The Sams Report EP 88: Everyone Settle Down

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• ponsaelius

  06 May, 2017 - 12:14 pm

  <p>Thanks for taking my question. In a world where facts are coincidental in the blogsphere its good to see real journalism where facts outpace rumour. Which is why I read stuff here whether I disagree with it or not.</p><p>I read see whole articles based on speculation on a two or three words uttered by Nadella. In particular in the field of Windows 10 Mobile. If he says "we are committed to mobile" then the same day articles on the "Surface Phone" appear with no actual facts.</p><p>UWP, as it is now, is a non-starter. App stores only make sense in a device based world. By that I mean phone, vr, game consoles. Places where touch or related interfaces are the most important. The most important of these interfaces is mobile. I dont know any desktop app store that is a success. So if the Windows Store was curated well and had compelling apps it may still not have enough market awareness to attract users. I personally think the Windows Store is a mess of immature garbage with occasional gems.</p><p>However how do people get apps for their PC. Mostly they are installed when they buy their PC. Their photos app or whatever is part of the crapware on the desktop provided by OEMs that turns their PC into a bloated mess of poor performance. If normal people use Edge they are just using the default but most of them log on to their favourite Google service that directs them to install Chrome – which they do. To support their iPhone they download iTunes and if they use a consumer based cloud service from Microsoft its perhaps their Hotmail/Outlook.com account. </p><p>Family members might help with installing Photoshop Elements or they may have a DVD from the store. The people who are downloading PC applications from websites are teens and IT Pros. Spotify will get downloaded at some point because it's on the phone. </p><p>What gets people into the store. Basically accidently clicking the icon and casual games. </p><p>Win32 with UWP wrappers will make apps available in the store. For IT Pros getting a copy of 'Putty' for SSH doesn't need the Store. </p><p>In the enterprise world applications are delivered by centralised authorised repositories installed by IT departments. In the Office 365 world you have an install button that allows you to install your applications from tiles. The IT Pros wont be delving into the store anytime soon for enterprise backup software, server monitoring software, Wireshark etc and Powershell is lacking in Windows 10 S.</p><p>If you launch something like Windows 10 S you should be at the cusp of pushing at an open door. Not looking at the blue skies of what Windows will be 3, 4 or 5 years from now. Today there is nothing compelling to get any target market into Windows Store. In 2018 it is unlikely too. Had Windowsphone with a mobile UWP store been a success then consumers would be faced with an tsunami of "must have" UWP apps that would have demanded a Windows Store on desktop. Today the Windows Store on desktop is an orphan child of a unified dream. It so obviously doesn't work that UWP definition is being stretched from apps themselves to a platform of containers. Does Google or any other brand really want people getting their applications from a Microsoft curated store or would they rather upsell from their own website? In a world of 99cent apps on mobile will applications at $99 and up really sell in a store environment?</p><p>I dont know but I didnt see anything at the Microsoft event that sold me on Windows 10 S. You can have lots of safety and security in an OS that has no useful apps! </p><p>Finally. Will Microsoft publish how many Surface Laptops are running Windows 10 Pro by year end? Maybe not.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

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