Much has been made of the demise of WP/W10M. I myself have owned almost every WP flagship, but sadly have moved on (though I might by one as a secondary device).
But I'm curious what everyone thinks about the state of W10 as a whole in 2017 (especially compared to Mac OS and Android's Desktop like experience)?
Also, how do you think the MS ecosystem is doing? We may have lost ground in mobile but I'm curious to get your thoughts about the rest of the W10 world.
Coming fresh off the build day two conference I think the future looks very bright.
MS is clearly ahead in its OS intergration of mixed reality.
Cortana skills offered contextually, will likely put MS ahead of the curve on voice, given a) its offered proactively not merely triggered b) it's a platform 100's of millions of people have access to already (unlike speakers).
There are also definite gains in terms of AI in general, and all those are available to use by developers.
Across device intergration makes windows open arms policy towards other platforms very attractive. Whether you are an android user, or a ios, your devices will work better together with windows and MS services than the other way around.
The incoming UI changes, make windows more attractive visually than other OSes. And they better suit mixed reality.
With system wide pen intergration, windows will be WELL ahead of other OSes in terms of the stylus.
UWP is picking up some steam with windows s (before release even - Spotify and iTunes are both already coming to the store), and will pick up more with the new xamarin, and windows on arm.
The shift to UWP and modernizing software is a slow transition for developers. But like the move from 16 bit, and 98 to XP before it, It'll happen. MS's windows 10 is conceived as both a hybrid OS that can run on everything from phones to mixed reality AND a more secure modernized application platform with a codebase that is more re-useable. It's a total refresh of the OS, in the vein of the move from windows 3.1 to 95 was, BUT BIGGER.
Apple and Google have not yet even released a hybrid OS. They show no indications of moving into AR/VR substaintially, with their OS itself (yet). None of the other Assistant platforms are as open to developers, nor are their development kits receiving as much love.
When apple and google actually make their hybrid OS (such as the project frushia for google), or apple it's rumoured AR project, I think we'll be able to make fairer comparisons.
Currently iOS and OSX do well enough (although iPhone sales are definitely losing steam in the market, which really should worry apple as its primary revenue stream), but they are not unified platforms. Android and ChromeOS do pretty well (a billion devices!), but they are not unified, and exist primarily on technologies that will be overshadowed by future tech.
Windows 10, is essentially "first to market", and has some years of lead time. I think that's what people don't grasp. How big a change windows 10 is, from "a desktop OS" or its previous incarnations. Windows 10, isn't supposed to be a "desktop OS" - its supposed to be the OS the unifies all hardware platforms. It's a massive refresh.
Of course, the herculean task of bringing all these features, whilst rolling out yet unannounced features like the adaptive cshell - its a heavy coding burden, and it takes time.
In that respect windows 10 is basically a work in progress. Not merely something that is being updated but something that "isn't done yet".
It works great as a desktop OS, and on a tablet and is complete in one sense, but the full vision of unification, mixed reality, conversation as a platform is still being added to.
Which is another reason why its earlier release than any other hybrid OS is important - competitors have A LOT of catching up to do, by the time they get their products to market.
MS is a little behind on its ambitious 1 billion devices goal, but having climbed to 500 million users on windows 10, and with the momentum it has this year, I can only see things getting stronger over time.
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