No harm, no foul: Windows 8 hasn't harmed Microsoft's software satisfaction score

Customer satisfaction with Microsoft's software -- primarily Windows, but also Office -- climbed slightly in the last year, illustrating that whatever misgivings customers have over Windows 8 has not reached the level of frustration seen years ago with the widely-ridiculed Windows Vista, a national survey said today.

Microsoft scored 75 points, up a point from last year, in the newest poll conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a consumer survey started by the University of Michigan.

Microsoft's score, which ACSI has tracked since 2006, was back where it was in 2012, although still three points lower than its all-time high of 78 in 2011, when Windows 7 was at the peak of popularity.

On the bright side, this year's score was six points higher than the record low of 69 in 2008, when ACSI attributed the poor polling results to customers' disgust with Vista, the 2007 operating system typically judged a huge flop in the marketplace.

Last year, when Microsoft's score dropped a point, David VanAmburg, managing director of ACSI, said it was too early to blame Windows 8, the OS that came out the gate in October 2012 to a rocky reception from reviewers and pundits. Instead, VanAmburg said last year to wait: If the score flattened or fell another point or two, then it would be fair to indict Windows 8.

That didn't happen.

"Windows 8 doesn't seem to be anything of great concern to consumers," said VanAmburg in an interview today. "Windows 8 is still behind the numbers during Windows 7's time three years ago, but there's not much evidence that it's dragging Microsoft down."

Many observers have disagreed, citing customer confusion over Windows 8's dual user interfaces (UIs) and its over-emphasis on touch, then linking those criticisms to the slow-down in PC sales.

"Windows 8 doesn't seem to be the drag that Vista was, but on the other hand, it doesn't have the 'wow' factor that Windows 7 had," VanAmburg countered.

Microsoft's latest satisfaction score lagged behind the average for all computer software, which was 76, and a separate category of "All Others." That category represents a bucket of major vendors like Intuit, Adobe and major antivirus vendors -- about the only software makers with a large enough user base to be credible subjects of ACSI's survey -- that scored 77, one point higher than 2013. Like the Microsoft score, All Others rebounded to the level of 2012, but remained several points below its high-water year of 2011.

"The stability of [the 'Computer Software' category, with its score of 76] clearly shows that traditional software has lost some of its luster," said VanAmburg. "People increasingly own multiple mobile devices, phones and tablets, where there are gigantic app stores. Consumers are amazed at the high quality of those mobile apps and their low prices, and in turn that makes traditional computer software, which costs $30, $40, $50 or more, seem to pale in comparison.

"Computer software is not the future, and not where things are going to be," VanAmburg added.

He also said that the decline in PC sales, more accurately, the reason why PC sales have slumped, contributed to the more-or-less stable scores of Microsoft and All Others over the last three years.

"Part of the lack of an improvement in the scores is a result of people spending less time on traditional devices," VanAmburg said. "Frankly, the technology is pushing us in that direction. More people are cutting the cord by going mobile. And I don't see that changing. It's part of the continuing evolution in technology from bigger, bulkier machines to smaller, more mobile devices."

It may not be a coincidence that "Peak PC," the year when personal computer shipments crested, was 2011 -- the same year that saw the highest satisfaction scores for all three software categories measured by ACSI.

The ACSI survey scores were based on polls of more than 12,000 Americans between Jan. 13 and March 11.

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Tutorial on Using Windows 8

Finding things and doing things from the new Windows 8 interface.

The first time I sat in front of the Windows 8 interface, I have to admit I was not thrilled; no Start button, I couldn’t find the control panel, things just weren’t what I was used to. That was over two years ago in the early adopter program for Windows 8, and now when I use Windows XP or Windows 7, I find it very inefficient to "have to click through so many menus" to find and do basic stuff.

The focus of this article is to share with you not simply how to make Windows 8 work like Windows XP/Windows 7 "the old way" (which I will go through and give you tips on how to find stuff and configure stuff to work the old way), but instead to really focus on how to do things better and more easily, effectively helping you shortcut the learning process that makes Windows 8 actually extremely easy and efficient to use.

