Tag Archives: windows 8

Microsoft Research UI

by on February 27, 2011 in Microsoft

Below is a video of the latest prototype of a future User Interface from Microsoft.  While the consumer interface will continue to evolve I’m more interested in the Enterprise application.  Today there is no single UI that brings together all the activity that information workers require to be effective.  Email is the current least worst option but as we have seen over the past several months there is a growing acceptance that email can not meet the requirements of an information worker.

Email will continue to be around for many years to come but we need to find a way of presenting many more streams of activity and work flow within a single interface.  Whichever software company can answer the challenge will be well set for the next generation of computing that is just around the corner.

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Windows News Day

by on February 21, 2011 in Microsoft

Interesting day within the Windows world.  Windows 8 builds, Phone 7 updates and a possible official Kinect SDK wraps up a busy day of unofficial news.  Why are these three elements important?  Because together they help form the picture of Microsoft’s next Enterprise (Wave 15) assault in 2012.

I have no data to back this next statement up but I suspect the Wave 14 releases (Windows 7, Office 2010, Sharepoint and Exchange 2010) have been a relative (I stress the word relative) sales disappointment to Microsoft.  This could well be due to the general financial climate but I also believe the Wave 14 products did not quite form a collective whole.  Each product was clearly an improvement over previous versions but CIOs need more reasons to invest.  They have questions that Wave 14 can’t quite answer:

  • How does my on premise and cloud investment dove tail together?
  • How do I plan continuous improvement without the need for fork lift upgrades?
  • Can I buy a solution that includes Desktop OS/Mobile/Cloud/Productivity Software and Service within a single consistent contract?
  • How do I show innovation and immediate business impact?
  • How does consumer IT and enterprise IT converge?

We’ll have to wait and see but Wave 15 could be the answer to many of these challenges and if it isn’t then Google and Apple will be more than happy to enter into Microsoft’s enterprise market.  No wonder Steve Balmer says that Windows 8 is Microsoft’s biggest gamble.

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Microsoft’s iPad Strategy Summarised: Operation Ostridge?

by on January 25, 2011 in Microsoft

Microsoft employ far too many smart people for me to accept that their 10 slide Partner briefing on the iPad is real.  Surely it is a massive bluff to lure Apple into believing that Microsoft has absolutely no clue on how to combat the iPad in the enterprise?  Once Apple are sufficiently bluffed they will release their real non Ostridge based strategy?

Just in case they aren’t bluffing I’ll suggest an alternative.  Microsoft need to ride the Apple bandwagon.  I’m willing to be that 80% of Fortune 500 CEOs have or want an iPad and I bet they want their MS Office software on iOS.  Stop flogging the dead Windows 7 slate horse.  Go sell lots of Office software and possibly when the CEO finally realises that iPad isn’t so great for their daily work Windows 8 will have been released and the landscape will have changed again.

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Work desk of the future

by on November 29, 2010 in Microsoft, UC News

Where do i sign up for one of these huge multitouch work stations?

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Kinect and Microsoft’s Enterprise offer

by on November 15, 2010 in Kinect, Lync, Microsoft

I have written a couple of times that Kinect’s technology could play a large role in Microsoft’s next wave of Office and Desktop software.  I’m not surprised people have managed to build drivers for Kinect and are showing off the potential on both Windows and Mac as I assume the Kinect technology has been built to support desktop software.

Normally Microsoft aren’t too pleased with home brew coding but I am willing to bet on this occasion they are pleased to see the quick and enthusiastic development.  Not only does it provide a validation of their investment in Kinect technology outside of Xbox it also provides them with more potential use cases and skilled coders.

Watch out for plenty more Kinect related news within the Enterprise.

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Microsoft invest further in camera technology

by on November 8, 2010 in Kinect, Lync, Microsoft, Windows 8

Further evidence that Microsoft continue to invest in gesture based systems in the proposed purchase of Canesta which was reported by the New York Times last Friday.

While this may be a defensive play to protect from competitors imitating Kinect it seems a good bet that Microsoft will utilise the technology to enhance their Office products, especially as Canesta already supply the major laptop manufactures.

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Kinect in the Enterprise?

by on October 24, 2010 in Kinect, Microsoft

I didn’t quite believe Kinect could be put to use within the Enterprise but then I found a Gizmodo article on MS’s plans for Windows 8 from June this year that seems to suggest there may be a link between Kinect technology and their Enterprise software.  We are still a long way off MS providing any real details on their entire Wave 15 roadmap so lets put this in the pure speculation category at the moment.

Gizmodo article here

Some leaked documents out of Redmond show a whole bevy of new features headed to the next version of Microsoft’s OS, including some very Kinect-like features.

Those features involve a camera being able to detect you via facial recognition when you sit down and sign you in automatically. When you get up and leave, it can go to sleep automatically as well. Additionally, if someone else shows up, it can quickly switch between user accounts based on who it sees in front of the computer.

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