Switched On: Microsoft's touchy subjects
By Ross Rubin 
posted Oct 14th 2009 5:00PM
posted Oct 14th 2009 5:00PM
Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
As CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates would often talk about his dream of "information at your fingertips." The company he co-founded, though, is now taking literal steps toward that goal. By the end of the month, Microsoft will have released three new devices or platforms that embrace or extend touchscreen support -- but the impact touch will have on each varies significantly by their legacy, usage, and manufacturers.
Windows has long had touchscreen support. Such support, in fact, was the basis of the Tablet Edition of Windows XP, and Tablet PCs were proclaimed to be the future of notebooks. Early iterations were larger and thicker keyboard-lacking slates much like the new Archos 9pctablet. But this was before rampant Web browsing, streaming video, casual games and electronic books -- all of which now provide relevance for a new generation of touchscreen PCs as content-consumption devices.
Combined with the low prices and sleeker form factors of today's netbook and CULV platforms, we'll soon see PC companies rolling out consumer touchscreen PCs both with and without keyboards. Unlike Tablet PCs of old, they'll be finger-friendly, but Windows itself won't look very different despite its support of touch -- very few manufacturers are investing in distinct interfaces that really take advantage of the plumbing.
Like the Windows on the desktop, the history of touch-enabled mobile devices from Microsoft runs deep, with the earliest Windows CE-based PDAs supporting stylus input. Since the advent of the iPhone, though, many Windows Mobile vendors have added finger-friendly user interface layers to their phones, and with Windows Mobile 6.5 Microsoft has brought its own spin across the platform with easier targets for controls and a revamped stepped grid app launcher. This brings Windows Mobile a bit closer to platforms that have embraced touch at their core like Android and webOS.
However, the nature of Windows Mobile licensing and the competitive smartphone market means that many Windows phone users will hardly see the results of Microsoft's touch rehash -- HTC, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and others all bring their own user interface layers to their handsets. Indeed, promising handsets such as HTC's HD2 will bring Windows Mobile to a new level of user experience by combining a large, capacitive touchscreen with a fast processor, but the primary interface is HTC's Sense, not Windows Mobile. Regardless, it's hard to deny Windows Mobile 6.5 represents a refinement of what has essentially been a touch platform from the beginning.
Finally, there is the Zune HD, Microsoft's answer to the iPod touch that represents a marked contrast from Apple's most advanced iPod. While both devices use a multitouch screen and employ similar gestures for browsing Web pages and photos, The Zune HD shows Microsoft's thinking about a limited functionality device. As opposed to iPod touch screens filled with icons and button controls, most screens on the Zune are represented by miniature previews of themselves. The result is a richer representation that blurs boundaries of modality at the cost of some screen clutter.
The Zune HD's touch interface is not just an engaging touch interface in its own right, but one of the best examples of how a non-touch user interface can be transformed into a touch-centric one with few compromises. Unfortunately, given Microsoft's low market share and limited distribution, far fewer will experience one of Microsoft's best user interfaces -- most will instead experience the quiet touch overlay of Windows 7 or the largely buried one of Windows Mobile. Zune HD user interface concepts may be seeds that will grow into a major makeover for Windows 7, but there will need to be accommodations to meet the requirements of a wider range of hardware running a wider array of software.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
Windows has long had touchscreen support. Such support, in fact, was the basis of the Tablet Edition of Windows XP, and Tablet PCs were proclaimed to be the future of notebooks. Early iterations were larger and thicker keyboard-lacking slates much like the new Archos 9pctablet. But this was before rampant Web browsing, streaming video, casual games and electronic books -- all of which now provide relevance for a new generation of touchscreen PCs as content-consumption devices.
Combined with the low prices and sleeker form factors of today's netbook and CULV platforms, we'll soon see PC companies rolling out consumer touchscreen PCs both with and without keyboards. Unlike Tablet PCs of old, they'll be finger-friendly, but Windows itself won't look very different despite its support of touch -- very few manufacturers are investing in distinct interfaces that really take advantage of the plumbing.
Like the Windows on the desktop, the history of touch-enabled mobile devices from Microsoft runs deep, with the earliest Windows CE-based PDAs supporting stylus input. Since the advent of the iPhone, though, many Windows Mobile vendors have added finger-friendly user interface layers to their phones, and with Windows Mobile 6.5 Microsoft has brought its own spin across the platform with easier targets for controls and a revamped stepped grid app launcher. This brings Windows Mobile a bit closer to platforms that have embraced touch at their core like Android and webOS.