Note: I've made a copy of this Tutorial available in PDF format so you can easily download and print/keep a copy, the PDF is up in my SkyDrive at https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=C99D5C694EA9E532!109&authkey=!ACC7qwl6DQle-SM

First of all, some basic terminology and "old way" of finding things so that I can take you through Windows 8 in a way you have learned how to use Windows. As I’m sure you are aware, Windows 8 no longer has the "Start Button" at the bottom left of the screen. Instead, Microsoft has the "Windows 8 Style Menu" (that they formally called the Metro style menu, until Microsoft was informed Metro Style was copyrighted, so they’re just calling it the Windows 8 Style menu). This is the menu that Windows comes up with.

If you are in the middle of an application (browser, Word, or any other app) and you want to get back to the menu, on a tablet, you press the "Home" button (usually a physical button on the bottom middle of the tablet device) or from a keyboard system, you press the "Windows-key."

The "start button" for the most part (the thing that gives you access to the Control Panel, shutdown/restart, etc) is called the "Charm" and it pops up on a touchscreen tablet when you swipe your thumb from right to left on the right side of the screen (basically swiping the charm menu out from the right edge and into your screen of view). On a keyboard system, the charm menu pops up when you move the move cursor all the way to the right bottom of the screen.

From the charm menu, you can click on the top most icon ("search") and it shows you all of your applications installed (this would be similar to doing a Start/All Programs in Windows 7). You’ll see the search bar (circled in red) and on the left you can scroll through all of your apps.

When you search/find the app you want or simply just scroll through the apps off this Charm/Search view, you can right-click the application, and at the bottom of the screen you are given options to Pin to Start, which adds the app to your Windows 8 Style Menu (THIS is a good idea as it puts a shortcut on your main menu screen so that every time you press the Home button or press the Windows-key, your apps show up on the main menu). You can also Pin to Start things like Control Panel, Command Prompt, Run, etc. I usually Pin everything I usually use/access to the Start which makes it easy for me to just go back to the main Windows 8 style menu to launch my apps!

Note: You’ll also see when you right click an app, you can also Pin to Taskbar (this pins to the old Windows 7 style taskbar at the bottom of the "Desktop" screen). I used to Pin stuff to the Taskbar, but now that more and more apps are coming out with Windows 8 menu icons (like Office 2013, SkyDrive, Box.net, Real Player, etc), I no longer find myself working from the older Win7 "taskbar." This is one of those crutches you can continue to use, or just move into the 21st Century and start using the native Windows 8 menu.

Note: You’ll also see when you right click an app, at the bottom of the screen you can choose to run the app as an Administrator, uninstall the app, find the file/application location. These are helpful "things" we used occasionally in Win7 in the past that you now have shortcuts to run.

Another option off the Charm Menu (when you move your mouse cursor to the bottom right, or swipe your thumb right to left off the right edge of a tablet) is the Settings options (the bottom-most option on the charm) when you click on Settings…

…this is where a LOT of common things are found, such as Control Panel…

…Power (where you choose to shutdown/restart the computer/device), Network (where you select the WiFi connection you want to connect to), Change PC Settings (where you can change other things that are not in the Control Panel like desktop background, the photo you associate to your logon…

…add printers, etc).

Basically click on this Settings place and you’ll get to a lot of things you may normally access for configuration.

Okay, so with the basics under your belt, here’s where you learn to be a Windows 8 person and not a WinXP/Win7 person trying to run Windows 8. Instead of moving your cursor to pop up the charm to then click on Search to then find your application, or instead of moving your cursor to pop up the charm to then click Settings to then go to the Control Panel…you would do one of two things. If you are on a Tablet (or a keyboard-based Win8 device), ADD all of your apps, control panel, etc. to your Windows 8 style menu. It’ll take you a couple minutes to right click and "Pin to Start" all of your apps and utilities, but once they are pinned, you will almost never have to go fiddle with the charm thing. You’ll just press the Home button (on a tablet) or press the Windows key (on a keyboard-based system) and from the menu, click/tap the app and you run the app. To "switch" to another app, press the Home button or press the Windows key and click/tap the other app you want to run. All apps stay in memory; you just "toggle" between apps by simply pressing the Home button or pressing the Windows key to get to your apps.

Note: On a keyboard system, you can still Alt-Tab between apps, so toggling between apps is really easy. No more Start/Programs to get to applications. No need to Charm/Settings/Control Panel to get to the Control Panel if you simply pinned the Control Panel onto your Windows 8 style main menu!

