Ask Paul: July 24 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Here’s another round of Q & A to close out the week and get the weekend started. It’s the weekend, right? Right.

Teams premium

will asks:

This week Microsoft announced several new, and previously talked about, updates to Teams. There were a couple of items that I noticed around some licensing options. Specifically it looks like there will be some higher or premium type tiers in some areas for Teams. Curious if you noticed this as well and if Microsoft might be looking to cash in a little on Teams by adding new premium type tiers that require additional licenses to be purchased? Currently the phone functions cost extra, as does Team Rooms, but that is it. Do you think Microsoft is looking at having various levels for Teams like they have done with Office? Would that be a good idea?

You are right to be nervous about Microsoft getting caught up in what I think of as “SKU-itis,” where more and more functionality is siphoned off into higher-end and more expensive versions of Microsoft 365 subscriptions. That’s the Microsoft way. Microsoft 365 is literally structured around this kind of feature differentiation.

That said, what it announced this week—two tiers of Teams Rooms called Teams Rooms Standard and Teams Rooms Premium, respectively—is defensible on its part. (And I don’t think I’m breaking a confidence by telling you that those names were literally a last-minute change, not that that matters too much.) These are specialized offerings where the lower-end version is supported by a partner and the higher-end version is literally supported by Microsoft, and only larger businesses would ever consider either anyway. (You can read more about them here.)

Windows 10X vs. Chromebooks

hrlngrv asks:

Windows 10X may get better over time, but when released without Win32 support in 2021, what could Windows 10X devices do which Chromebooks couldn’t?

This brings Windows 10X back to what we thought it was originally back when it went by the names Windows Lite and LiteOS, and if all it does is literally offer all of the benefits of ChromeOS with none of the Google, then it’s still a win and is still necessary. That’s what Microsoft Edge does compared to Chrome, after all.

What could Windows 10X devices do which Windows RT devices couldn’t if the latest version of Edge were available for them? Are there any PWAs which Edge can handle which Chrome can’t?

No, of course not. But even a Win32-less Windows 10X is important because it comes from Microsoft and would presumably be a lower-cost and less-complex way for the educational institutions and businesses that want such a thing to get it from a company they trust and already rely on.

I do think Win32 support is important. And there are obviously different ways that support could come to Windows 10X, from the remote desktop-type solutions (Microsoft Cloud PC, Windows Virtual Desktop, etc.) to local container-based support. I guess we’ll see what happens there.

OnePlus Nord

Usman asks:

I’m surprised with the price point of the One Plus Nord bringing it back to what the One Plus 3 and 3T represented. Are the higher end snapdragon chips really that expensive that it requires phone makers to use a midrange chip to hit these price points again?

Yeah, apparently so, and it’s a one-two punch when they want to add 5G support because the combination of the compatible Qualcomm SoCs and 5G-compatible networking chipsets is especially expensive.

Anyway, I’m also happy to see OnePlus back in the ~$400 price range, but I wish they’d sell the Nord in the United States. We could use a good affordable handset too.

Lumia 1020

Really enjoyed the Lumia 1020 throwback articles, hope you can post more of these (after all, the 10-year anniversary of the Windows Phone 7 Series launch is approaching… just sayin’). Your enthusiasm and excitement for the 1020 was immediately obvious when reading those, it’s quite refreshing in a way. Have you felt that way since about a phone or laptop, or any other piece of tech?

Since? No, not really.

Honestly, there have probably only been a few things that excited me that much over the years. The Amiga back in the day. Windows 95. Windows Media Center. Longhorn, until the crash. The first iPhone. And then Windows Phone. I think that’s about it.

I have extensive archives of everything I’ve ever written, and given my love and support of Windows Phone, I have all kinds of stuff that I think will be of interest. So, yes, I’ll be sure to revisit that from time-to-time.

Intel futures

Daishi asks:

Given this week’s totally unexpected news of delays in their product development, when do you think we might actually see commercially available 7nm chips from Intel? My money says 2024, but I’m an unreasonable optimist.

2024 is probably accurate since the current timeframe is late 2022 or early 2023.

I can’t quite explain this, but I find myself frustrated by Intel. The company should be killing it in this space and it just can’t seem to get out of its own way. The firm just generated $20 billion in revenues in a single quarter—a bit over half what Microsoft did—but I still feel like it’s heading for a disaster unless it can make this shift. The world is moving to a different architecture on both the client and server/cloud, and Intel could get left behind.

The future of Teams

JustMe asks:

Given the current situation in the world, it is entirely understandable why applications like Teams, Zoom, Slack, and others are getting so much attention and use. It also seems quite plain that Skype will eventually be replaced by or folded into Teams. My question is – what is/will be Microsoft’s plan to fill the “personal video conferencing” niche/role that Skype fills now? Skype (while it has its issues) is easy to use. Teams is cumbersome and (to me anyway) already overly bloated with features. Is the plan that Teams will be an “operating environment” where Skype is just another application (like Word, Excel, whatever).

Microsoft has indicated that it will keep Skype around until enough of its customers are using Teams. But the more I use Teams, the more I feel that it is too big and bloated now to ever be a true Skype replacement. And that means Teams will either need to be rearchitected to be more modular, or Microsoft will need to create a stripped-down version of Teams for individuals.

I wish they’d just keep Skype. It’s still a good brand and is more lightweight than Teams and gets the job done. But I just don’t see that happening.

Windows 10X worries

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

Does this week’s news regarding Windows 10X make you feel better about the direction they are taking or worse?

This is very much like the Intel situation: It’s troubling. Microsoft has been working on modularizing Windows for years and after all this time, it still can’t figure this out?

On the other hand, it’s important to get this right. Shipping a half-baked Windows 10X too soon would be disastrous.

Do you think they can get it 80% of the way to as easy to manage as ChromeOS?

If this isn’t as easy as managing Chrome OS, I don’t see the point. Can Microsoft do it? Ah boy. I hope so.

If the underpinnings of 10X is Windows, do you think there is any chance they will just do fork of ChromiumOS, in addition to 10X, to have something simpler and lighter?

I don’t think they should have so many different client platforms. Even Windows 10X is a bit of a stretch, unless it were technically true that Windows 10 Home (or whatever) was a superset of that. I assume the plan is to evolve the component-based architecture to the point where it can be used in mainstream Windows 10 versions and thus become Windows. But given how the development is going, that’s all up in the air.

I also think there’s a possibility that Microsoft will do more with Android, and that Surface Duo is the first of a family of Surface-branded Microsoft devices. I could see a Surface Pro form factor using Android, for example.

Ultimately, I just don’t know what the right course of action is here. Microsoft is developing Windows 10X in secret and what we’ve seen so far just isn’t all that impressive.

Next-generation!

madthinus asks:

Did any of the games blew you away that screamed “Next gen” yesterday?

Honestly, no.

And I wish I could say that I felt that way about the recent and similar Sony event too. (And I think I have said that.) But thinking back, I do recall being impressed with the graphics I saw from the PlayStation 5 reveal. This just seemed like more of the same.

Are we that jaded?

Yeah, it would appear so. 🙂

Stardock

MartinusV2 asks:

If Stardock comes to you and say that they can fix anything UI related in Windows 10. And ask you for advices. What would you tell them to fix first?

My central issue with the Windows 10 UI is something only Microsoft can fix: The complete lack of consistency that exists across the entire platform.

But if I had to choose one thing, it would be a way to center the icons in the taskbar. (Which, yes, you can do with a third-party utility like TaskbarX, formerly FalconX). And make it look/work more like the Dock in macOS Big Sur. The more I use that, the more I like it.