the table. Be careful though If you use a mic other than an official accessory; I tried a Sony mic but its output was too low and the recordings far too noisy. Try to test before purchase.

An excellent device though, which does the job for which it is designed very nicely indeed.

adobe, apple, cloud computing, development, microsoft, mobile, software development

Telerik Icenium: new desktop and cloud IDE for mobile development

When I heard that Telerik is bringing out a new IDE for mobile app development, I could contain my excitement, especially after learning that it is another PhoneGap/Cordova based approach, wrapping JavaScript and HTML as a native app. While speaking to Telerik’s Doug Seven though, I found myself increasingly impressed.

If that name sounds familiar, it might be because Seven was a director of Product Management in the Visual Studio team at Microsoft, and you can see that influence in the new IDE, which is called Icenium. Spot the Metro-style buttons at top left of the IDE!

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Icenium has several components. There is a Windows IDE called Graphite, illustrated above. Those on other platforms, or in distributed teams, can use Mist, which is a browser-based IDE which replicates many of the features of Graphite. There is also a set of cloud-based services to handle building apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. This means you do not need to install all the necessary SDKs on your own machine. Icenium also lets developers build signed iOS packages without needing to have a Mac.

The Icenium Device Simulator lets you test applications quickly on your own machine.

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The tools look good, though I have not tried them yet, but the unique feature of Icenium is the ability to deploy and test quickly on multiple devices. Code is kept synchronized between Graphite and Mist, and also pushed out though LiveSync to multiple devices. Here is a snap of the view from Doug Seven’s desk, grabbed from his online presentation. He showed me how a code change ripples almost instantly to all these devices for testing.

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An intriguing part of this is an iOS app called Ion which is a sort of runtime shell for Icenium apps. This means you can load apps for testing onto iOS devices that are not unlocked for developer use. You can also demonstrate apps on a client’s device using Ion. Apple’s attitude to runtimes in the App Store must be softening.

Icenium supports version control using either a Git repository hosted on the service, or your own choice of URL-based Git repositories.

Pricing will be per-developer at $16.00 per month if you sign up for a year, or $19.00 per month without a contract. Once you sign up, you can use all the tools on all your machines. You can also use Telerik’s Kendo UI Mobile framework. It is free until May 1 2013.

Isn’t Icenium’s cloud build feature similar to what Adobe’s PhoneGap Build already does?

“It’s a great comparison,” says Seven. “Adobe has the technology to make this [seamless development experience] possible, they just chose not to do it … [PhoneGap Build] is not integrated into the workflow. It’s a very manual process, I have to zip up my files, submit them to the PhoneGap Build process, then I get back these application packages that I have to manually deploy to my devices to see if it works.”

There is no support yet for mobile web apps, as opposed to apps packaged with Cordova, but this is a possibility for the future.

Like Adobe, Telerik has found WebKit and Google Chrome irresistible, despite Seven’s Microsoft background. WebKit is embedded in the Graphite IDE. You can use Mist with any modern browser, though “the one limitation is that the browser-based device simulator does require Chrome,” though he add that in general, “I use Mist on my iPad all the time.”

azure, cloud computing, microsoft, mobile, open source, professional, software, software development

ThoughtWorks bemoans excessive software complexity, advocates small, focused services

ThoughtWorks has released its latest Technology Radar, an opinionated analysis of software development trends.

Things the folk at ThoughtWorks like include automated build and deployment, essential for Continuous delivery; NOSQL database managers especially Neo4j; mobile-first development; the AppCode IDE for Apple’s Objective-C; the Graphite realtime graphing tool for creating dashboards; Clojure and Scala for programming.

I meet some of the ThoughtWorks team at developer conferences from time to time, and generally find them smart and though-provoking to talk to. They must be the despair of the big enterprise software vendors, with a liking for open source and an aversion to heavyweight high-maintenance systems.

This remark particularly caught my eye:

Simple architectures—Simple continues to gain traction, including both techniques for building and composing applications, as well as infrastructure-based techniques to enable simple deployment, failover and recovery. This theme is a recurring one for us, but we have not yet seen the usage shifts we believe are necessary.

I asked consultant James Lewis and practice lead Sam Newman to expand on that. Why do we continue to choose complexity over simplicity?

“A lot of people like to stay inside their big box, and don’t understand the complexities that then creates,” said Newman. “There’s a lack of critical thought given to how services talk to each other. A lot of them are driven by whatever the vendor says you do. Java makes RMI very easy. [Microsoft] .NET makes binding to WSDL [SOAP] schemas very easy. All these tools make bad things very easy to do.

