RT one app could make huge inroads into the market

[mr-mac]

MS needs to sell an office upgrade with a version of Access. Or at least an access form/survey builder that allows use of forms and creates data files from them.

why?

Well Arm/RT offer good battery, lighter devices that are less problematic to protect from dust and moisture due to no cooling fan required.

This means they are the perfect sales / survey / contract tools for people on the road or in the street. A lot of companies use access databases and create forms\macros etc. for people to input data (could they even make the access or access form software with a way to autoload the data in encrypted form back to home base?) so creating an app like this would be a huge boost to RT.

VPN and MS Access and I doubt companies will look anywhere else for a light, durable and excellent device for this purpose. My 2p anyway.

Do the rest of you agree? Anything else you'd say would be a killer feature that if implemented quickly would make RT devices a no brainer??? You make RT first choice for a lot of companies and it will follow into a serious number of homes.

John

 

[vedichymn]

I suspect that if there was a huge pent up demand for this kind of thing, MIcrosoft would've ported over Access. I think most companies large enough to give a bunch of people tablets and send them out are also going to have the resources to create a native application.

 

[mr-mac]

There is a difference between companies who's only job is this and companies who do a lot of this..

a lot of companies I have worked for have their own databases and have front end forms for looking up, entering or editing data. You'll find a huge amount of compnies have a lot of different smaller departments. I'm willing to bet a lot of companies who could benefit from this do not have;

1. Budget to create and app (or have it edited) every time they want to do this..
2. Don't have a software developer in the department or at their beckon call.

I'll bet most of the companies who use databases and have departments who do data collection have database admins and experts who can chuck together a form in an afternoon. Requirements for surveying, contracts, data collection often change regularly so having an "app for that" actually sucks. All big companies use databases and most administer then themselves so I still think it's an excellent idea.

do you really think it's not a good idea for the reason "if it was MS would have done it?" Christ there are loads of good ideas left out due to time to release etc.

Said from day one of test win8 that if MS are serious they need to integrate messaging on phone and windows. Also allow pc to act as headset and take and make calls via the phone. Why? How many people game and have a headset on when on the PC. So when a call comes in it would be amazing to take it right there on PC. A unified message centre so when on PC sms's and mms's appear in pc messaging app and you can send phone texts from this app as well. These are also good ideas but they were not implemented. If MS are as serious as they get about WP and Win8/RT then make phone and PC (via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) an integrated experience. A full; game, entertainment, productivity and communication centre. (been waiting for a company to get it right with and integrated and aligned system for years - we could be so close esp with wp 8 on same kernel - don't lift off the gas MS.... don't look to make tweaks for windows 9.... keep improving, integrating and pushing forward the system integration (WP, Windows, X-Box, Tablet- it's close to being a integrated home system - foot on gas and make it happen).

While I'm at it what about a surface RT / Tablet app that allows your surface to act as a 2nd display for your Desktop PC??? My idea here is you could have the main monitor showing Windows 8 Desktop and the surface acting as 2nd screen showing Windows 8 live tiles???? Sounds good to me as you'd have live tile notifications up all the time and not have to drop in and out of desktop all the time.

Now MS have a lot if resources, lots of developers, all the tool chains they need. They have already ported all office apps. So I don't think any of my suggestions including (access or at least a data collection form utility), unified messages and PC as headset or surface as a metro screen for Windows 8 Desktop are actually anything particularly out of reach or anything that would take so much resource as to make them not worth while.

MS have made huge leaps and I think they should keep making more before others can react. Besides MS making improvements and integrated ecosystems will drag the other companies into offering similar improvements so it's a great thing for us as consumers

 

[jaimeastin]

I wish I could have access on the rt. At least access runtime so you can deploy customs company apps on here. Man, this would be a perfect marriage! I cont have to code one thing on the rt, but to be able to put a custom front end app in here to deploy to the staff, dreaming...

Come on Microsoft, do this please!

 

[HalM]

I am an IT consultant and I agree that there is one app that could spring the RT into the mainstream, but it is not Access. I know only a few users that rely on Access but there are thousands that reply on a VPN. So what is needed is a Cisco VPN client. Once that is out the other firewall makers would follow. But Cisco is the 800 pound gorilla and its client is desperately needed.

 

[johninsj]

Said from day one of test win8 that if MS are serious they need to integrate messaging on phone and windows. Also allow pc to act as headset and take and make calls via the phone.

Skype.

 

[inteller]

Microsoft's vision for access is SP2013 databases in Office365. a form builder would be about the only thing needed on the client end. really, an app that reads forms already created in the cloud would be better.