TezzRexx wrote:I think Gabe's point is not what'll happen in W8, but what it will achieve if it's successful.
He clearly thinks that Microsoft's eventual intention is to close down the PC so that all transactions for software take place through MS's stores. Think what the iTunes store is to the iPhone/iPods.
Steam/Valve's profits would suffer from that, and costs would likely increase for most things. Also means that indie games prices would go up, sales would likely reduce, less games are made and creativity therefore would suffer.
Salient point being how Apple do things, and how Android phone makers are starting to do things.
Your IOS App Store purchases bind you to the platform - you pretty much have to start over if you switch to something else, so most people don't. Captive market. Blackberry's similar.
Even new Android devices now have built-in hardware restrictions preventing you from doing certain things with downloaded apps, such as installing them on removable storage - it's the thin end of the wedge, with the thick end being you can only ever use App/Play Store-bought Apps on your device, unless you jailbreak/root it which is in itself a pretty scary/not-considered prospect for most punters wary of bricking their new smartphones. Android's more open, but again, most people will take the safe route and just buy from the Play Store.
Can't blame MS for wanting a slice of that tasty money-pie, after all they were producing mobile versions of Windows back when the only other option was Symbian. The trouble is the world wasn't ready for it then, as multi-touch screens (ie: pinch-zoom etc) weren't around, but now the world has passed them by and they have failed to keep up.
If you look solely at their supposed attempt to make Metro the de-facto interface, you cannot help but be staggered at their arrogance, given their tiny market share in the current smartphone marketplace. However, if you view their apparent overarching goal of introducing a 'standard' (ie: Metro) interface to a multitude of devices, it could be argued they're trying to make things consistent (and easier) for people who wouldn't normally use computers but are okay with smartphones. It's clearly not altruistic, though.
On Win8 PCs, Metro will probably be the default shell. I cannot imagine they will kill sales by making so that that is the
only shell - there'll be a way to get desktop and start menu back somehow and it will totally run everything Win7 does. What's likely, and I suspect what Gaben's worried about, it that most people will think Metro is
all there is and be as retiscent to install anything "manually" as they might be to hack their brand-new smartphone.
It's a marketing fail the way it's been presented, with only the server version showing any benefit to corporate users, and a small one at that. Unfortunately lost in the furore about the crappy interface has been the geniune advances in the core OS - it could genuinely be a faster, lighter kernal with full compatibility between formerly disparate hardware platforms, which would be a dream for multi-platform developers. However, even in the development releases it's been very much Metro-in-your-face-deal-with-it-bitches, rather than evangelising possible advantages, and I struggle to make a case for its existence, never mind its future.