“When you start talking to organisations about smaller services that are focused on doing one thing well, they have the horror associated with now having more than one box to manage and operate. So it’s hard to talk about moving from one big monolithic complicated box that is hard to change, to lots of little boxes, without also having conversations with those clients about how they get better at managing multiple services.

“Netflix has 300 services. Each service runs on at least six machines. They are very good at deploying those services. Yet they are not an overly complicated domain compared to some of our clients.”

“Amazon were talking about this in 2004,” adds Lewis, “the idea that you join up development of these small, simple applications with the operational control, so the same people who build them are also the people who run them. Now that we’re seeing both private and public clouds, and the ability to spin up machines becoming more and more prevalent, its starting to become more attractive.”

This is a consistent theme from ThoughtWorks. Break up complex solutions into many small services, think about how they talk to each other (with REST and HTTP favoured), and think about the infrastructure and how to automate it as well as the software itself.

“In many organisations these conversations are happening,” Newman told me. “I go to clients now, and they talk about the Enterprise Service Bus as being something they’d love to get rid of if they only knew how. Five to ten years ago, to even mention the Enterprise Service Bus as being a problem, they’d look at you with daggers in their eyes.”

“It’s almost like we’re now able to fulfil the promise of service orientation,” says Lewis. “It needed these additional practices, around things like automated deployment, automated rollback, and an understanding that people and process are tied intrinsically with it.”

Another issue, claims Lewis, is that software architects simply get out of touch with best practice.

“Most architects who build big systems are quite a long way from their codebases. They sit in rooms talking to other architects. They might have last written a line of code five or ten years ago. What they do is to design systems as they would have done ten years ago. People do get divorced from the latest trends and perpetuate less effective ways of doing things.”

Finally, here’s something for the Microsoft platform people who read this site. ThoughtWorks is not altogether averse to Microsoft and mentions the Azure cloud platform as something which is becoming interesting. But Windows Phone:

Despite a promising start to Windows Phone, a well thought-out user interface, and probably the best development experience of any mobile platform, we have seen several stumbles in the execution of the platform strategy by Microsoft and its partners. This makes us less optimistic about the future of the platform than we were in the last radar.

Translation: nice mobile platform, but nobody’s buying it. Then again, on Monday next week Windows Phone 8 will be properly unveiled. Still hope?

microsoft, mobile, windows

Microsoft posts decline in revenue and profits on the eve of Windows 8 launch

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Microsoft has announced its results for the first quarter of its financial year. The quote from Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein sums it up pretty well:

While enterprise revenue continued to grow and we managed our expenses, the slowdown in PC demand ahead of the Windows 8 launch resulted in a decline in operating income

Except that is for one thing. Klein implies that the PC slowdown is something to be expected ahead of the launch of a new edition of Windows, but I suggest there is more to it than that. First though, here are the figures, in the summary form that I have used before:

Quarter ending September 30th 2012 vs quarter ending September 30th 2011, $millions

Segment Revenue Change Profit Change
Client (Windows + Live) 3244 -1630 1646 -1624
Server and Tools 4552 +336 1748 +183
Online 697 +56 -364 150
Business (Office) 5502 -133 3646 -71
Entertainment and devices 1946 -15 19 -321

What is notable here is a significant reduction in revenue from the Windows client, while the enterprise-focused server and tools continue to grow. The Office products are bumping along fine, despite a small reduction in revenue, and despite the fact that we are on the eve of a new edition of Office as well as Windows.

Note that I am not a financial analyst, so take the following observations in that light.

I suggest that falling revenue from the Windows client is not just because Windows 8 is on the way, but because of a shift in the market towards mobile and tablets – Apple iPad and Google Android devices. See this post for an example of that in the consumer market.

Will Windows 8 deliver the hoped-for boost in PC and Windows sales? I am sceptical, especially in the short term (in other words, the next quarter). I discussed some of the issues here. Microsoft is making radical changes both to Windows and to its business model. It is doing the right thing, bringing Windows into the tablet era, and venturing into Windows device manufacture in order to pull quality of hardware design into its own hands rather than trusting entirely to OEM partners.

That transition may or may not work long-term, but in the short term it is likely to be costly. In Windows 8 Microsoft has concentrated on establishing a new ecosystem around the new tablet-friendly Windows Runtime platform. The consequence is that it does not deliver much benefit to users of desktop applications – in other words, all Windows applications other than those in the new Windows app store. Further, moving to Windows 8 is difficult at first for those familiar with Windows, so much so that many users react against it.

This means that Windows 8 will not deliver the upgrade rush that Windows 7 enjoyed, following on from the unpopular Vista. Rather, its success rests on the new elements in Windows: tablet use and Windows 8 apps.

Right now though, there is very little in the Windows Store that is good enough to drive sales. Developers are waiting to see if the platform succeeds before diving in.