It's hard to deny Windows Mobile 6.5 represents a refinement of what has essentially been a touch platform from the beginning. |
Finally, there is the Zune HD, Microsoft's answer to the iPod touch that represents a marked contrast from Apple's most advanced iPod. While both devices use a multitouch screen and employ similar gestures for browsing Web pages and photos, The Zune HD shows Microsoft's thinking about a limited functionality device. As opposed to iPod touch screens filled with icons and button controls, most screens on the Zune are represented by miniature previews of themselves. The result is a richer representation that blurs boundaries of modality at the cost of some screen clutter.
The Zune HD's touch interface is not just an engaging touch interface in its own right, but one of the best examples of how a non-touch user interface can be transformed into a touch-centric one with few compromises. Unfortunately, given Microsoft's low market share and limited distribution, far fewer will experience one of Microsoft's best user interfaces -- most will instead experience the quiet touch overlay of Windows 7 or the largely buried one of Windows Mobile. Zune HD user interface concepts may be seeds that will grow into a major makeover for Windows 7, but there will need to be accommodations to meet the requirements of a wider range of hardware running a wider array of software.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
I think we are all hoping that some ZuneHD goodness interface makes it to WiMo7.
We already saw it peeking on 6.5 :D
I still prefer using TouchFlo 3D on top of WinMo6.5 on my HTC Pure (Diamond2).
ZuneHD UI is great looking but inefficient. I doubt Business would like that. Wasn't that who WinMo was targeted at?
I agree with Teslanaut. While the Zune UI is gorgeous, and works well (mostly) for a PMP, it would be a nightmare for a smartphone UI. It is way too inefficient with far too many "clicks" to be a decent smartphone interface. It is a similar issue that has plagues WinMo for years. Although its issues stem from MS trying to put a desktop OS on a phone instead of rewriting WinMo based on the idea of being on a phone from the start.
Shiny Shiny Pretty Pretty I am sure Windows Mobile 7 will be something !!! I know soon this post will be invaded by Apple Fanboys Hate... but Microsoft, you are not perfect, I have seen commitment lately to overhaul our OS !!!
Go 7 ! Desktop and Mobile
I mean Microsoft is not perfect, as any company, but it is committed to bring us some change. Whether it is late or not, at least it is being done.
I recall designing apps for Windows Tablet back in the day. Even before then it was touted as Windows Pen computing platform. An utter failure. Both hardware and software was terrible. (Imagine Microsoft's coders with the goal of 'optimization'.). Everything was miserably slow.
Everyone thought the PDA was the future. PDA Magazine went under in the early 90s. No market they said. Now that iPhone burst onto the scene with usability, design and balanced features... its another story.
It takes innovation, and hopefully we'll see a ton more designs hit the market this time around for the larger 'Tablet' platform.
However, next to a well thought out design, even with faster processors, engineers will still have to contend with FatWare because of battery life and limited CPU. May the best man win!
@Tsing
As a purveyor of electronics I will talk about whatever electronic i so choose. i did not talk about it's usage or it's pros and cons, but if you really want a list just ask: I own one.
It is decidedly mid '90s apple from the startup to the interface. as for your japan comment, another falsity, they were special order items at apple retailers when they were released. my father bought one for me thinking it'd be my computer and video game system. computer, it worked fine. video games? i got a SNES 3 months later (lack of titles)
With the same lack of attention to user experience as ever. There is more screen space spent on toolbars and titles than the actual web content you're trying to view.
F11, fixed.
Hi Truth,
You have the brain of a 5 year old, and I'm sorry to insult all the other 5 year olds out there.
Your spelling alone is awful.
You just don't get it.
Go troll somewhere else.
And it only took apple 2 years and 10 months to retaliate against the Zune.
Original Zune launched with FM radio on Nov. 14, 2006
iPod nano 5G with FM radio came out in september.
When are we gonna get some leaked roms of 7? Microsoft is really making sure this cat stays in the bag.
lets get back to this when apple releases a gaming platform.
as an iPhone owner, I personally cannot wait for some proper competition. I've had my 3G for almost 2 years and I can honestly say that I am very sick of it. I was in love with it's hardware and software and I still believe it to be very intuitive, however there is just something I (literally) cannot put my finger on. The software is great, not exceptional; the apps are good, but still lacking. even with my jailbreak i'm not 100% convinced (though it does make it better).
