Microsoft, Back on Track (Premium)

So what did I think of Build 2018?

It got off to a tough start, for sure. The high-mindedness of Satya Nadella's vision fell flat for many of the Build attendees I spoke with this week. It did so for me as well: While it's hard to argue against his pro-accessibility and pro-privacy stance, the case could have been made in a far more expedient fashion. This part of the keynote should have been shorter, but it also should have come at the conclusion.

But if you can get past that, Build 2018 fulfilled the show's central goal, which dates back to previous Microsoft developer events like PDC and WinHEC as well. It provided developers and decision makers with marching orders for the near- and long-term future, and provided insights about where Microsoft believes things are headed.

And unlike the previous few Build events, that direction is true.

Think about it. The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is an abject failure, as is the cross-devices promise of Windows 10, which remains relevant on PCs only. The firm has no mobile platform to flout, so it has mostly missed a generation, and its developer base has stuck with "legacy"---let's say "proven"---technologies as a result. Consumers? That market remains a theory to those in Redmond.

So instead of flouting consumer features that no one will ever use---and that, more important, do not benefit developers in the slightest---Microsoft has instead moved decisively to embrace a new generation of ubiquitous/ambient computing in which it can play a dominant role, if all goes well. And it has finally stopped pretending that its developer base will simply adopt new, unproven technologies just because Microsoft made them.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the software giant has also recast previous consumer-focused technologies for its core commercial customer base, making them more relevant to developers.

For example, the AI, bot, cognition, and speech services that back Cortana, the digital personal assistant that debuted in Windows phone, of all places, now play major roles as Azure services. HoloLens and Mixed Reality are recast from niche solutions for individuals into visualization and recognition platforms for meetings and first-line workers. And even Kinect, one of Microsoft's biggest consumer failures of all, is brought back to the dead as a sensor set that makes sense in Internet of Things (IoT) implementations.

And then there's Windows 10.

As I noted previously, Microsoft is slowing down the addition of new consumer features to a system that simply does not have an engaged user base. Instead, it is doing what it should have always done: Focusing on productivity. The handful of features it showed off at Build---Timeline with cross-device compatibility, Sets, and Adaptive Cards---are firmly rooted in their productivity aims, and not in the flashy nonsense that marked the previous few Builds.

That Windows 10 has been demoted to a component of Microsoft 365 will be alarming ...

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