Why Windows 7 "Slate" Tablets Won't Happen 467
snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Galen Gruman questions the viability of Windows 7 on tablets in the wake of the news that HP will use Palm's WebOS as the foundation for iPad rivals, rather than follow through with the previously hyped Windows 7-based Slate. 'The iPad proved a tablet shouldn't be a portable computer that happened to have its screen always exposed. Even though technical components are shared between the Mac OS and the iPhone OS, the irrelevant Mac OS functions aren't gumming up the iPhone OS, and Apple's development environment doesn't let you pull through desktop approaches into your mobile applications. You're forced to go touch-native,' Gruman writes, adding that, when it comes to touch capabilities, Windows 7 leaves much to be desired. 'Sure, a few Windows 7 slate-style tablets will ship — Asus and MSI are said to have models shipping later this year. But those products will go nowhere, because Windows 7 is simply not the right operating system for a slate.'"
Thanks you... (Score:5, Informative)
Are you serious...?! (Score:1, Informative)
Remember all the buzz around Hewlett-Packard's Slate, a Windows 7-based tablet that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer featured in a keynote presentation [1] at the Consumer Electronics Show in January? It was Microsoft's shot across Apple's bow, meant to show Microsoft wasn't ceding the tablet market to the then-unreleased iPad [2]. HP kept the Slate in the blogosphere's eye [3] through occasional posts and carefully vague videos of the device at its Website.
But quietly, the Slate went away, and now the buzz around HP is that it will use Palm's WebOS as the foundation for iPad rivals [4], once it's completed its buyout of Palm. (On Friday, Digitimes [5] quoted an HP Taiwan exec saying the Slate would use WebOS instead of Windows 7.)
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All the tablet buzz now centers around the iPad, various Android devices said to be in development at Dell and other manufacturers, and HP's future WebOS tablet [10]. What happened to Windows 7?
Enterprise iPhone Deep Dive
[11]
A tablet is not a laptop whose screen is always visible
The answer: The iPad proved a tablet shouldn't be a portable computer that happened to have its screen always exposed. Instead, a tablet should be something else. Apple got a lot of criticism early on for not making the iPad essentially a Mac OS X tablet computer [12], in the vein of the Windows tablet computers available -- but hardly used -- for the last decade.
Apple -- followed by Dell, HP, and the rest of the industry -- has realized a tablet is something different, and force-fitting a desktop OS into it simply won't work. Remember the splash Microsoft and HP made on touchscreen PCs last fall? That chatter has gone quiet too outside the nichy kiosk space, and for the same reason: Windows 7 is not designed for a touch-oriented interaction [13]. Microsoft's touch extensions to Windows 7 are awkward to use and don't get around the problem that all the apps and the OS itself assumes the use of mouse or other pointing device. A finger isn't as accurate as a mouse, and UI elements designed for a mouse-and-keyboard interface don't translate to the touch world, even with UI extensions that support finger-based input.
Lessons from Apple's touch-native enforcement
Microsoft needs a UI designed for touch -- rich gestures for input and a fundamental UI design that doesn't involve lots of elements such as tabbed panes, radio buttons, check boxes, and dialog boxes. But it doesn't have one. Plus, for applications to really support touch and gestures, they need to do more than map mouse actions to finger ones; the interface and operational design needs to be touch-native as well. No mapping layer for libraries will take care of that for you, as you can quickly see if you use a Windows 7 touchscreen PC.
I believe Microsoft recognizes that fact, which is why its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile platform uses a separate, largely new OS [14] designed at the ground level for gestures and touch.
Could Microsoft retrofit Windows 7 to support touch natively through and through, making it appropriate for a tablet? Maybe. After all, the iPhone OS is based on Apple's Mac OS X [15], a desktop operating system that supports the same UI expectations and complexity as Windows 7. A lot of the underlying code is the same between the Mac OS and the iPhone OS.
Yet you can't run Mac OS apps on an iPhone or vice versa. Sure, some UI elements are the same across the two operating systems, but they have more to do with a consistent Apple style than with fundamental operations. Look no further than Apple's iWork productivity suite for Mac OS X and iPhone OS: Beyond a compatible file format and name, they share little in common in terms of how they actually operate. (I'd argue that iWork for iPhone OS is a d
WebOS (Score:1, Informative)
So the slate is going to run WebOS instead? Good luck with that.
Apple may insist that developers use native C or Objective C for device programming but that is
exactly the reason that IPhone apps smoke any other platform when it comes to performance.
Archos 9 (Score:4, Informative)
Archos 9 (http://www.archos.com/products/nb/archos_9/index.html?country=us&lang=en) ships with Windows 7, the older Archos 7 and Archos 5 shipped with Angstrom Linux and they even release the source code.