So what happens if you want to access an app that you did not pin to your menu? On a keyboard-based system, at the Windows 8 Menu, just start typing a few letters of the app or function you want to do, and the "search" starts working immediately. For example, at the Windows 8 menu, if I start typing the letters n-o-t-e-p, the search bar will appear in the upper right and it’ll zero in on the Notepad application on the left.

Assuming the app is highlighted on the left, just press the Enter key any time and it'll launch that app, no key clicking, nothing extra. If it pops up several apps with n-o-t-e-p, then either keep typing to zero in on "the app" you want and press Enter to launch, or you can arrow around/tap-touch/click on the app name on the left side to select "the app" you want. Fiddle with this, but effectively this is a very quick way to launch apps that may not be on your Windows 8 menu (yet).

If I start typing w-o-r-d, if I have Microsoft Word on the system, it’ll show me Word, or e-x-c-e-l will give me the option of launching Excel. Or even things like p-r-i-n-t-e-r will pop up under Settings the option for me to "Add a Printer," or n-e-t under search settings will show me options like "Connect to a Network."

Between Pinning things to Start and simply typing a few letters of something, I can launch apps, run utils, add printers, and do things on a Win8 system FASTER than what I thought was super efficient in WinXP or Win7. This was the trick to making Windows 8 easy to use.

Now that you have the navigation thing figured out, go to the Windows Store and download "apps" for your most common things you do, so things like there are Box.com apps, Acrobat reader apps, Picture viewers, Real Media Player app, etc.

Note: When you are in the store looking for apps, as much as you can scroll through the "Popular" apps or "Top free" apps it shows you on screen, if you wanted to "search" for an app to download, it's not intuitive how to search for an app. The way to search for an app is when you are in the Store, pull up the "charm" thing (move mouse to the bottom right, or on a tablet, swipe your right thumb right to left to have the "charm" menu on the right side pop out and then use the "search" function in the charm). So just as you "searched" your apps earlier in this blog to find stuff on your local computer, when you are in the Store app and do a search, it'll now search for apps in the Store (ie: searching for Acrobat, or Box, or Alarm Clock, or USA Today or the like).

When you install the app, it shows up on your Windows 8 Style menu. Simply clicking the app launches the application. However, from your Windows 8 Style menu, you might want to move your most commonly used apps to the left side of your menu so they are visible to you more frequently when you pop up the Windows 8 menu. To move the app with a mouse/keyboard, just click and hold down the mouse button down and “drag" the app to the left. On a touch tablet, you touch the app with your finger and then slide the app "down" and then to the left. This took me a while to figure out as I logically tried to push the app with my finger and immediately drag to the left which would tend to just launch the app. The trick is to touch the app with your finger, drag down a bit, then to the left to move it around! Move any non-commonly used apps from the left side over to the right side so they are out of your way.

Many times apps take up two spaces on the menu. I hate that. I’d rather have all of my apps as the small 1-square wide icon. All you do is right-click the app icon and at the bottom it’ll show you “larger" or "smaller" to make the icon a different size. Some have this option to make small icons larger. Oddly, you cannot tag multiple icons and make them all "Smaller" at the same time, you have to right click and "make smaller" one by one. It takes a few seconds to do, but buys you back more real estate on your Windows 8 menu to get more apps 1 click away to run. (Note: if you have a touch tablet, some of these first time configurations are BEST off doing with a mouse. I would usually plug a USB mouse into my tablet and run through some of these basic right-click configuration things, or drag/drop icon things as it is a LOT faster with a mouse. Everything "can" be done with your finger on a touch screen; it's just not as efficient if you have a lot to configure/setup).

When you are in a Windows 8 app, you likely find there are no application configuration options, settings, things you can do with the app that you have in Windows XP or Windows 7 apps might have found as Tools/Options, or Options/Settings. With Windows 8, apps typically DO have configuration settings, you just have to know how to find them. Here's the trick, app settings are in the Charm/Settings on Windows 8. Launch and sit in the Windows 8 application, and then with a touch tablet, swipe your right thumb from right to left off the left edge of the tablet screen, and press Settings; with a keyboard system, move your mouse cursor to the bottom right to pull up the Charm menu, then click Settings. With the Charm/Settings exposed, you'll see configuration settings for that app!