I have reading up on the HD2 and I'm confident i'm going to make it my next device. so long as it delivers, it has everything I want: large screen, finger friendly, capacitive display (i know that resistive works fine, but games are better with a multi-touch screen) HD playback and most importantly. REALLY FAST. The iPhone is slow. i know the 3Gs is faster, but the 3G is too slow for me now and the speed alone was not a good enough reason to upgrade.
I like android, a lot. but It's still in it's grassroots stage, I like that moto came out with blur and HTC with sense, i like competition and I'd like to see more than one phone be the defacto standard. If i go to android, I need more refinement. I'm a techy and I love linux and use it at work every day, but when it comes to my phone i'd like the original be refined and let me delve into the code as I need to.
I used Windows Mobile up to 6.1 and i loved it. moreover, I loved my Hermes (8525) and i made do with the software to continue to use the device. I think winmo is great and am excited for 6.5 and 7 so that finally it may keep up with iphone os and android. my one gripe with 6.1, it was limited in it's execution. sure it brought about alot of new and better features from 6.0 but it wasn't enough. microsoft released 6.1 when apple released v1.0 not to sound fanboyish, but it's not hard to see which one was a) more aesthetically pleasing and also b) more intuitive. both were (and still are) lacking, and i don't think there is actually a phone out there that is perfect at this moment but hopefully we'll see 2010 as the year the mobile os finally steps up and becomes what everyone here (engadget) wants it to be.
Manufacturers are spoiled with the general public not really knowing much, money in their pocket, millions of posts on engadget, a bunch of unhappy techies :-(
Engadget needs more commenters like you.
aww thanks man lol
yeah i try to do my part. keeping the trolls outta bay
rock99rock approves of these posts. That doesn't mean shit really. However, I lahk-it-uhloht.
Why can't someone just say it? Whatever Apple is doing screwing around, they appear to have dropped the ball on this one.
Can you say it in English?
For those of you wondering what I was writing on my touchscreen... it's a cat, just a cat
@mynk, you mean, re-releases a gaming platform....i don't blame you, apple hopes you don't remember the pippen.
it was god-awful
It's a lot like dictation software. At this point the hurdle is not the technology, it's giving people reasons to use it.
I see one huge market for it: Education.
If the price was right and the weight was light, a tablet PC or Mac would be perfect for students and teachers alike. Preferably it'd also have a keyboard for typing, but as it stands today, all convertible tablet are a huge burden to both the college students' wallets and their backs.
sorry, common mistake, common mistake.
I don't think Microsoft would ever catch up with Apple, simply because their plan is "Follow whatever apple is doing!"
Steve Jobs is so right about they are a company that lacks of creativity! WinMo 6.5 looks good but they still need some hardware would run the software perfectly/ close to perfectly, which is why Apple design their own hardwares!
@ HoWai Ng
It's called the HTC Leo (HD2).
So i guess the lenovo tablet the guy in next office is using is actually a Mac...?
Yes, the Apple-designed software always works fantastic on the Apple-designed hardware.....
....I'm sure Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.x users totally agree.
Imagine if Microsoft only need make their soft work on a single device...............instead of the thousands of different configurations that it works just fine on.
I'm pretty sure that Windows XP Tablet Edition in fact did not support touch upon its first release. It only supported active digitizers and not passive.
I like the new article style from you guys/gals at engadget.
The side quotes out of the article in all bold 'n such are a nice professional touch.
@Truth
How can Steve Jobs walk around if your blowing him nonstop???
Microsoft releases Pocket PC for smartphones with a music and audio media player in April of 2000
Apple releases the iPhone in June 2007
Apple released the iPod in Oct 2001
Microsoft is the one late to the game? It took Apple 7 years and 2 months to release a phone. Talk about rewriting history - 7 years Microsoft had a product on the market without Apple releasing their phone. 7 yearsMicrosoft had a phone with a music player before Apple stolethe idea from Microsoft. Microsoft had a portable media player in phone form for a year and 6 months before Apple even introduced their iPod - which had only a crappy monochrome display. Windows Mobile was a portable device with a color LCD screen capable of displaying pictures and video 4 years before the iPod with picture the ability to display pictures in color was even introduced by Apple.
Do you not understand that? This "Steve Jobs invented the telephone," "Steve Jobs invented the portable media player," and "Steve Jobs invented a portable media player in a phone" bits can be proven false with actual provable facts and data, not your version of the "Truth"
Am I the only one who wants a large-screen thin tablet (preferably with a swiveling screen and keyboard) so that it's easier to surf and watch videos when taking a crap?
