There are 1.4 billion Windows users and 99.99999% of the workstation/desktop users and a pretty huge majority of notebook users that DON’T USE TOUCH. See iTWire article ‘Don’t touch up the mouse – it’s the key to productivity’. In fact only about 100 million Windows 8 licences have been sold.

Microsoft blew it, not so much with the Metro Tiles interface (touch is absolutely essential for smartphones and tablets for content viewing and occasional creation and the interface is pretty good for that), but for forcing it on us. Did you know that the top selling accessory for tablets is a keyboard and the top freeware program is Classic Shell that returns the Start Button to Windows 8?

Microsoft would have been damned stupid not to listen - the Start Button will return as well as the option to booting into the Desktop instead of Metro. Three cheers I hear Windows users say.

Critics of Windows 8 point out that it did not sell well. True but not because it was a bad operating system – to the contrary under the hood it is a subtle but substantial improvement over the already great Windows 7. Microsoft gave us no real reason to upgrade from it (or XP for that matter) -marketing gurus can be wrong.

Microsoft’s next version of Windows 8 called Blue will move to a monthly or annual subscription model and this is good. This model means that you will always have the latest version (no more uninstall, reinstall and reload drivers and software) and it takes away the cost of paying a lump of cash up front so computers and tablets will be accordingly cheaper. For the majority, especially business users that can gain a full tax deduction it’s a real bonus.

Opinion

About 30% of my work is on a smartphone or tablet and I use the Metro interface. About the only thing I dislike about Metro is that apps default to run in full screen mode. But for content viewing and low level creation it is great. I understand the logic behind it and how it will lead us to the ‘’Minority Report’ (gesture) style of computing in the future.

But more interesting to me at least is the future of computing and it is hard to see past the next few months let alone next few years.

Microsoft has played with a new touch OS (let’s call it Windows 8 but it includes Windows RT for ARM tablets, Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 in all its desktop and other guises). Perhaps the most important thing here is reasonable commonality of its code base which is important to reduce development costs and for upgrades and cross application compatibility. Microsoft has plans for its RT version that extend past a tablet so read on.

Apple has OS X for the desktop and iOS for lower cost computing devices. The more I get to know Apple the more I see it moving to iOS from OS X – it would not surprise me to see a MacBook Air and even a Mac based iOS product soon.

Android has been the province of smartphones and tablets and as it moves to Key Lime Pie Version 5 we will see it move up into the notebook and desktop arena replacing Chrome OS which is simply sacrificial lamb to test the waters there.

In short the race is on now for the ‘low cost’ desktop in an area traditionally dominated by high cost Microsoft.

Microsoft has several aces up its sleeve. Of fundamental importance is its Office productivity software which it must keep exclusive to Windows platform. Equally important is that Windows 8 (full version) like OS X has the legs to do powerful computing that Android and iOS and probably RT simply can’t so a common OS interface is vital.

If Microsoft does get this right it will bring us all back to Windows on every device so you can start the day with a tablet, continue with a smart phone on the way to work, desktop for heavy lifting, notebook for travel and so on.