I’ve been playing with Windows 8 for a while now. Upon hacking the registry to give a traditional Windows 7 Desktop and start menu I don’t see anything drastically different that justifies the switch. Leaving Windows 8 “as is” with the Metro Apps in my opinion is unbelievably obtrusive to the Corporate Environment, almost guaranteeing that employees will have to “relearn” the PC as they know it. Office 2010 was the perfect example of just how intrusive major change is to a business. I can’t see it flying. I forsee another Windows Vista Monumental failure OUTSIDE of the Tablet Market.
From a mobile device / tablet perspective I think Microsoft is on the right path. As well as the I-pad does in sales there are many woes concerning corporate integrating tablets to their user pool. Apple has done a wonderful job with the I-pad but as with everything it isn’t perfect. It’s stable and does work well, don’t get me wrong, but there is a void.
Microsoft does have an opportunity to expand it’s hold in this way, especially if the files on a Windows 8 Tablet are completely compatible with traditional PC’s. Now as we both know Microsoft has a habit of screwing the pooch so let’s hope they don’t do that here on the Tablet end of the market.
As far as the Corporate Desktop Environment is concerned I seriously doubt this will be embraced much in the way Vista was hung out to dry. Companies are simply going to look at this and say show me the bottom line benefit to this as opposed to what we already have. At the same time it is only in the past 2 years that Windows 7 has been fully embraced by the Corporate world and has been being rolled out as new migrations from XP to Windows 7 regularly. I get contract offers all the time for these rollouts of which I turn down because I dont need the work BUT they are MUCH more common now.
That said, I can’t see any large business doing another major upgrade after just transitioning to Windows 7. Financially it makes no sense and is just not viable. I don’t know about you BUT I am NOT changing any of my PC’s over to Windows 8.
What I CAN SEE is Corporate America utilizing a Windows based Tablet. There is a market there IF and ONLY IF the files on your Windows 8 tablet are able to be used and shared seamlessly with your pc’s.