+1
I've been hearing a lot about the Pippin, and how it's name was never to be spoken again.
But I have NO idea what it was. What did it do?
You guys need to stop talking about the pippin like you ever used or even saw one. They sold very very few and only in japan. Such a bunch of tools.
I'm running W7 on a Motion Computing C5 tablet and am blown away by how well the new OS runs on tablets. The little details that turn a decent tablet experience (XP Tablet 2005) into a stellar one have been added to 7. I can finally let go of my Newton Messagepads (after 15 years).
"You guys need to stop talking about the pippin like you ever used or even saw one."
Obviously I haven't. I don't really care if it was a success or not. Can't you give me some information without being such a douche? =/
The Pippin was a video game console, CD player, etc. Apple fanboys will claim that it was not an Apple product to try to distance themselves from it, but the hardware was designed by Apple, the software was written by Apple, and sold it in a licensing manner. Bandai and Katz built the machine and sold it under their names (although in some pictures I have seen also had Apple logos on it).
It was a miserable failure, an even worse failure than the Apple Lisa (that thing Apple fanboys like to bring up as a holy grail of Microsoft failure - BOB - sold more than those two products combined).
Because it was not manufactured by Apple, and because it was produced during the non-Steve Jobs years, they try to make it appear that it was not Apple's fault, even though Apple wrote the software and designed the hardware - poorly. It would be like if the iPhone failed, fanboys blaming the failure on Foxconn because while Apple designed the hardware and wrote the software, it is Foxconn who builds the hardware.
@Chao_Sama:
i don't know if it was the crude bluntness or what, but your comment struck me funny. i lol'd
@Tsing, so you have used a Zune HD, Win7, XP, Vista, WinMo, Windows Marketplace, or any of the other Microsoft products that you oh so love to slam every chance you get? We are supposed to shut up about the Pippin (shows how the Apple fanboys like to pretend that bit of history never happened) because we have never used it, but you can complain about anything you wish, even though you most likely have never owned let alone used any of those products?
Does anyone know if Areo can work on the Archos 9? Prettiness is very important to me and if it doesn't work I'm not sure I want it.
Let me guess: you are a mac user.
its funny that i was thinking that at first, but then realized wait a minute, why do i need to enable aero which is only working my graphics card to see transparent windows and waste my battery even more...it probably does because even the old pos integrated GMA 945 which came with the original atom chipset can support it, but i would advise against it to save a lot of battery life. enable it only when plugged in.
If only Aero Basic wasn't so damn ugly.
Where's the stylus? Touch and microsoft usually includes a stylus.
There's these thing called Windows 7 and multitouch support you might have heard of, unless you thought that meant two styli?
stupid comment system
@Tsing
As a purveyor of electronics I will talk about whatever electronic i so choose. i did not talk about it's usage or it's pros and cons, but if you really want a list just ask: I own one.
It is decidedly mid '90s apple from the startup to the interface. as for your japan comment, another falsity, they were special order items at apple retailers when they were released. my father bought one for me thinking it'd be my computer and video game system. computer, it worked fine. video games? i got a SNES 3 months later (lack of titles)
More tablets at lower prices will finally accomplish many of the long term goals that bill and microsoft dreamed about in the 90's. Reading up on The Road Ahead is interesting in seeing the general ideas actually being used today. There are many improvements and innovations that still need to be made, but we are really at the beginning of the a real digital household.
This may be a little late, and may even be of no real relevance.
But i was wondering, "how many humans actually seek/buy Apple products using Microsoft devices" and also "How many buy/seek Microsoft products using Apple devices".
Who wins ? They do.
by cross contaminating your feable minds with pure pompous corporate computer addiction.
get a life guys and enjoy the technology.
What ever your preference.....!
Me i prefer anything that works.
And as far as i can remember, neither of the two so called giants (Microsoft and Apple) have made anything near PERFECT.
It works all the time and does not need a support engineer.
lol. I'm outta here. Live long and prosper. (as the great man says.)
Anyone remember the pen version of Windows 3.1?
urgh... No !
That is awesome gadget like to get one soon.
WINDOWS CE RELEASED IN 1995. WINDOWS MOBILE RELEASED IN 2000. We had CE phones for 15 yrs and the iphone was released in 2007. Apple didnt change a thing, they just took credit for it.