Ask Paul: September 22 (Premium)

As we stumble to the conclusion of this incredibly busy and historic week, let’s wind down with some great reader questions.
Roadmap
ianceicys asks:

With the Xbox Roadmap leak given how far (multiple-years) into the future Microsoft plans and roadmaps stretch, and given the today's launch of the iPhone 15, how do you think about the reality that many of the decisions that are made regarding these products and services were made YEARS ago and that today these companies are working on features and capabilities that we won't see for 36-48 months from now?

I am fascinated by this. And regardless of the specific details of what we learned from the Xbox leak, on some level just knowing that they are working on the future that far in advance is somehow heartening. Externally, Microsoft just talks, but internally, in this case, we can see some of the machinations that will lead to future announcements and products. This is very interesting.

I would like to think that products I care even more about, like Windows, have this level of strategy happening. And though I really don’t believe that, the fact that something like AI can come in and mix the whole thing up, triggering a new strategy and thus a new longer-term vision is pretty exciting as well. “We were going to this, but now we’re going to do that.” And what they were going to do before was a whole lot of nothing.

Ultimately, the point behind my Programming Windows series, which became Windows Everywhere, was to look at why Windows changed when it did. In some cases, it was literally because some visionary correctly predicted the future inside of Microsoft and the firm moved to make it happen, but much more often it was Microsoft reacting to outside trends. Windows 8 is a great example of the latter case. But AI is a bit of both, with Microsoft deciding to take a leadership position and explicitly seizing this moment at what might very well be the right time. That’s exciting. Windows, a product that much of Microsoft ignored for a long time, is suddenly on the front burner again. Not by itself, obviously. But there.

Apple is interesting on many levels, of course, but one of its core competencies, even though some see this as a negative, is its measured approach to adopting new technologies and evolving its products. This is on the one hand “late to market,” but it’s also its own form of leadership assuming they’re making good choices because being first to market doesn’t always work out. We’re tech enthusiasts, so this is contrary to what we want, but it’s probably best for most users.

Also, they kind of telegraph things. And here, I don’t always agree. When you see something like the dynamic island on the iPhone Pro one year, you know it’s coming to the non-Pro models the next (which just happened). That does make sense because this kind of advance (or whatever) should trickle down to less expensive products over time, as we see everywhere (PC...