Windows 8 Q&A with Tami Reller →
When asked about “Windows Blue”, emphasis mine:
Windows Blue is a codename for an update that will be available later this year, building on the bold vision set forward with Windows 8 to deliver the next generation of tablets and PCs. It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem. It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play. The Windows Blue update is also an opportunity for us to respond to the customer feedback that we’ve been closely listening to since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT. From a company-wide perspective, Windows Blue is part of a broader effort to advance our devices and services for Microsoft.
This has to be some sort of record. How much more valueless, corporate-speak nonsense can be crammed into that response? Even from someone whose title is Chief Marketing Officer, this is an impressive work of obfuscated art in response to a simple question.
The implication (with those few scraps of meaning in the middle) is clear, though: there’s likely to be some backtracking and hedging on Windows 8’s “bold vision”, which a lot of customers really don’t like. Microsoft has always been the kind of company to give customers everything they ask for (even when it’s not “good”), and its customers are accustomed to that treatment. I wrote back in 2011:
One of the reasons Metro is interesting to people like me who usually ignore Microsoft is that it’s full of very un-Microsoft-like decisions, generally for the better.
The question isn’t whether Metro will be good: it probably will be. And that’s a huge accomplishment for Microsoft that they should be commended for.
But how will their customers react?
Will Metro be meaningfully adopted by PC users? Or will it be a layer that most users disable immediately or use briefly and then forget about, like Mac OS X’s Dashboard, in which case they’ll deride the Metro-only tablets as “useless” and keep using Windows like they always have?
I think we’ll have our answer “later this year”.