Also, when you are in a Windows 8 application, there are frequently more options when you "swipe down" from the top of the tablet, or "swipe up" from the bottom of the tablet screen (or on a keyboard-based system, you position your mouse cursor at the top of the screen where a bar appears, or you move the mouse cursor at the top of the screen and right-click). As an example, when I'm in the Internet Explorer in Windows 8 and want to have the Address Bar appear, or I want to switch between IE "tabs", things like the below pop up and give you additional application options...

For applications on your Windows 8 menu, there’s also this thing called "Live Tile," in which the icon changes screens, like the way the CNN news live tile shows you the latest news and flips through things, or the Photos "Live Tile" flips through your pictures. You can turn Live Tile off (again, right click the icon, choose to turn Live Tile on/off). I find it annoying to have the thing flip through stuff when I don’t remember what icon is what, but it's really your call.

To flip through running apps, you can Alt-Tab from a keyboard-based system, or from either a mouse or touch tablet, move the cursor to the upper left hand corner and little tiles of the running apps show in the left margin of the screen. You can right-click and "close" any of those running apps. I used to close apps all the time as I’m old school and after running an app and don’t need it anymore, I close it. But after a while, I just leave the apps running. They don’t take up processing power and with 4-8GB of RAM in my systems these days I have plenty of memory. Every now and then I reboot my device/tablet/system but on occasion, and I will run my finger to the upper left and choose apps to close.

And a hidden thing in the bottom left corner of the screen is a "start"-type button thing that when right clicked will show you a list of common tasks like Event Viewer, Disk Management, Command Prompt, Task Manager, Control Panel, Windows Explorer, Run, etc. It's sometimes helpful to use that, although these days with most stuff on my Windows 8 Menu or I just type a few letters, I don’t bother with these various other menu things, but just FYI…

Logging Out of a system is done by click on your name from the Windows 8 Style menu as shown in the Figure here:

To shutdown or restart the computer, you can navigate the menus (like Charm, Settings, Shutdown), or what I did was create a Windows 8 style menu "app" that I simply click that’ll shut down my computer. You effectively create a "shortcut" on the "desktop" and then you "Pin to Start." That’ll add the shortcut to your Windows 8 menu. Here’s what it looks like:

1) From the Windows 8 menu, click Desktop to switch to the old Windows 7 style desktop
2) Right click on the desktop and choose New | Shortcut
3) When prompted for the Location of the item, enter in c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe /p as shown below, then click Next
4) For the name of the Shortcut, type in something like Shutdown, then click Finish
5) Right click on the shortcut that is on your desktop and choose Pin to Start

You now have an icon on your Windows 8 menu that allows you to shutdown your system with a single click.

You can change the command syntax in #3 above to restart the computer by making that c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe /r or /h at the end (instead of /r) will hibernate a system.

Oh, and one more thing - so once I tricked out my Windows 8 menu with all of the icons I wanted, how do I transfer my icons, menu items, etc. to other systems? Microsoft came out with this thing called the User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) that is the new generation of "roaming profiles." However, unlike roaming profiles of the past where EVERYTHING was moved from system to system whether you wanted it or not (ie: registry settings, apps, icons, junk on your desktop, etc), with UE-V profiles, you can specifically just note to "roam" your Windows 8 menu. Microsoft did a case study on my organization’s experience with UE-V [link download].

More information on UE-V is available on the Microsoft site. UE-V isn’t free; it’s part of what Microsoft calls its Desktop Optmization Pack (MDOP) that includes a bunch of other tools like RemoteApp, App-V (application virtualization), VDI, etc. Any case, you might find your organization owns MDOP as part of the Software Assurance for Windows client licensing, and if so, explore UE-V where you can roam your Win8 menu from your desktop, to your laptop, to your tablet, to your VDI guest session, to your Remote Desktop (terminal server) guest session, etc.

Hopefully, this is a place to start. I REALLY fought the whole Windows 8 menu thing for a long time, even filed several "bug reports" during the early adopter program noting that the whole Windows 8 menu was a major "bug," although with a bunch of these tips and tricks I’ve noted in this article, I think you’ll find this whole Windows 8 menu thing to actually be a LOT easier to use and definitely faster than having to fiddle through a bunch of menus.

