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devx

Why would you need "legacy apps" on a tablet?

The old Windows tablets had 4 main problems:

1) apps not optimized for touch

2) OS not optimized for touch

3) expensive hardware

4) inefficient hardware/small battery life

It seems to me that with devices like Surface Pro, the 1) and 3) problems are still ported to the new devices. I don't see legacy apps that aren't optimized for touch and on a 10" screen, as an "advantage" for Windows tablets. For all practical purposes, they are not.

Even if you want to do "work" with legacy apps when in "laptop mode" - are you sure you want to do that on a 10" screen? Because I'm telling you 10" is too small for productive work, and the keyboard is too crammed at that size.

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Because re-writing for a new platform isn't trivial.

Because the customers want it.

They're intelligent enough to know that a tablet isn't going to be as productive as a desktop/laptop.

But they still want it.

If consumers want Windows tablets then they have a funny way of showing it.

> Because re-writing for a new platform isn't trivial

That's not the consumers' problem, is it?

> Because the customers want it.

That's not reflected in sales yet. If you're talking about the 100 Microsoft fans that upvote and comment all positive Microsoft stories on Reddit, HN and Verge - that doesn't count. We're talking about the market as a whole.

Also, even Microsoft themselves barely even promote the "legacy app" thing in their commercials. All they are showing is Metro. But if they think Metro is their tablets' competitive advantage, then why wouldn't the consumer just get an iPad or Android tablet instead - and for a lot less?

Customers generally do not want to run Windows apps on their tablet.

If they did then Surface Pro would be the number one seller.

That's a very strong assumption... The only reason I have an Ipad rather than a Surface Pro, is because it didn't exists when bought my Ipad, sure thing that will be my future tablet in my next cycle, and I feel I am not alone. I think surface is not doing it better because it came into the game too late but it is a nice replacement for my heavy laptop and my Netflix viewer (namely Ipad)

Existing windows applications are by definition best suited to desktops and laptops.

Our's would be such an application but even as it is there are certain aspects of its typical daily use that might/would be best served by a tablet.

At those times it would be nice for a user to be able to switch from one device to the other and then back again.

In fact, requests like this are becoming more frequent.

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