Blogs are full of reports on “innovation” announcements in so-called Windows 7. One of the most covered area is the user interface. Microsoft announces multi-touch support that could interact with touch-screens, touch-pads, etc. Is that something new? Not really for Apple users (Macbook Pro, iPhone). Ballmer says that Apple was always seen as constructive competitor who sells “only”10 million computers a year while PC manufacturers around the World are selling almost 300 million Windows equipped PCs. As a long term Windows user I suggest Ballmer to buy a Powerbook and install Windows in the VMWare Fusion virtual machine. He would soon realize, he doesn’t need Windows at all. He might still keep VM to experiment with other desktops like Ubuntu.
I see multi-touch MS initiative as an effort to keep on the track with trends in mobile phone industry (iPhone, LG Prada), but I’m afraid that MS is not going to make happy many mobile phone users. Just imagine Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player on your mobile phone? MS is touching here very sensitive market, that is not sentimental at all to MS operating systems like PC industry is. The game is much tougher with Symbian, OS X, Linux, and other players. MS has already tried to transpose their PDA market presence into mobile phone area. This worked so far only thanks to convergence of certain PDAs with mobile telephony. But the most recent trend is not to have a huge PDA that can do everything, it is to have a tiny smart phone that can do everything instead. Perhaps, MS should ask Google on their mobile experience. I doubt that applications like Wavelog for mobile blogging will be developed for mobile Windows.
Ballmer and Gates are going to tell us more on their innovation plans during the forthcoming D6 Conference. Jobs is not on the list of speakers this year. But Jerry Yang is coming…
Above - Space station as represented in “2001: Space Odyssey” science-fiction film; Below - the International Space Station orbiting our planet