The Windows 8 platform does have plenty of potential; and Microsoft is putting a huge promotional push behind it. Against that, there are powerful forces that will tend to suppress demand. It is going to be a battle, and one for which the outcome is hard to predict.

apple, mobile, tablets, windows

Amazon.com sales stats snapshot shows why Microsoft is reinventing Windows

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Anyone who questions the need for Microsoft’s radical reinvention of Windows need look no further than Amazon’s sales stats.

I was on Amazon.com checking out the specs for Samsung’s new Ativ slate, and happened to click the link for best sellers in Computers and Accessories.

On the morning of 17th October 2012, here is how the top 20 looked:

  • Six Android tablets including Samsung Galaxy Tab at number 1 and Google Nexus 7 at 3
  • Four varieties of Apple iPad at number 4, 7, 9 and 13
  • Two Apple MacBooks (Pro and Air) at positions 2 and 16
  • One solitary Windows laptop at number 10 (Dell Inspiron).

A mix of networking devices, screens and accessories make up the other eight places; I chose the entire sector because it puts tablets and laptops alongside each other.

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This is not about price. That Dell laptop is $429.99, little different from the 16GB iPad 2 at $399.99 and 42.5% of the cost of the MacBook Pro.

Windows still outsells the Mac overall. Gartner gave Apple just 13.6% of the US PC market (excluding tablets) for the third quarter of 2012. However, Windows is boosted by large corporate sales, where the Mac is still a minority taste; Amazon is largely a consumer vendor.

Further, Amazon’s figures change hourly and I may have hit a low spot; check out the current list yourself.

Finally, the large number of Windows laptops on offer dilute the ranking of any one – though there are a lot of Android tablets on sale too.

For Microsoft though, this is still a worrying list to see. Today’s Windows 7 devices are not what consumers want. Reinventing Windows for tablets was the right thing to do – though that does not, of course, prove that Windows 8 will succeed. Windows 8 pre-orders are not high on the list either – and yes, they are on the list; the Samsung Ativ convertible is currently at 60.

mobile, windows

Microsoft Surface is coming: Windows, but not as you know it

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Today Microsoft showed full details and prices for its Surface RT tablet with an ARM processor – an Intel variant is to follow – and you can order now.

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Surface is a distinctive device. Here are the key points:

  • Surface RT runs an NVidia ARM chipset – which means not one of your existing Windows 7 or earlier apps will run. Only new Windows Store (Metro-style) apps can be installed.
  • Microsoft Office 2013 comes preinstalled. It is the Home and Student edition, no Outlook and no license for commercial use, though individuals who use it for work are unlikely to be pursued. Businesses will need to cover Office usage with a volume license.
  • This is a true tablet. There are two different styles of keyboard cover, but it is designed for touch control. How successful this is for Office is moot (and we have not yet seen the final Office 2013) but it should at least be tolerable.

I doubt you will buy Surface RT for its specs: not bad, but not special either:

  • 10.6″ 1366 x 768 display (no Retina claims here)
  • 5-point multitouch
  • 2GB RAM
  • 1.5lbs weight – pretty lightweight
  • Wifi and Bluetooth but no 3G or 4G
  • Front and rear 720p cameras
  • Two microphones, stereo speakers
  • USB 2.0 (not 3.0)
  • MicroSDXC card slot (a nice differentiator from the Apple iPad)
  • 32GB or 64GB built-in storage
  • HD video out
  • Sensors: ambient light, accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass
  • Estimated 8 hour battery life – a bit disappointing, but decent

On the plus side, this should be the most reliable Windows yet. With desktop application installs blocked and only sandboxed Windows Runtime apps allowed, there is little opportunity for badly behaved applications or OEM foistware to foul up the system.

Surface RT realises the Windows 8 vision more fully than the Intel models, which are less efficient, less secure, and odd hybrids of old and new Windows. There is still a desktop in Surface RT, but it is limited and it would not be surprising if it disappears in future versions.

This means that Surface RT is in some respects better than the x86 Surface Pro which is promised at a later date. Surface Pro is heavier (up to 2lbs total), more power hungry, does not come with Office bundled, and will not be as secure. Further, Surface Pro will have greater need of keyboard and mouse thanks to those old desktop applications that users will install. I know which one I would rather take on a plane.

The problem with Surface RT: the Windows Store currently has around 3000 apps, most of them trivial and/or poor. How viable is Surface RT right now for getting all your work done when on the road?

That is an open question, and makes this a risky purchase for most users right now.

Then again, with Office, a web browser and a remote desktop client you are covered for many needs.

As the Windows 8 app ecosystem matures, Surface RT will get correspondingly more attractive. If Microsoft has got the design right (and early reports are good) this could be the ideal device for work and play. I want one.