The worry here for MS, as I see it, is really that they loose HTC and Samsung and any other potential Windows Phone partner. I'm guessing they're prepared to deal with the consequences.
The worry here for MS, as I see it, is really that they loose HTC and Samsung and any other potential Windows Phone partner. I'm guessing they're prepared to deal with the consequences.
The only holdouts would be power users that rely on Windows software and the Enterprise users - they aren't the majority user base of Windows though.
Some people might be happy with a bluetooth keyboard and a tablet but clearly the billions of dollars in sales of traditional PC hardware shows that the desktop is here to stay for a while.
My point, basically, is that no one is going to look back at history and say "Microsoft purchasing Nokia's phone division was the end of the desktop PC." They're going to look at the release of the iPhone and then the time that Android, iOS, Win Phone, etc became just as good (i.e. no one thinks "should I use my iPhoneLapDocTop or my Windows Laptop") for general purpose computing as Windows and OS X every were. I think cloud services and "dockable" phones with proper large screen UI/UX will be key to that. I'm pretty excited about that, assuming it happens, as I sometimes find my MBPr too large but my iPad too limited for some things like interviewing potential hires. Using the same core for each would be very handy, but I've digressed.
Also don't discount those holdouts. The fact that Windows gained so much of a foothold in the home because it was what people are/were using in the office. The Mac OS, even if it was 100 times better that Windows at any given time didn't have that ubiquity. Smart phones have the benefit of being in everyone's pocket, but until your boss/HR sets you up with a brand new iAndroidPhone OS laptop for work Windows will still have that crutch to lean on.
IMO the patient is terminal but the prognosis is a drawn out death that might be lived on by Windows Phone if any of this works out.
I'm not predicting that mobile platforms will make the same inadvisable climb, but I'd be a little surprised if they didn't.
But you should really look at Chromebooks/ChromeOS for one glimpse of what a consumer-friendly, non-MS system would really look like. Right now it is the #1 selling laptop on Amazon, and reviews are pretty positive.
If I was a shareholder in MSFT, I would seriously be worried for the future of the whole Windows platform, mobile and desktop.
But I begin seeing worries in people where MS is pushing the OS (mostly privacy concerns) and is seems running windows in a hypervisor with VGA card passed trough is becoming more and more popular.
I know absolutely nobody who does this.
My thoughts where to have something like a rackmounted server machine in my basement with multiple storage drives, oodles of RAM, CPU, and a video card with it all running under an ESX (or whatever) install. Over the hypervisor I could then have running a headless NAS OS (e.g. UnRAID or FreeNAS) for my backups/media/etc and then a full-blown gaming PC running Windows with the GPU being virtually attached to it. Then (oh there's more) I could run all of my keyboard, video, mouse, and USB cables for the virtual gaming PC up through my house to where my desk is located. I figure that with this setup I could consolidate a several physical computers (gaming pc, NAS, etc) into one workhorse computer which would save space and possibly some electricity.
The desire to sandbox windows is real.
System 76 does a great job of making "just works" Linux hardware but they're not exactly a big player. Android and iOS have the advantage that they don't have to work like Windows. Even OS X suffers "this doesn't work like my Windows did" from switchers.
Mobile OSes can work like Android/iOS + their own unique flavor and have some leeway that desktop OSes aren't afforded. UI/UX for modern touch devices lacks the expectations that 18 years of mostly consistent Windows UI/UXhas built for the "traditional" Linux desktop.