microsoft – Page 7 – Kev's Development Toolbox

July 13, 2015

Is Microsoft planning a ‘bait and switch’ with the ‘free’ upgrade to Windows 10?

There’s a lot of uncertainty around exactly what Microsoft are offering for the ‘free’ upgrade to Windows 10 that’s going to start rolling out on July 29th. winsupersite.com have a good collection of questions people are starting to ask about what is included in the upgrade offer.

An article in Forbes discussing some internal presentation slides that ComputerWorld obtained is suggesting that the ‘free’ upgrade may not turn out to be entirely free after all, as a cryptic statement from Microsoft states:

“Revenue allocated is deferred and recognized on a straight-line basis over the estimated period the software upgrades are expected to be provided by estimated device life…. [The estimated device life] can range from two to four years”

We can only speculate exactly what Microsoft means by this statement, but it implies the ‘free’ upgrade is only initially free, and thrn at some point during the lifetime of your installation, the cost will be recouped. Exactly how or on what timescale the cost is recouped is unclear, but this statement implies at some point you will be charged for your Windows 10 – possibly ransomware style (‘Pay $199 now to continue using Windows 10’), or maybe subscription style (a monthly subscription to keep the install active?) – at this point there’s not enough information to be able to say. But it does seem clear, we’re not getting Windows 10 for ‘free’.

July 9, 2015

Windows Phone – is it dead yet?

In recent weeks, Microsoft has axed Stephen Elop, former CEO from acquired Nokia and recent lead of their Mobile Devices Group, written off $7.6 billion as a loss from their failed acquisition of Nokia, cut 7,800 jobs, mostly in their Windows Phone business, is getting slammed with bold statements in the press such as “Windows Phone is dead. Microsoft Lumia is dead”, and still, pro-Microsoft industry bloggers like Paul Therrott are holding on to beliefs that maybe it’s not dead yet, with statements like “Analysis: Microsoft is scaling back on Windows Phone Drastically“.

Uhuh. Really? It’s Dead. Let it go. It sucked and no-one bought it. Apart from that one guy somewhere.

June 18, 2015

Does the leadership shakeup at Microsoft mean their Phone business in finally dead?

Microsoft have struggled forever to get a foot in the mobile device market, with a trail of failed products and mis-steps over the past years. Who even remembers Project Pink (here), the Kin One and Kin Two, or the time they bought Danger and then had a server failure and lost all their user’s data?

With Microsoft announcing recently that it’s haemoaging cash on it’s mobile business, and that Stephen Elop, the ex-Nokia chief and lead of the Mobile Devices Group, is out the door in the recent exec shakeup, you have to wonder just how much focus Microsoft is going to put on it’s promise of Windows 10 to be the OS to run on all device types. Maybe all devices as long as it’s not a Nokia phone, or all devices but not phone hardware coming from Microsoft. Which at this point this probably means any phone at all – without Nokia Windows devices, what devices are left?

I doubt anyone’s upset that we won’t see Microsoft phones running Windows 10, but it is sad that at this point, Microsoft’s failed acquisition of Nokia most likely means that Nokia, as a brand and as the phone, is now dead.

June 2, 2015

Windows 10 Users “34 per cent more likely to be strongly satisfied with the filtered Taskbar”

Let that statement sink in for a minute – in Windows 10 Insider Preview builds, users have indicated they are:

"34 per cent more likely to be strongly satisfied with the filtered Taskbar"

… and based on that not-so-convincing statistic it’s been decided that the taskbar for a virtual desktop will only show apps running on that desktop (presumably hiding others that are running on other desktops at the time time?).

Gabe Aul at Microsoft describes in this post the latest features in the Windows 10 preview build and how feedback from preview build users is helping Microsoft decide what new features will make it into Windows 10, and which won’t.

And there you have it. Apparently the design of the Ribbon Bar in the latest Office versions was also designed the same way, based on observed/recorded usage patterns of ‘actual users’. If you think the Ribbon Bar is actually a good design then I won’t waste my time arguing with you, but most would probably agree from a usability point of view it’s a horribly cluttered, confused mess of somewhat related options. The Ribbon Bar reminds me of a set of cluttered drawers that are where you stuff your junk that you don’t have anywhere better to put. Each drawer has vaguely related things in it, but good luck trying to find something specific – you open a drawer and spend 10 minutes digging around in there trying to find what you’re looking for. Similarly for the Ribbon Bar – good luck finding that one specific feature.

So at some point if your’re lucky enough (?) to have Windows 10, you might wonder exactly how Microsoft arrived at a decision for why a certain feature is a certain way. And you can be assured that it was designed that way because 34% of preview build users (by a long way as far from a typical user as you can get) decided they were ‘most likely to be strongly satisfied’ if it was that way.