Questions and Answers
As the "comments" section below has gotten pretty massive, I wanted to create a little index of some of the more helpful questions/answers that people have asked about (and I have answered). Scroll down to the appropriate Comment/Reply below for more info:

Having Windows 8 "forget" the WiFi passcode and WiFi default connection so you can re-enter in a new key or choose a different WiFi default connection (see response to posting from "Sara" from January 5, 2013)
Accessing POP3 email from Windows 8 (see response to post from reedfunchap from January 4, 2013)
Re-associating Windows 8 with a new email / logon / local account without having to restore the whole new system (see response to post from catey44 from January 1, 2013)
Difference between a Windows 8 Store "App" and downloading an app from a vendor's site (see response to post from Scott Schulte from January 1, 2013)
Disabling the "Charm" from popping out all the time see response to post from Jesse A Vasquez from December 23, 2012)
Adjusting the timezone in Windows 8 (see response to post from Sabir Ali from December 17th-ish, 2012)
Choosing a different "response" when a device is plugged into a system, ie: setting a new default action for a device (see response to post from Ken Reynolds from early December 2012)
As I respond to "comments" with information of value, I'll continue to add the info in here for a quick summary...



Several other postings I’ve done on Windows Server 2012, Exchange 2013, Intune, System Center, etc. Just click the Next Article or Previous Article buttons on this blog post to get to other articles I’ve covered, or click here to see a listing of all of the various blog posts I’ve done over the years. Hopefully this information is helpful!

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Eight questions about Windows 8 for Microsoft OEM chief Nick Parker

Nick Parker has one of the more interesting jobs in the PC business right now. As corporate vice president for Microsoft's OEM division, he manages the company's relationships with PC manufacturers, including sales and licensing of Windows.

It's not always an easy job. Microsoft ruffled a few feathers last year when it started selling its own Surface tablets, effectively competing with its hardware partners. And Windows 8 has taken some of the blame for the slump in the PC business, although the popularity of tablets hasn't helped.

At Computex, Microsoft is taking steps to strike back. Parker gave Microsoft's keynote at the show Wednesday and hosted the first public demonstration of Windows 8.1, an update due later this year that aims to address some of the criticisms in the first release. Microsoft also announced that Windows RT, the version of Windows 8 for ARM-based processors, will soon include the Outlook email application.

IDG caught up with Parker after his keynote and had a chance to ask him a few questions. Following is an edited transcript:

IDG: So you just announced you'll be including Outlook with the next version of Windows RT, what was the thinking behind that?

NP: Outlook is one of those apps people love, and when you start thinking about RT in the small business environment, or for heavy email users, Outlook is one of those high value solutions. That was the one we got the most feedback about.

IDG: The reception for Windows RT has been a bit lukewarm, what are some of the reasons for that and to what extent will adding Outlook will improve the situation?

NP: If you look at what we did with RT -- it's completely new silicon, a new hardware platform, and Windows 8 is a new OS. So first you just have a natural growth curve when you're starting at zero. Then you start seeing new apps appear, the killer apps that people want, like Outlook. And the ecosystem gets more familiar with it -- they learn how to code to it and how to certify parts for it.

We get so used to the tremendous success we've had on PCs for years, you just think you can flip a switch and the platform's going to change. I think it's just the incremental growth of a new platform. And we should be a bit humble about how we go to market and talk about the new capabilities. I think we could maybe have inspired people a bit more with some of the RT devices and some of our marketing.

IDG: There's a lot of downward pressure on tablet pricing -- Asus showed an Android tablet this week for $129. Do you expect to see Windows 8 tablets getting down to those sort of prices?

NP: That's a question to ask our OEMs [original equipment manufacturers, or basically PC makers]. I think people are prepared to pay for value and we see tablets with higher price points having better capabilities and features. I think buyers are getting smart about what's good quality. But OEMs will choose their own prices.

IDG: We saw the first 8-inch Windows tablet launch this week from Acer. What are some of the things you're doing to provide a better Windows experience on those smaller devices?

NP: For any device you can hold in one hand, one of the things you need is portrait mode -- so, the ability for the apps to work in the same way, to move and to flow nicely. And for our OEMs, we're giving them the ability to have buttons on the side of the device, because when you're holding it in one hand you might want to push a button on the side. You have to make the OS extensible. So those are the types of things.

