Amazon Immediately Steals Surface 2 Thunder

[Jaskys]

What? Didn't even heard about Amazon anouncment.

 

[blehblehbleh]

...but how many people are willing to live with the limitations in the meantime, when other more mature systems are available?

You can count me as one.

 

[Daylife]

If MS wants to perfect a tablet for production and consumption it must offer a more polished ecosystem. Imagine the Surface hardware coupled with an Apple-like ecosystem of quality apps. Just think about that for a second.

The possibilities would be staggering.

Will MS ever get Surface to that level? Who knows. Untill then you can tweak the hardware all you want, without the back end support of premium content any RT based device will not sell nearly enough to make a true impact on the tablet space.

Its takes time, the App store has only been out for a year and it has over 100k in apps, also Microsoft will merge WP8 and W8 store into one, so it will most definitely make it more Apple like.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Its takes time, the App store has only been out for a year and it has over 100k in apps, also Microsoft will merge WP8 and W8 store into one, so it will most definitely make it more Apple like.

Merging app stores only benefits Microsoft in reduced overhead and branding. It does little if anything for customers. When people refer to an "Apple-like" store experience, they aren't referring to converged stores. It is the depth and breadth of the software offerings.

Microsoft needs to intelligently give money to key developers to produce those key apps for Win 8 RT. I stress "intelligently" because in the past they've just thrown money at developers with no expectations of the final product. MS should look at the top 20 apps in the iOS appstore and determine which of those would give the Win8 appstore a boost and then contract those developers to create world-class Win8 versions.

 

[Daylife]

Merging app stores only benefits Microsoft in reduced overhead and branding. It does little if anything for customers. When people refer to an "Apple-like" store experience, they aren't referring to converged stores. It is the depth and breadth of the software offerings.

Microsoft needs to intelligently give money to key developers to produce those key apps for Win 8 RT. I stress "intelligently" because in the past they've just thrown money at developers with no expectations of the final product. MS should look at the top 20 apps in the iOS appstore and determine which of those would give the Win8 appstore a boost and then contract those developers to create world-class Win8 versions.

Microsoft can throw as much money to the top developers and it wont do anything, they wont develop unless the audience is there. Merging WP8 with W8 store will be huge considering the amount of awesome WP8 apps has that will go to W8.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Microsoft can throw as much money to the top developers and it wont do anything, they wont develop unless the audience is there. Merging WP8 with W8 store will be huge considering the amount of awesome WP8 apps has that will go to W8.

You're missing the point. Developers will only develop if there are people willing to pay. The developer doesn't care who pays them. Initially, there isn't enough of a customer base to support the cost of development let alone turn a profit. That is why Microsoft throwing money at developers is important. MS pays for (or greatly subsidizes) the development/porting of their apps to Win8 RT. The developer will get paid for the effort. They have nothing to lose. MS is the one taking a gamble.

Microsoft has done it before with their mobile platforms as well as their gaming platforms. They've even gone as far as paying a premium to developers to keep their apps exclusive to MS' OS / game system.

Merging W8 and WP8 stores will only result in having "awesome WP8" apps magnified on the RT screen... adding fuel to the "quantity over quality" complaint. The developers of those "awesome WP8" apps aren't going to invest the time/money to optimize their apps for the RT screen because the audience isn't there.

 

[inteller]

how myopic. combining stores will kill the biggest problems, double buying apps.

Windows 8 has sold 100 million licenses....any developer who shrugs that off is a fool. The last solid numbers I have for Kindles sold was 22 million....that was a year ago so let's double that for arguments sake.

 

[jlynnm350z]

Why would i be kidding? How long have other OS's had the "you don't have that app" excuse as a reason not to buy an MS product. For me as a gamer halo is "that app"

Well said my friend. My response as well.

 

[spaulagain]

Merging app stores only benefits Microsoft in reduced overhead and branding. It does little if anything for customers. When people refer to an "Apple-like" store experience, they aren't referring to converged stores. It is the depth and breadth of the software offerings.

Microsoft needs to intelligently give money to key developers to produce those key apps for Win 8 RT. I stress "intelligently" because in the past they've just thrown money at developers with no expectations of the final product. MS should look at the top 20 apps in the iOS appstore and determine which of those would give the Win8 appstore a boost and then contract those developers to create world-class Win8 versions.

Huh? You don't think there is a benefit to customers with a clean unified store? Ummm, ok.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Huh? You don't think there is a benefit to customers with a clean unified store? Ummm, ok.

Only customers who own a Windows Phone 8 device *AND* Windows 8 RT device will benefit. How many people fall into THAT category?

I only own a Win RT device. How do I benefit from a merging of those two stores?

 

[ag1986]

how myopic. combining stores will kill the biggest problems, double buying apps.

Windows 8 has sold 100 million licenses....any developer who shrugs that off is a fool. The last solid numbers I have for Kindles sold was 22 million....that was a year ago so let's double that for arguments sake.

Perhaps I'm missing something here. Do you mean that there will be a store where one can buy one app, and have that automagically run on

1. Win8 tablets, desktops and laptops
2. WinRT devices
3. WP8 phones

How would such a magical feat be achievable?

 

[inteller]

the same way you buy one app now that will run on WP7 and WP8. See this guy or gal called a "developer" sets architecture targets for all versions of the app. Then, when you go buy it in the Store, the Store determines what architecture you are on and pulls the appropriate XAP from the app repository and installs it.

 

[spaulagain]

Perhaps I'm missing something here. Do you mean that there will be a store where one can buy one app, and have that automagically run on

1. Win8 tablets, desktops and laptops
2. WinRT devices
3. WP8 phones

How would such a magical feat be achievable?

