Windows 8 remains the martyr of the mobile OS battle

iOS and Android are the most popular mobile operating systems, and Windows will turn from an absolute ruler of the desktop operating system to the mobile operating system market and play the role of a vulnerable challenger. At the same time, many downstream manufacturers and consumers are pinned on this. But the author argues that Windows 8 is still not a success in the battle for mobile operating systems, and remains a martyr. We will make a forward-looking analysis of the accuracy of Windows 8 's competitiveness in the mobile operating system, based on the in-depth experience of consumer previews and other information available in this article.

The core improvement of Windows 8 is to change to a micro-core architecture, dramatically increasing efficiency and reducing hardware overhead, while adding the Metro control interface to suit mobile touch devices. The mobile products involved in Windows 8 involve mobile phones, flat panels, notebook three product lines, and we will resolve their competitiveness in these product lines separately:

Windows Phone 8 User awareness is the biggest problem

Windows Phone 7 was released as early as the end of 2010, and now the number of applications has reached more than 60,000, basically formed a basic and complete ecosystem, WP7 although Nokia's generous, but today its market share or fall again, into a rather embarrassing situation. Windows Phone 8 as a Windows 8 extension of the mobile phone platform, the system core from the WP7 CE core upgraded to the new win 8 NT architecture microkernel, it still needs to face the WP7 now need to face: First, the WP system for ordinary consumers, cognitive is very low, While the issue has improved with the Nokia Lumia series, it knows few ordinary consumers of Windows Phone systems; The second problem is the user acceptance of the Metro interface, although the Metro has a visual feedback, dynamic performance rich, no boundary operation Efficiency High advantage (I personally also like), but some of the consumers have tried WP or more inclined to iOS and Android, such as the traditional icon based UI mode of operation, rather than the initiative to try new things, and such user habits hinder it is difficult to completely across. So Windows Phone is excellent, but it's still difficult to shake iOS and Android.

User acceptance of the Metro interface is directly related to the success of Win 8 and Windows Phone

Windows 8 tablet go old need determination

From the existing Windows 8 flat-panel UI to Metro as the core, but still retain the traditional interface, this is wrong, for touch operations, the traditional Windows UI is anti-human, so the anti-human behavior must not be allowed. The application must also be fully Metro--now the presentation of office 2012 is just "optimized" for touch, and the experience is still far less real metro apps like IE10.

It is also possible to think that the number of existing Windows platforms with countless applications will be the largest wealth of Windows tablet, the same fact, even without considering the arm and x86 architecture compatibility issues, the original application of traditional interface design for touch operation for the active flat, the operating experience is completely unacceptable, As a result, the Windows 8 flat-panel application backlog is still starting at 0 and must be rebuilt in Metro.

So if Microsoft does not make up its mind to completely discard the traditional UI in the flat-panel Windows 8, this split user experience will be a bad one, only repeating the same fate as Windows Mobile.

Of course, from the current consumer preview, it is clear that this determination is not firm enough.

The win 8 traditional UI is still not friendly enough for touch optimization

Desktop Windows 8 Lonely single King

For traditional x86 laptops/desktops, the popularity of Windows 8 is not in suspense with OEM-pre-installed promotions, but that does not mean there is no problem. The Metro interface is not an inappropriate keyboard + mouse traditional mode of operation, but the problem is that if users use the Metro's Start Menu + traditional interface of the application, visual perception, operation needs to constantly between the metro and the traditional Windows interface quickly switch between, resulting in a serious user experience splitting, The author's desktop will undoubtedly use win 8, but it may be possible to shut down metro and use the traditional interface.

For Windows 8 notebooks with ARM architecture, the author's view is that they are completely out of favor. There are three reasons:

1. Even the most powerful cortex A15 architecture ARM processor performance is also far from the entry-level Sandy bridge processor, although it is in the unit power performance advantage, but this also only brings the endurance, and performance is difficult to meet demand;

The 2.ARM version of Windows 8 (WOA windows on ARM) only looks like windows to the average user: It looks the same, but because ARM is incompatible with x86 applications, existing programs are not installed and running;

3. Now x86 notebook prices have already been priced, entry-level Pentium notebook prices have fallen into 2000,arm SOC although the core performance components have a certain price advantage, but the whole machine to consider the cost of research and development, the price will not be lower than the existing traditional x86 notebook.

So for end users There is no reason to buy a woa notebook with poor performance, almost any program that doesn't work, and not a cheap one, while a traditional x86 notebook is a better choice.

To sum up, although Windows 8 has no chance of failing in its own kingdom in the traditional desktop arena, its daring to invade the tablet and smartphone world is fraught with difficulties, and if the current strategy continues, Windows 8 will fail and only be the martyr of a new mobile operating system battle.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)