Microsoft – Built it, but they still don’t come.

On its own, Windows 8.1 is not going to solve the problem. 

• Microsoft has launched the public preview of Windows 8 at its annual developer Build event.
• Windows 8.1 addresses some of the user issues around Windows 8 but does not solve the big ones.
  • Most users know what Windows 8 exists but have no clue why they should buy it.
  • Windows RT very limited in terms of what it can offer and confuses users with regard to what Windows 8 can, and cant do for them.
• Windows 8.1 offers the return of the start button as well as the ability to boot to the desktop.
• These are cosmetic but the integration of SkyDrive and Bing Search deeper into the user experience, is a more important step forward.
• Windows 8 is beginning to offer things that Apple does not and because SkyDrive is far more mature than iCloud, the overall experience is much better and richer.
• However, Apple is not the problem.
• The problem is that users don’t care and they don’t care because they have no clue of what Windows 8 can do for them.
• In this regard Microsoft remains completely at sea.
• It seems to have no clue how to tell potential users how great its new user experience is and is blissfully unaware that there is a problem.
• The shine has come off Apple’s brand a little bit with it being much less cool than it was but the Apple stores are still full and Microsoft’s empty.
• Something needs to change to engage the users and a series of excellent new functions is not going to cut it.
• This is because the vast majority of users will have no clue that these features exist until Microsoft gets out there and shows them.
• Furthermore, the mess and confusion that is Windows RT needs to be sorted out.
• It needs to be properly folded into Windows 8 such that the only choice that a user has to make is based on performance, battery life and price.
• Unfortunately, I am reliably informed that this will be very difficult to achieve and so I can see ARM making no headway in the PC market whatsoever.
• For an organisation with the size and power of Microsoft, there is very little that’s impossible to achieve and so I am hopeful that the coming shakeup of management might bring in a change of thinking.