IDG: Will that all be part of Windows 8.1?

NP: Yes, we talked about that today.

IDG: I've never thought of Windows as being designed for smaller screens; the netbook experience wasn't particularly great. What are you doing to improve the software experience?

NP: In terms of how the display scales up and down, and in terms of the zooming capabilities -- as soon as the preview [of Windows 8.1] comes out you should play with it.

IDG: There's a tremendous variety of form factors out there right now -- all kinds of laptops and tablets and convertibles. When you look ahead a few years, do you expect them to coalesce around a few winning designs or will there always be that much variety?

NP: In terms of capabilities, I think touch is going to be the new standard. People aren't going to want to carry around hundreds of devices. You'll have a phone, and I think the phablet is an interesting space. But for two-in-one detachables -- I'm seeing the interest in those ramp. People want the best of both worlds. You can have a tablet and sit there and surf, then you plug it into a keyboard and you're off working.

IDG: Is the keyboard here to stay, or will people eventually get used to typing on touchscreens?

I think the keyboard is here to stay, you've got that physical feedback. You may see a lot of innovation around keyboards but I think they're here to stay.

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Microsoft’s Enterprise Windows 8: A true business OS, for once

Business users will find actual IT-oriented features, rather than the consumer OS adorned with extras.

Microsoft recently introduced a trio of consumer Windows 8 SKUs, two for desktop and the ARM version. Lost in the hoopla was Windows 8 Enterprise edition, which wasn't outlined in great detail.

Well, Microsoft has started to provide information on it, and it sounds like, for once, it will be a true business OS and not just the consumer product with a few extras thrown in.

Windows 8 Enterprise will contain all of the features of Windows 8 Pro plus a number of exclusive features for business users. First among them is the ability to create Windows To Go portable USB installations, which will help with the whole Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement at work lately. The USB drive will create a bootable external USB stick to give access to the corporate environment without compromising security.

Another notable feature is DirectAccess, which allows for remote access to corporate networks without requiring a VPN connection while allowing administrators to keep remote users’ PCs in compliance with policies and software.

BranchCache allows remote users to cache files and other content from central servers on their local PCs. Windows Server 2012 will come with a number of improvements over Server 2008, which first introduced this concept.

AppLocker has been updated to restrict the files and apps that users or groups are allowed to run. Enhancements in Microsoft RemoteFX and Windows Server 2012 provide an improved VDI experience, and Windows 8 App Deployment will support side-load internal, Windows 8 Metro style apps.

To make full use of these features, Microsoft is modifying the Software Assurance license to support Windows To Go users, and for power users, Companion Device licenses will allow employees to access corporate environments through either Windows To Go or VDI using up to four personally-owned systems. This will cost extra from regular licenses.

Windows 8 Enterprise will also include MDOP, which helps manage clients, including swapping between Windows 7 and 8, and Windows Intune will allow for remote PC management that takes advantage of all of the new features in Windows 8.

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Windows 8 isn't New Coke, says top Microsoft exec; it's Diet Coke

Frank X. Shaw defends Windows disclosure strategy, denies aping Apple

Microsoft's head of corporate communications defended his company's Windows information disclosure strategy Tuesday, denying that Microsoft has adopted Apple's "cone of silence" approach to imparting news.

"We know we're not Apple," Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's top communications executive, said in an interview yesterday. "We would love to have control all along the stack, as Apple does. But that's not the business we're in."
Frank X. Shaw
Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communication, in a photo he uses on his Twitter account. (Image: Frank X. Shaw.)

Microsoft's communications strategy, specifically the way it reveals information about Windows to a broad audience -- developers, PC makers, enterprise customers, consumers, the press and analysts -- has been criticized by several of the latter. Windows 8 suffered because of Microsoft's penchant for withholding information, those analysts have contended.

Developers were not provided enough information and tools to craft top-quality apps for the October 2012 launch, OEMs were caught short of touch-enabled devices, and enterprises remain confused about why they should adopt the new OS, the arguments go.

Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, has put it most succinctly when he claimed that Microsoft, seeing the success of Apple's habit of divulging nothing until a product announcement, copied the strategy. "Microsoft doesn't make a good Apple," Moorhead said in an interview Monday.

