Windows 8….something to fear, or maybe, just maybe a beacon of hope for business

Like it or not, Windows 8 is coming.  From doing a lot of reading on the subject, reactions range from snorts of derision, off-hand dismissal, to outright fear and terror.  I however, see rays of hope.  That’s right, I said hope.  A little background about me that might make that statement more of an “oh wow” is that I tend to be a bit of a pessimist and a cynic, especially where technology is concerned.  I never jump on the new product bandwagon, and I don’t go for new and shiny.  I wait and evaluate….generally.  In this case however I plan on being an early adopter of Windows 8.  I’m going all-in, OS, phone, and tablet, and I’m not going to look back.

Windows 8 is going to be a support nightmare…at first.  Its look and feel are completely new (it is the first major interface change since Windows 95).  Users will boot into Windows 8, their eyes will bug out and the first thought will be “now what?!?!?!”  The learning curve will be high, things won’t work exactly the same in Metro as they did in the previous interface, and while there have been significant improvements, Metro is still more at home on a touchscreen than using a keyboard and mouse.  Using Windows 8 will require a mental shift in regards to how we use the computer and this is going to frustrate a significant amount of users, but I am looking forward to it.  I can already see benefits to the Metro UI.  One quick and small shift in thinking that will help is to look at everything as an app instead of a program.  OH! Ok, that’s a bit easier to see now.  Hey!  I can organize things in cool ways!  I can group live tiles for quick information to come up on boot, awesome!  I can make different tile groupings for “apps” for work, home, games, etc.  Sweet!  I’m more organized already!  More organized leads to more productivity, which leads to less frustration, and more happiness.  Hope.  I’m not saying it’s going to be easy or perfect.  You aren’t going to be able to work with multiple windows open in exactly the same way, and Metro does make some basic tasks more complex than they need to be (copying files for example).  I have confidence that these will probably be mostly worked out before release.  Oh yeah, the upgrade is going to be cheap.  It will be much easier to shell out $40 for an OS upgrade rather than $200.

I mentioned previously that Metro is more at home on a touchscreen.  Enter the Surface tablet!  This is phase two of what I believe is Microsoft’s plan with Windows 8 and broad user acceptance.  The Surface will come in two flavors, a “lite” version which runs on ARM processors and will operate more as a competitor for the iPad and other content consumption products like the Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire.  The other variant and the one that has me really excited will be the Surface Pro.  This I believe will be the game-changer for tablets.  The Pro runs a standard Intel x86 processor and is basically an Ultrabook in tablet form.  This tablet will be capable of running anything a standard PC can run (ok, so I wouldn’t use it to run AutoCAD, but we are talking realistic day-to-day business stuff).  This will be the first tablet that can truly be used as a desktop replacement.  You won’t just be playing with small apps that don’t give you everything you need, or using workarounds (see my previous blog on the iPad and One Note), you will be running the FULL PROGRAM!  It will work exactly like you are used to (ok, so you will use your finger instead of a mouse, work with me here!).  This will actually do what every executive and sales guy has been trying to do on an iPad for years.  Let me throw something else out there (HINT!  This is a key thought!), even if the Surface is a supplement and not a replacement, the Metro interface is the same as the Windows 8 desktop machine.  Both can be configured in the same exact way.  If you can navigate one you can navigate the other with no additional training.  Interesting.

Let’s add to this mix shall we?  Windows Phone 8.  This needs to be the new go-to device for business.  Blackberry needs to go quietly into that sweet night.  Businesses need to stop paying for BES servers when the existing exchange servers can do all this remote mail business better, and for no additional cost.  They need to stop sending their super-secret corporate e-mails to a 3^rd party company to then pass on to outdated devices that can’t do a fraction of the task other smart phones can do.  Phone 8 comes with Mobile Office.  Phone 8 is configured to natively interact with your corporate Exchange.  Phone 8 is based on REAL WINDOWS.  Why is that good?  Paul Thurrott points it out perfectly in his article “Windows Phone 8 Heads Off to Work” –

It shares the same NT-based kernel, networking stack, security, sensors, multimedia platform, web browser, and other components found in Windows 8 (and RT, the ARM-based Windows 8 variant). This is important on a number of levels, but it means that Windows Phone 8 will share many of the same proven and well-understood technologies from Windows, as well as the same drivers, support for the same services, and more.

You can develop an app that looks and works exactly the same on the phone, the tablet, and the desktop.  You can find settings and options in (relatively) the same places.  Oh yeah, Phone 8 uses the same Metro interface that the Surface and Windows 8 use.  If you know how to use one, you know how to use them all.  No more re-training users for each new device, no more confusion.  See what Microsoft did there?  They unified EVERYTHING.  I’m not even going to get into (with this post anyway) the cool file-sharing and ease of access you can get across all your Windows 8 based devices with a Server 2012 and Skydrive combo punch.

This is why I think I will like it.  It will be painful at first, but I think Windows 8 will end up reducing support costs and user frustration due to platform uniformity.  Once they get familiar with Windows 8, users will move from their desktop to a tablet to their phone and simply know how to use them because they look, feel, and for the most-part work the same.