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Technology Stocks : Apple Tankwatch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pyslent who wrote (17431)	3/16/2012 7:17:51 PM
From: pyslent	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32680

Thinking out loud on the prospects of Windows transitioning to tablets, I don't see their success as assured, as Zax seems to think. I haven't tried Windows 8 myself, but I love my Windows Phone, so I can imagine the Metro start screen will be awesome for a tablet interface. Best case scenario, Windows 8 sells on desktops/laptops as well as its predecessor, and users either embrace or tolerate Metro. Developers see the huge Metro userbase, and floods the Windows Marketplace tons of great apps. This builds up an ecosystem that makes WoA tablets appealing out of the gate, and also benefits WP8 handsets which has a common UX and shares some app compatibility. The risk Microsoft is taking is how much are they degrading the desktop experience by force-feeding Metro onto everyone, even their core desktop users. Will users shy away, like they did with Vista (by "staying away," I recognize that even Vista sold 150 million copies in 2 years). Regardless, there's a chance that Windows tablet and phone will have to fend for themselves, without much benefit from their big brother. To me, legacy compatibility is a minor factor into this equation, until Medfield can match Arm-based form factors with Windows 8 on x86 tablets. Current x86 tablets (those with a fan and 3 hour battery life) may have niche appeal in certain verticals, but for anyone else, they are are neither a decent laptop replacement or a decent ipad replacement. All other things being equal, I'd rather have Windows on Medfield than a Windows on Arm tablet, just in case I want to dock my tablet, but I imagine it will be a while before anyone has that choice. I do have the option or running Windows desktop on iPad (via RDC and VPN), and I don't see that as a huge selling point.