Re:WebOS (Score:2, Informative)
Hugh? You can use javascript or native C code to write your apps for webos too, so I fail to see your point.
Re:Mobile and Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Time will tell if Android will succeed (Score:2, Informative)
Android is selling more units than iphone at this point. It has already delivered. How is that flash video working out for you?
The android market is not fragmented in any meaningful way, if you target 1.5 or 1.6 it will run on everything later. This whole Android is fragmented thing is FUD from the apple camp.
The problem isn't the OS (Score:4, Informative)
If slates are going to stand any chance of being successful they need to be full computers running a full OS (even if it's Android) that have a properly-designed GUI. Smartphone OSs just aren't going to cut it.
Re:Time will tell if Android will succeed (Score:4, Informative)
Additionally, Android has another huge advantage in the tablet arena: it's capable of TRUE multitasking for all applications. This is somewhat detrimental for a phone since battery life and memory is already limited, but is not as much of an issue for tablets, which are expected to be way more powerful and don't have to dedicate resources to the cell phone component. Getting similar multitasking on iPhoneOS is only possible through jailbreaking, which is a concern for a LOT of people, considering they either aren't technical enough to do it (yes, I know it's super easy) or are afraid of potentially long-term consequences associated with it. Basically, it makes the tablet that much closer to a computer, without the extra overhead.
Re:Mobile and Microsoft (Score:3, Informative)
Who has said they are complete failures at this? They have a phone on every network/carrier, they have tons of apps, and they have tons of sales - no not as much as apple, but you don't have to beat everything to a pulp to be successful.
Only reason I quit using my Windows Mobile 6 device (and will never get another one ever again) is because of the firm belief that I shouldn't have to reboot the phone 2-3 times a day. Aside from that issue - the apps were great, the experience was usable and the battery life was ok.
My Nexus One goes for weeks and weeks and weeks without any problems :) - I'm now a happy Android user.
Re:Time will tell if Android will succeed (Score:4, Informative)
The android market is not fragmented in any meaningful way, if you target 1.5 or 1.6 it will run on everything later.
So I should ignore all the great new features that came out in 2.0 and 2.2? And continue to do so? What a fantastic solution!
From Wikipedia: [wikipedia.org]
Issues concerning application development
Follow the links in the footnotes. This is not just "FUD from the Apple camp."
Re:Why don't they... (Score:2, Informative)
the fact that the windows version is gaining features the mac one will never get.
What "Mac version"? Silverlight is the same between Windows and Mac, and there's no other version of .NET running on OS X. Or do you mean desktop .NET vs Silverlight? That's a meaningless comparison.
Oh, and GP is talking about a Microsoft tablet, which would, presumably, run a Microsoft OS - just not desktop Windows. So how is this all even relevant?
Re:Been There, Done That (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Does anyone praising the iPad actualy have one? (Score:4, Informative)
I have an iPad. I'm using to enter this post. I also have an iPod touch that I used for about a year for web surfing and reading e-books.
It's not meant to be a replacement for a full on computer. In fact when it was officially announced, and people trashed it as an overgrown iPod Touch my first thought was, "Great. Just what I was hoping for."
As far as needing
to add something to read. You're just wrong. I can download books from Amazon, or the book section of the iTunes store straight off of Wi-Fi or 3G on to the iPad.
I rarely use my home commuter for anything other than as an HTPC anymore. It fulfills my home commuting needs nicely. While at work I have a very powerful desktop to do my job. At home I have a tablet that allows me to surf, do personal email, and read books in any room, or on my deck, or in the parking lot.
Re:Does anyone praising the iPad actualy have one? (Score:2, Informative)
I can download books from Amazon, or the book section of the iTunes store
Are you really so dense, or just trolling? I'm talking about putting existing media on the device to read. PDF files. Text files. Documents in a myriad of formats that Preview supports natively in Mac OS, but the iPad doesn't support.
Re:Are you serious...?! (Score:2, Informative)
There are already many tablets that are portable computers; they just don't sell well.
Show me a tablet running a full OS that costs as little as $499. When you find a tablet running Windows that is in the same price range as the iPad, THEN you can compare how well they sell. Currently a tablet pc costs around $1,500-$2,000 - hardly a fair comparison since the overwhelming majority of people won't spend more than $700 on a computer. Hell, I only spent $900 on my quad-core, dual video card gaming system.
Re:Mobile and Microsoft (Score:3, Informative)
Not any more - except for the TV and movies on the iTunes store, due to content provider requirement.
The music has no DRM now, which they wanted from the start. On the whole, their formats are DRM free.