It's not magic. It's actually pretty "easy." Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 have become much closer and apps can share much of the same code base. In fact, I think the APIs for each are the biggest difference that developers have to accommodate for. If they update the APIs to be the same, it will help a lot. It's then just a matter of the developers adjusting the UI for different screen sizes.

Apple already allows developers to use the same app for both iPhone and iPad. Our companies app is just one app and it automatically detects which version to install based on the device.

Microsoft is only a few steps away from a platform that you can literally code once and install on all devices. Really, web applications that use Responsive Design are essentially the same thing. They use the same code for the backend and even much of the front end. The responsive websites I've coded only needed about 10-15% more front end code (HTML/CSS) to make them responsive (optimized) to all devices.

Microsoft will have an amazing development environment...

1. One set of code that works on phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and xbox/tv.

2. Many code development options for enterprise .net developers and web HTML/CSS developers alike.

 

[Daylife]

Only customers who own a Windows Phone 8 device *AND* Windows 8 RT device will benefit. How many people fall into THAT category?

I only own a Win RT device. How do I benefit from a merging of those two stores?

Its a huge benefit for you, there are a ton of apps that WP8 has that W8 doesnt....so thats more apps for you.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Its a huge benefit for you, there are a ton of apps that WP8 has that W8 doesnt....so thats more apps for you.

Ok, but you didn't address my point about a bunch of phone apps that will not be optimized for the larger Surface screen. How is THAT a good thing?

 

[WillysJeepMan]

It's not magic. It's actually pretty "easy." Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 have become much closer and apps can share much of the same code base. In fact, I think the APIs for each are the biggest difference that developers have to accommodate for. If they update the APIs to be the same, it will help a lot. It's then just a matter of the developers adjusting the UI for different screen sizes.

Apple already allows developers to use the same app for both iPhone and iPad. Our companies app is just one app and it automatically detects which version to install based on the device.

Microsoft is only a few steps away from a platform that you can literally code once and install on all devices. Really, web applications that use Responsive Design are essentially the same thing. They use the same code for the backend and even much of the front end. The responsive websites I've coded only needed about 10-15% more front end code (HTML/CSS) to make them responsive (optimized) to all devices.

Microsoft will have an amazing development environment...

1. One set of code that works on phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and xbox/tv.

2. Many code development options for enterprise .net developers and web HTML/CSS developers alike.

It's a good thing that you put "easy" in quotes. Microsoft is still very far from what you are envisioning. Microsoft has been promising "code once, run everywhere" for over 15 years.

 

[spaulagain]

It's a good thing that you put "easy" in quotes. Microsoft is still very far from what you are envisioning. Microsoft has been promising "code once, run everywhere" for over 15 years.

And so that means they'll never get there? Maybe they didn't get there before because technology hasn't made that easy? And what did "everywhere" mean 15 years ago? Desktops and laptops? Smartphones were just a niche market that was still grossly underpowered. You couldn't develop the same application for them.

I'm not saying that in the next 6 months it will all be one easy press of a button. But they are closer to it than they ever have been. And for the first time in Microsoft history, they have pushed a unified portfolio that has completely reinvented their entire line of products. They want this all the merge. To the point they've completely restructured the company to blend a once ver siloed company.

MS isn't just blowing smoke up peoples asses, they are doing it. They aren't "very far." Especially with them treating web development as first class development platform, it really makes coding once much easier. That's what Responsive Design web applications are, code once, code everywhere.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

Microsoft is definitely moving towards unifying the APIs across platforms. My understanding is that the Xbox One is effectively already the same as Windows 8 save for a few things that make sense to be different, and that we could see true unification of Windows Phone (WinPRT currenttly) and WinRT APIs as early as the end of next year. I don't know that this will happen, and even if it does it will likely be a while before most apps are updated to take advantage of it, but I think they will get there and that they are pushing to do it soon.

Microsoft may be a lumbering giant much of the time, but they are not stupid and they know how important getting this right is. This is essential to growing their app ecosystem, as it would lower the barrier to entry for developers as well as reduce the resources (and therefore time and money) they need to spend. Plus it will allow for the gaps currently left on each platform to be filled by the other to some degree, and really Microsoft needs all the advantages they can get here right now

 

[WillysJeepMan]

And so that means they'll never get there? Maybe they didn't get there before because technology hasn't made that easy? And what did "everywhere" mean 15 years ago? Desktops and laptops? Smartphones were just a niche market that was still grossly underpowered. You couldn't develop the same application for them.

I'm not saying that in the next 6 months it will all be one easy press of a button. But they are closer to it than they ever have been. And for the first time in Microsoft history, they have pushed a unified portfolio that has completely reinvented their entire line of products. They want this all the merge. To the point they've completely restructured the company to blend a once ver siloed company.

MS isn't just blowing smoke up peoples asses, they are doing it. They aren't "very far." Especially with them treating web development as first class development platform, it really makes coding once much easier. That's what Responsive Design web applications are, code once, code everywhere.

You're are certainly entitled to your opinion. My history of developing for Microsoft platforms and listening to their frequent promises of convergence over the past xx years leads me to form the conclusion that I have. There is far more to the matter of true convergence than what is possible with "Responsive Design web applications". So there ya go.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

Microsoft has always been a large, disorganized company. Sometimes I wonder if different groups within Microsoft communicate at all, or if there is any kind of unifying direction within the company... That said, I genuinely believe they have seen the need for change now, and that change is coming. Although I think a lot of this hinges on who the new CEO is. They've got to pick someone who can look at their situation objectively and make some hard choices.