

Microsoft Moves from Followership to Leadership - p0ppe
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2012/07/05/microsoft-moves-from-followership-to-leadership/

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marcusf
Dear god what buzz-word laden soup. Switch out the brands and this article
could just as well be about Nokia or GM or whatever BigCo.

~~~
adrianb
The author's description is also a buzz-phrase:

Randy Ottinger is an Executive Vice President at Kotter International, a firm
that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations.

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stcredzero
Whether or not this article is fluff or insight depends on what Microsoft is
doing: Are they creating a new product category?

What if you could dock a tablet and run it with the power of a desktop PC? If
the dock/undock experience could be made seamless, then this would constitute
a new product category. (It would be somewhat like the OQO
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO> )

If there was a docking mode that wirelessly linked and activated the screens
just on device proximity without plugging in, then you could make the
workstation/tablet transition relatively painless. There would be some lag
with the wireless mode, but it should be good enough for light, mainly read-
only actions. Plugging in would seamlessly transition to the desktop mode.

Add a wireless mode that links to the desktop display/input devices across
WiFi, and you have a workable new product category.

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lukifer
If they were truly leading, they would apply the Metro UI to a 30-inch
touchable drafting table, tilted at 45 degrees (see the original Jeff Han
multitouch demos).

Portable/casual computing has already been reinvented; it's time to do the
same to the high-end professional workstation.

~~~
cooldeal
You can already do that with a mount. Windows 8 is display size agnostic.

Example of a 80inch TV with a touchscreen running Windows 8

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFv4C4fVzE&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFv4C4fVzE&feature=player_detailpage#t=4399s)

~~~
lukifer
But they're hardly making that environment their flagship; instead, they're
making a (pretty decent) iPad clone with a better keyboard and a stand. They
should be focusing on the environment where both the iPad and the PC
underperform (relative to the possibility space): knowledge work and the
enterprise. Microsoft needs to leapfrog, not catch up.

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shawnwall
If Microsoft could actually release a desktop operating system that is
properly designed visually and in terms of user experience, people could
actually admire their PC's like they do in all of their stupid commercials.
Their market share is so massive that a success in the desktop space could
then drive growth in mobile as they actually have build a good UX there.

~~~
WayneDB
They have. It's called Windows and it _does_ have a properly designed
interface which is very robust and flexible. People not only admire it, they
adore it so much that they don't want Microsoft to change it in any way.

I suppose that you think OS X is better? Well, that's like, your opinion man.
I disagree and so do millions upon millions of other people.

~~~
cryptoz
OP was talking about user experience, not user interface. I don't know anyone
who admires the UX of Windows, but lots that enjoy the UI. Examples of the
differences: Windows will still show you focus-stealing dialogs that may
result in a total shutdown of the OS if you're busy typing. Windows will still
by default reboot if you walk away for 15 minutes and it decides to update.
Application installation and uninstallation is still a pain for most users.
Multiple monitors are not supported well. There are no virtual desktops.

The user experience on Windows is distinctly subpar to every other operating
system I've ever used. I know this is my opinion and I know that there are
probably millions who disagree with me. But as I've said, I've not met any
yet.

~~~
cooldeal
>Multiple monitors are not supported well

What do you mean by that?

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cryptoz
Let's say I have 20-30 windows open on a laptop connected to an external
monitor (I do, right now). Windows 7 has one taskbar, and so it becomes
extremely difficult/near impossible to quickly determine which window is on
which screen. This could be improved by adding a second taskbar (I think this
is coming in Windows 8?) but I think more is needed.

Additionally: some application titlebars can be dragged so the window appears
on a different screen, but some cannot. Excel, when maximized, cannot be
dragged to another screen.

Back to taskbar issues: My biggest complain pre-Windows 7 was that you could
not reorder items. I thought they fixed it, but they actually made it a lot
more annoying with W7. I think Windows assumes that each window of an
application is related to the other windows ( _never_ the case with my
workflow) and so you cannot separate them by dragging. Say I have 5 Firefox
windows with a few tabs each, where each window's tabs represent a collection
of related topics. Now say I have some Word and Excel documents also open that
relate to the browser windows. I'd like to arrange Topic 1 from Firefox, Word
and Excel on one monitor with their taskbar items together, Topic 2 on the
second monitor with their items together, etc. It's very unpleasant and
difficult to manage windows on Windows.

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WayneDB
Here's the thing...just because you aren't getting something _exactly_ the way
you want it...does not mean that the UX is somehow awful for every person
using it.

Furthermore, Windows has left the hooks available for people so that they can
change something if they don't like it. That's the best UX present any company
can give you.

There are plenty of apps out there to modify Windows. As a matter of fact,
there's very little that can't be modified. Why don't you just look around for
some program to do what you want?

~~~
cryptoz
> does not mean that the UX is somehow awful for every person using it.

Oh I know - I was merely giving my own opinion.

> Why don't you just look around for some program to do what you want?

I'm not allowed to. This is a business computer, not a personal machine. Not
everyone has the freedom to install third-party software to fix up bad UX in
the OS they are using.

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Toshio
Showing the world some 2-years old tech doesn't turn a dinosaur into a
cheetah.

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barista
If urgency is one of the qualities of a leadership then yes Microsoft seems
keen to create new products rather than just sit on the sidelines until
somebody creates a market. Microsoft has been burnt badly by following that
approach. iPod, iPhone, iPad are all examples of that and that is why others
are eating Microsoft's lunch.

