Comment by mbreese | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mbreese | Hacker News Reader

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I think the biggest thing that Apple got right that Microsoft is in danger of not getting right is that people should have different expectations for a tablet. A tablet shouldn't have to do everything that a PC can, because it will end up doing most of them poorly.

You can't do real work on the iPad version of iWorks.

Again, this is okay with most people due to the different expectations one has with a tablet over a PC. If all you need to do is update one small item on the iPad, it's doable.

Making Excel simpler just for simplicities sake would be a mistake for Microsoft. Exposing the right amount of simplicity for the various tasks is what they should be aiming for.

I certainly wouldn't want to use a version of Excel that was designed for a PC on a tablet. It would be a horrible user experience. The only way to make it workable is to write something from scratch. Sure, it could read and write .xlsx files, but under the hood, it would need to be very different.

they could make iOS able to run OSX apps

I think that Apple has shown that they are actually going the opposite way. More and more of OSX looks like it was ported over from iOS.

One of Microsoft's problems with Tablet PCs in the early 2000s was that they were PCs. Because of this, they needed to have all of the horsepower to run Windows and still be portable enough to use as a tablet. This meant that they were always expensive. iPads on the other hand don't need to run a full copy of OSX, so they can be much lighter, smaller, and cheaper (than a Mac).

The best line in the Gruber piece is this:

You can’t make something conceptually lightweight if it’s carrying 25 years of Windows baggage

This is why Microsoft is going to have issues using the same code base for a tablet and the full Windows 8. It has too much extra stuff. A tablet doesn't need all of that stuff. This is one of those categories where having raw power isn't as important as being lightweight and using what you have as efficiently as possible.

Microsoft may be primarily selling to corporate clients and OEMs, but they will still be competing with iOS and Android tablets in terms of mindshare and expectations.

> A tablet shouldn't have to do everything that a PC can, because it will end up doing most of them poorly.

Yes, but that's ok. It might be a less than stellar experience to pull up a complex work spreadsheet that was emailed to me on my tablet while I'm on vacation but at least it's possible. I can get my work done and get back to sipping mai tais.

It's amazing how many people are down on the idea of having access to their apps simply because the experience is slightly degraded.

I agree, there is certainly a market for the tablet that keeps things possible. The iPad type device is great for consuming content, it excels here, its probably not going to be beaten (at least not any time soon). But there is a huge market waiting to be tapped outside of just consuming content, and microsoft is rightly looking at that.

Not only is a useful tablet what I'm waiting for in a consumer device (for my definitions of useful), but business will love the thing. At work we have tons of netbooks and win xp tablet-ish devices littered around the labs and I love those little fuckers. There is never going to be an iScience or iEngieneer app to do even the bog-standard things that we need the netbooks around the lab for, and if there was it would be a re-invention of the wheel that is watered down with a toy interface slapped on it.

Look at android, many of us use it because we're willing to take a hit on the UI of our phone if it means we can do more. It will happen with tablets where we can get a step less polish and a huge jump of possibility.

At this point I'm convinced the Android UI is way better than the iOS UI. Forget how pretty it looks -- the presence of the back button alone elevates the UI in my opinion.

I think the biggest thing that Apple got right that Microsoft is in danger of not getting right is that people should have different expectations for a tablet.

I agree. Managing the expectations of what people should be doing on the different form factors is going to be important.

If all you need to do is update one small item on the iPad, it's doable. I certainly wouldn't want to use a version of Excel that was designed for a PC on a tablet. It would be a horrible user experience. The only way to make it workable is to write something from scratch. Sure, it could read and write .xlsx files, but under the hood, it would need to be very different.

Again, you're making the assumption that it was designed for a PC. I think they'll think through both use cases and expose the right functionality at the right times. (Yes, this is an assumption that gives MS the benefit of the doubt but given how important Office is to their profitability, I'm comfortable with this assumption.) Also, it wouldn't need to be very different under the hood. It would just need to be different UI. Yes, bigger buttons isn't going to cut it but UI is so much more than just 'bigger buttons'.

One of Microsoft's problems with Tablet PCs in the early 2000s was that they were PCs. Because of this, they needed to have all of the horsepower to run Windows and still be portable enough to use as a tablet. This meant that they were always expensive. iPads on the other hand don't need to run a full copy of OSX, so they can be much lighter, smaller, and cheaper (than a Mac).

You've definitely got a point there. They'll need to address this head-on.

The best line in the Gruber piece is this: You can’t make something conceptually lightweight if it’s carrying 25 years of Windows baggage

Agreed, though not completely. Making selective cuts would allow them to maintain the same code base for tablets and desktops. It might actually result in a better desktop experience.

Microsoft may be primarily selling to corporate clients and OEMs, but they will still be competing with iOS and Android tablets in terms of mindshare and expectations.

Agreed, which is why I'm excited to see the new UI. Not sure how far they are going to be willing to push things in order to compete on the excitement factor and winning consumers over.

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