Windows: It’s over, tech site declares

Fox News ^ | April 16, 2013

[adorno]

If anything floating around in the current OS space is "designed to be used even by the little kiddies" it's Win8's "tile" interface.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

iOS was designed to be simple, where even a two year old could play with the devices. There is no reason to make it difficult when the basic launch mechanism can work for the more difficult applications, as well as the games and simple apps.

Do people need to have a "mature" looking screen, just because it's going to be used by an adult?

People prefer not to have to think about how to use a device, if they can help it. So, if they understand a computer and it's user interface, and they then encounter a smartphone or tablet that "looks the same" on the surface, then, they won't have to be wondering about how things work. It will be the same, at first glance, and instills a feeling of confidence with the user. So, if one sees a smartphone and a tablet and a PC and a TV set, all with the same interface, then, one immediately feels confident about what they're seeing and how things might work, if they had already encountered that screen in at least one form-factors before.

Having to learn the way things work with every new device, is not user-friendly. The user interface doesn't have to look like a child's toy, but it also doesn't have to look like it needs an adult brain to decipher.

As a developer/designer/analyst/manager in IT, my biggest concern was to always "keep it simple", and to not assume that, people will eventually understand what was developed for them. Take the guesswork away from people, and reduce the amount of training they need.

If the "Start" screen in Windows 8 does look like it was designed with children in mind, then, at least half the training and guesswork is removed from the interface. An icon doesn't say much about an application, other than perhaps it's name. A live tile is an operational program's tiny interface, and one immediately understands what it's about and what it can do. There is nothing childish about that, and it's quite genius, really, as a new interface.

And, quite obviously, you are not a psychologist, because, nobody mature would dwell so much on the "kiddies" vs "mature" remarks. Sounds like you have issues.

[adorno]

Nothing has changed so radically as this.

Well, think about how other things have changed in computing throughout the years.

People learned how to use the GUI when DOS was changed to the Windows interface. People learned. Now, we have touch-capable screens, and people have learned to use touch and gestures on screens in order to get things done without the mouse. Yet, with the new touch screens, people were still using the old icon-based GUIs, and which were designed to be use with mice. That interface is over 20 years old, and not optimized for touch and finger gestures. Windows 8's tile screen is optimized to make use of the new ways of interacting with a computer. There will always be those who are resistant to change, but, the change is for the better; at least as far as Windows 8 is concerned.

Initially, I thought like you, even as I am a computer guy. IN fact, I don't even need a user interface as a computer guy, since most of the programming and work that I ever did was from command lines. But, the mess which I thought that Windows 8 was going to be, from my first glance of it, has turned out to be a genius move by Microsoft. Nothing is as easy, anywhere, as the "metro" user interface that Windows 8 comes with. Mind you that, you don't have to work from the Start screen user interface, and you can do your work as if you were still using Windows 7 or XP, but, I believe that, eventually, most people can learn how simple and useful the Start screen is.

[adorno]

android is adding 1.3 million devices a day, and if sales continue at that rate will have over a biilion devices by years end.

Think for a moment.

For years now, the claim has been that, Android is activating more than 800 million devices. By now, Android should have run out of customers to activate, and should have at least 4 or 5 billion users worldwide. Yet, the hype is that, Android is still activating a billion or more each year. In another 2 or 3 years, they are going to have to expand to other consumers in other parts of the universe, since they will have run out of potential customers here on Earth.

What Android and iPhones are doing, is constantly deactivating smartphones from current users, and activating new smartphones for the same users who want to get new smartphones and/or new cell-plans. iPhones, for example, has a lot of "new" sales every 6 months or so, with every new version of the iPhone. Yet, about half of those are current customers who feel the need to get the latest-and-greatest iPhone. If all of the new iPhones sold were to all new customers, then there would be at least a billion iPhone users out there by now, but we know there aren't that many out there.

So, look at statistics with a more critical analysis, because, things aren't as they first appear.