Will windows 10 S help Mobile?

[L0n3N1nja]

Combined with Arm later this year we may get some interesting tablets, and hopefully that improves the app situation.

 

[a5cent]

why can't Windows 10 just be slapped onto a phone? Mondern phones are more powerful than laptops and tablets with Atom CPUs.... is it just because of the GUI?

The UI is just one reason, but obviously an important one. Interacting with a UI made for mouse and keyboard with your finger is a major pain in the rear, even on a large screen (a finger can't hover over an element like a mouse, there is no right mouse button, etc) . On a small phone sized screen it's entirely unusable. It's only viable when hooked up to a larger screen with the required peripherals. Period.

There is also the issue of expectations. Mobile OSes are basically maintenance free. Anybody can use them without requiring any formal understanding of IT whatsoever. That is simply not true of the maintenance-heavy and complicated desktop OSes. The simplicity of mobile OSes is why consumers have come to prefer mobile computing devices. Putting a desktop OS on a phone is guaranteed to annoy the majority of consumers for those reasons. The second the average consumer is told to update a driver, use a registry cleaner or reinstall Windows on their phone sized device (even if MS sells it as something different), is the second most consumers will throw W10-on-a-phone (at least mentally) in the trash bin.

Security is another issue. A security breach on a Windows PC is already bad enough. That problem is compounded on a device that is loaded with sensors, used for payments and has precise tracking capabilities. That provides a gateway to acquire far more personal information than what can typically be gleaned from a compromised PC. W10 is very insecure compared to W10S or W10M, so as an OS, it's simply not a good match for such a personal device.

There are more reasons, but I consider those the most important.

Technically, putting W10 on a phone or phone-like device poses no problem whatsoever. The problem is that it's just fundamentally a bad idea. On a side note, that should also make us a bit skeptical of the potential behind the upcoming W10 on ARM, since it's exactly that.

 

[nealcooper]

I think that developers will use project centennial rather than creating an all new application for Windows 10 S even if that application would also work on Mobile.

Even now we can see that some applications that are available thought the Windows store on mobile and PC are better on PC. I'm thinking about the Messenger and Facebook apps that have more features on PC than mobile.

As long as there is no new successful flagship for W10M, developers will forget the Mobile part of Windows 10.

 

[Joe Frazier]

I don't think that S will help because I don't see a large adoption of the Surface laptop. It's a beautiful machine but doesn't bring anything new to the table. S may be deployed to places that really want to limit what users can download but enterprises already do that today and consumers have already indicated they don't want that limitation (RT). You can get equally nice laptops for less so I just don't see this having much impact even with the, now, diluted Surface branding.

 

[Drael646464]

Technically, putting W10 on a phone or phone-like device poses no problem whatsoever. The problem is that it's just fundamentally a bad idea. On a side note, that should also make us a bit skeptical of the potential behind the upcoming W10 on ARM, since it's exactly that.

No, it's actually not, despite some serious confusion amongst fans that seems to get spread unfortunately.

Windows on ARM is for tablets, notebooks (and servers); growing marketshare windows 10 devices (windows tablets for example are strongly growing in a marketplace that overall is actually shrinking - apple and Samsung have posted about 3-4 years of lost marketshare)

Windows on ARM is not for phones. Its for devices where people appreciated the expanded capabilities of full windows 10.

You raise some great points about full desktop OS on phones though. Makes one wonder how google's hybrid OS fushia, or apples if it ever turns up will deal with such issues.

 

[ajcletus500]

why can't Windows 10 just be slapped onto a phone? Mondern phones are more powerful than laptops and tablets with Atom CPUs.... is it just because of the GUI?

an ARM powered W10 device is the possible answer to your question. the only question is the form factor of the device they will market

 

[JohnnyRedLight]

The UI is just one reason, but obviously an important one. Interacting with a UI made for mouse and keyboard with your finger is a major pain in the rear, even on a large screen (a finger can't hover over an element like a mouse, there is no right mouse button, etc) . On a small phone sized screen it's entirely unusable. It's only viable when hooked up to a larger screen with the required peripherals. Period.

There is also the issue of expectations. Mobile OSes are basically maintenance free. Anybody can use them without requiring any formal understanding of IT whatsoever. That is simply not true of desktop OSes. People dislike the maintenance-heavy and complicated desktop OSes for a reason. The simplicity of mobile OSes is why consumer's have come to prefer mobile computing devices. Putting a desktop OS on a phone is guaranteed to annoy the majority of consumer's for those reasons. The second the average consumer is told to update a driver, use a registry cleaner or reinstall Windows on their phone sized device (even if MS sells it as something different), is the second most consumers will throw W10-on-a-phone (at least mentally) in the trash bin.

Security is another issue. A security breach on a Windows PC is already bad enough. That problem is compounded on a device that is loaded with sensors, used for payments and has precise tracking capabilities. That provides a gateway to acquire far more personal information than what can typically be cleaned from a compromised PC. W10 is a very insecure compared to W10S or W10M, so as an OS, it's simply not a good match for such a personal device.

There are more reasons, but I consider those the most important.

Technically, putting W10 on a phone or phone-like device poses no problem whatsoever. The problem is that it's just fundamentally a bad idea. On a side note, that should also make us a bit skeptical of the potential behind the upcoming W10 on ARM, since it's exactly that.

Well said and understood. I guess, knowing a little more about computers than the average person, I was blinded .

I REALLY like the idea of a phone that is powerful enough to run full windows 10 that I can just pop into a dock (ala HP X3) and do stuff with as much oumph as an ultrabook. Without a goofy Continuum subscription or something like that.

To the OPs question, 10S might reduce the security risks.

Ah well.. maybe in 5 years.

 

[Jeffery Holderness]

I hope so. I've been wanting the store to grow for forever.

 

[a5cent]

No, it's actually not, despite some serious confusion amongst fans that seems to get spread unfortunately.

Windows on ARM is for tablets, notebooks (and servers); growing marketshare windows 10 devices (windows tablets for example are strongly growing in a marketplace that overall is actually shrinking - apple and Samsung have posted about 3-4 years of lost marketshare)

I'll be surprised if W10oA only ships on tablets, notebooks and servers . I don't know what MS has planned in terms of future hardware, but I'm speculating W10oA will ship on at least one phone-like device. After all, one of the SoCs W10oA will run on is the Snapdragon 835. That SoC comes with all the capabilities typically expected of smartphones (SensorCore, GPS, cellular, etc).

I hope I'm wrong and you are right.

 

[sd4f]

I sort of bought into the hype with UWP, only to see it fall flat.

I get the feeling that in the long run, Windows 10 S might help mobile, but also, have my doubts. At the end of the day, there needs to be a compelling reason for people to develop for mobile, and currently there's every reason to ignore it.

 

[TheFlyingDutchBros]

I would argue that Windows 10 S is not intended to help the mobile platform directly. Instead, I believe it is aimed squarely at encouraging developers to convert Win32 apps to UWP so that they can become familiar with the advantages the new platform offers. Microsoft intends for UWP to eventually replace Win32 entirely and Windows 10 S is the first step towards making that happen. The unfortunate truth is that Microsoft has done a poor job communicating UWP to developers as a replacement for Win32 and so it's taken a long time for them to get on board. However, I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually saw Windows 10 drop support for Win32 altogether, though by that time Windows 10 S will probably either be dropped or have the S removed because the distinction is meaningless.

 

[SpaciousZebra]

Really only time will tell. I'd be surprised if Microsoft didn't focus on it's mobile side from here on out. It's going to generate so much revenue for most of the players in the space that they won't pass up the opportunity to impress.