Wow so Windows 10 will impact the Microsoft landscape, also No Flagship for Holiday season.

[Greywolf1967]

So just like last weeks Windows Weekly show over on Twit, both Paul and Mary Jo have confirmed "No Windows Flagship Phone for the rest of the year". It's at the 1Hr 8min mark where it is stated.

Now it was also talked about in an early part of the show No Future Arm Windows RT tablets, unless a 3rd Party brings one to the table. So RT is not Officially "DEAD", but given that all 3rd party RT tablet makers have left the table, it would seem any hope for a Surface 3 ( Arm based) is gone.

That is not to say a Surface 3 with newer Intel Mobile chip could be in the pipeline, however it is starting to look more of a reality.

More then likely Windows Phone 10 will merge or swallow RT and just become your next Super Phablet at 7" and 8" ( minus Phone features like a dialer and SMS ).

Your thoughts????

 

[a5cent]

Now it was also talked about in an early part of the show No Future Arm Windows RT tablets, unless a 3rd Party brings one to the table. So RT is not Officially "DEAD", but given that all 3rd party RT tablet makers have left the table, it would seem any hope for a Surface 3 ( Arm based) is gone

I'd argue that an OS which MS has no intention of publicly releasing, pushing or supporting, and which nobody intends to produce hardware for, IS officially dead. Although I agree your way of putting it is a lot more PC.

I've been explaining why RT is dead for at least half a year now, but only during these last few weeks can you mention that without reaping a lot of pushback, anger and disbelief. I think the biggest source of uncertainty and potential frustration revolves around the question of what upgrade options existing Surface and Surface 2 owners will have, if any. It seems that the only option which would make everyone happy is a real Windows 10 RT, and while I could imagine that becoming a reality, I'd still consider it dead as that wouldn't be something new products are launched with.

For MS' future tablets, we'll have Windows 10 Mobile, which will just be WP extended with the tablet centric features from RT (window snapping, etc), and made fully compatible with the full WinRT APIs and runtime. This shift is absolutely necessary if Windows tablets are ever to be price competitive with Android tablets, which WRT had no hope of ever pulling off.

I don't think MS is losing anything by dropping WRT. With W10 Mobile squeezing it from the bottom, and $200 Intel laptops/convertibles with desktop compatibility squeezing it from the top, WRT no longer serves a purpose.

 

[TrueMetalGeek]

From what I heard a while back, the coding is merging so apps can be made to run on multiple windows platforms too.
That will be good and perhaps make the Windows app availability increase.

BTW, I'm using Windows 10 on my PC to type this.
It is Alpha version I believe.
Works pretty good so far.
It is basically Windows 8.1 with some tweaks to be a more desktop feel and a start menu. You can toggle to the metro I guess but I haven't tried that yet.

 

[Greywolf1967]

My first feeling is that Surface and Surface 2 owners will stay put on Windows RT, and these devices will see bug fixes/Support Updates until life cycle ends. Which is not a bad fate, and the users who wish to stay I think will stay happy there will be no major change past maybe a Touch Friendly Office Upgrade.
Where I think things will be very interesting is the 7 and 8" Tablets. We will move to Windows 10, but I think we can say bye to desktop unless like me and my Acer W3 you plug in a mini hdmi and hub for keyboard/mouse.

I think I would welcome the Phone style UI on my W3 or any cross between Phone/PC that we end up with. Since 7 and 8" Tablets lend themselves to being held Phone style so well, the UI should be able to adapt better then it does in 8.1 now.

 

[a5cent]

My first feeling is that Surface and Surface 2 owners will stay put on Windows RT, and these devices will see bug fixes/Support Updates until life cycle ends. Which is not a bad fate, and the users who wish to stay I think will stay happy there will be no major change past maybe a Touch Friendly Office Upgrade.

I agree that is a likely scenario, but it will cause quite an outrage. Many people will view that as being left behind, similar to what WP7 customers experienced, which MS is still regularly criticized for today. The tech press would treat this no differently, if not worse, and MS would take another hit to their rep if they do take that route. I think that suggests MS should do more (I have no idea if they will).


WRT is based on the exact same code base as regular windows, just with a slightly different configuration and recompiled for ARM. Technically, it's really more like a separate SKU (edition) of Windows, rather that a separate OS. That makes it comparatively cheap (still millions) to prepare a W10 RT version, which suggests MS could do more. Allowing people to upgrade to W10 Mobile is another option, but I find that very unlikely.

Where I think things will be very interesting is the 7 and 8" Tablets. We will move to Windows 10, but I think we can say bye to desktop unless like me and my Acer W3 you plug in a mini hdmi and hub for keyboard/mouse.

You can say goodbye to the desktop, no matter what peripheral hardware you hook the device up to (unless you use RDP). I explained why a few months back, which I'll see if I can dig up when I get back to a PC (on the road this week). MS confirmed this last month behind closed doors, on the day they announced W10.