* Techies confused by radical departure from tried and true
* Microsoft expected to show off new tablets next week
* Holiday shopping season to mark first big test
By Bill Rigby
SEATTLE, June 15 (Reuters) – As Microsoft Corp
prepares to show the world what its new Windows 8 can do on the
next generation of high-powered tablets, initial reviews of the
new operating system on existing hardware underscore the
challenges the company faces with the radical redesign of its
flagship product.
The world’s largest software company says millions of people
are already using a downloaded pre-release version of Windows 8
on PCs, laptops and touch-devices ahead of its full introduction
this autumn. At a media event in Los Angeles on Monday, the
company is expected to discuss its plans to take on Apple Inc’s
all-conquering iPad this holiday shopping season.
So far, most reviewers have praised the look and feel of the
touch-friendly “Metro” style of Windows 8, which is based on
colorful squares, or “tiles,” that depict applications such as
email, and update in real time. But they have also stressed how
difficult it will be for users to move away from what they know
and trust.
“It’s a bit of a struggle for people who are deliberately
oriented on a PC, that are used to a mouse feel,” said former
Microsoft strategist Al Hilwa.
Now an analyst at tech research firm IDC, Hilwa has been
trying out the latest demo release for two weeks. “Without a
touchscreen, I struggled with a mouse to do certain things,” he
said.
The new Metro interface only runs programs written for it,
so users have to switch back to the traditional desktop to do
certain tasks, like listening to music on Apple’s iTunes.
“The thing that really infuriates me is that it seems like
Metro apps, and apps running in the normal desktop don’t have
any knowledge of each other, ” said Forrester Research analyst
David Johnson. “There’s no easy way to navigate between them,
and I’m not quite sure why that is.”
The latest test version is not yet finished software. And
outside of a few industry testers, no one has tried out Windows
8 on a tablet powered by ultra-efficient ARM Holdings
chips, which is the closest Microsoft will come to challenging
the iPad.
Microsoft is expected to say more about that on Monday, and
there is talk that it might introduce a tablet under its own
brand name. The company declined to comment on the reaction to
the new system and its plans for the Monday event.
Nevertheless, Microsoft has not persuaded some of its most
loyal users just yet.
“Right now, I’m not sold,” said analyst Michael Cherry of
Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm that
focuses on the tech giant.
Cherry said he had persevered with Windows 8 for a few days,
but had problems setting up email on his test machine. “I can’t
rely on it as a production tool,” he said. “I can’t switch over
yet. At this point, I should be able to leave Windows 7 behind.”
A former Microsoft program manager, Cherry worries that the
initial complexity of the new system will prevent it from being
an instant hit, like its predecessor, Windows 7.
“If a guy who has used Windows since Windows 1.0 can’t
figure it out, then I’m going to guess there are other people
out there who aren’t going to figure it out,” he said. “We won’t
see line-ups at Best Buy at midnight. I’d love to see
that, but it’s just not there.”
JURY DOUBTFUL
Mainstream tech reviewers like the Wall Street Journal’s
Walt Mossberg or the New York Times’ David Pogue have not yet
weighed in on the third and latest “preview” of Windows 8, which
became publicly available online on May 31.
The smattering of reviews on tech-centric blogs have
generally praised the new look of Windows 8, but almost every
one has stressed how difficult users will find the switch.
“I’ve felt almost totally at sea – confused, paralyzed,
angry, and ultimately resigned to the pain of having to alter
the way I do most of my work,” wrote Farhad Manjoo, technology
columnist at online journal Slate, even as he acknowledged that
there is a lot to love about Windows 8.
GeekWire — Microsoft’s hometown technology news website in
Seattle — was no kinder, featuring a video of one reader’s
father, completely stumped by how to get back to the Start menu.
( http://www.geekwire.com/2012/real-user-windows-8-they-drive-mac/
)
“Bottom line, I’ve spent the past day feeling lost, and a
little grumpy,” wrote GeekWire’s Todd Bishop, who has followed
the software company as a reporter for more than a decade.
“Microsoft likes to use the words ‘fast and fluid’ to
describe Windows 8, but two other words keep popping to my mind:
‘New Coke,'” wrote Bishop, referring to Coca-Cola Co’s
short-lived attempt to reinvent its core product in the 1980s.
Gizmodo reviewer Mat Honan praised Windows 8’s “subtle
elegance” and said the Metro apps were better and easier to
navigate than the last test version, but added there was nothing
that “bowls you over.”
ZDNet reviewer Ed Bott, a previous skeptic of Windows 8,
liked the “rich and polished collection of Metro-style apps,”
and was the only high-profile reviewer with a wholly positive
reaction.
CONFUSION
To be sure, any great change to a system used by more than 1
billion people every day is bound to meet with resistance.
Microsoft’s Vista operating system got off to a terrible
start in early 2007 due to its heavy memory demands and finicky
security settings, but recovered somewhat in later updates.
Almost three years later, its successor, Windows 7, became the
company’s fastest-selling system to date, and has now racked up
more than 500 million sales.
But Apple’s intuitive iOS mobile system has raised
expectations, both for aesthetics and ease of use.
“I would not be able to give my mother – who is 76 – Windows
8 and expect her to be productive with it,” said Forrester’s
Johnson. “But I’m also not sure that somebody in their 30s, or
even 20s, wouldn’t be confused initially by the Metro interface
either.”
Individual consumers and potential iPad buyers, rather than
corporate customers, are the primary target for the Windows 8.
Many big companies are still in the process of spending millions
of dollars upgrading to Windows 7.
The success of the software will depend in part on the
quality and price of machines running Windows 8, which is in the
hands of PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Samsung
Electronics, Lenovo Group and Acer Inc
.
But even if the machines are slick, Microsoft’s online
Windows Store is still no match for Apple’s App Store, and will
probably take several years to build momentum, which in turn
removes incentives to buy tablets running the new Windows.
“I really want to use Windows 8,” said Cherry of Directions
on Microsoft. “But I’m not sure they’ve gotten to nirvana. It’s
a stake in the road that shows us where they want to get to –
I’m not sure they are able to get there in one release.”
(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Lisa
Von Ahn)