Shaw wasn't having any of that. "It's an easy shorthand for people to use, but it's not accurate," said Shaw of the Apple comparison. "We choose our strategy on the needs that we have. There are times when we will be more conservative and times when we will be more open."

Analysts, some who have requested anonymity for fear of risking their access to Microsoft, have been the most vocal about the relative paucity of information disclosed by the Redmond, Wash. developer, and have compared that strategy to what they saw as a more open communications game plan prior to Windows 7, which shipped in the fall of 2009.

The more secretive approach has been credited to Stephen Sinofsky, who until his ouster last year led the Windows division during development of Windows 7 and the follow-on, Windows 8. Sinofsky was known for keeping things under wraps when he led Office development for several editions, closing out his time on that team with Office 2007.

Shaw acknowledged that Microsoft's approach to doling out information to the media, analysts, developers and OEMs is different today. "Yes, it has changed, because the world we're living in has changed," said Shaw. "If you look at Windows 7 and then look at Windows 8, there were a whole bunch of things with Windows 8 that we wanted to keep more confidential than public. Look at the decision to build Windows 8 on ARM. That was held very closely.

"But I think that's a hard comparison to make," Shaw continued, speaking of the contrast between Windows 8 secrets and pre-Windows 7 openness. "Windows 8 represented a significant platform shift, with touch, Windows available on ARM as well as Intel, a new app model and a new store, and a new set of hardware from us."

In many cases, Microsoft has taken to parceling out information in small bits, a drip-drip-drip strategy that, to outsiders at least, seems to serve little purpose. The best illustration was when the company announced last week that it would release a public preview of Windows 8.1 at its BUILD conference in late June, but said it would provide other information, including pricing, "in a few weeks." Just seven days later, however, Tami Reller, CFO of the Windows division, said that update would be free.

When asked why Microsoft didn't simply give customers both pieces at the same time, Shaw did not directly answer. Instead, he said, "There are many options, and this was the one that we chose. We thought that it was the best way to get the information out."

Microsoft has made other communication missteps recently. Earlier this year, when news broke that it was permanently tying each retail Office 2013 license to the first PC it was installed on, and would not allow users to later move that license to another machine, the company limited the disclosure to the end-user licensing agreement (EULA), which very few people read, then only confirmed the move after several rounds of questions from Computerworld. In March, after a heated reaction from users, Microsoft backtracked from the licensing lock-in.

"There's a big continuum," Shaw said. "At times we are unbelievably transparent, at times we are moderately transparent, and at times we are quiet. What drives this is not a corporate one-size-fits-all strategy, but the demands of the product or service, and the marketplace."

Shaw also took exception to the point many have made that developers were not kept as informed about Windows 8 as in past iterations of the OS, and that what they did get was much later in the development cycle than in the past. That contributed to the Windows Store's app tally and the omission, still, of some major apps, such as one dedicated to Facebook, the theory goes.

"We did tons of work with developers and ISVs to get them ready and to train them," said Shaw, citing the 2011 BUILD conference and follow-on efforts. "The thing that people have to recognize is that until Windows 8 shipped, there were zero targeted devices."

And sans those devices, implied Shaw, it was no surprise that at launch the app store had relatively few apps. "Developers are rational creatures," he said, hinting that until they had hardware they could use to test their apps, they took a wait-and-see stance. "We had realistic expectations of what [the app store] would look like at launch. There was never a 'work-done' moment for us related to the launch."

In the interview, Shaw again blasted press coverage of Windows 8.1. Some stories and opinion pieces described the changes Microsoft might make with the update as a retreat from its previous vision for the OS, and compared Windows 8 to the Coca-Cola debacle of 1985, when within months of the introduction of "New Coke," the beverage giant yanked the reformulated soda.

Shaw's counter-attack drew criticism of its own, with Moorhead saying it was a sign of weakness for a company as large as Microsoft to be thin-skinned.

Shaw disagreed. "These things stick," he said of pieces by The Financial Times and The Economist, which he had earlier singled out as examples of what he called "sensationalism and hyperbole."

"If you don't do anything about it, it can become perceived wisdom," said Shaw, explaining why he wrote the Friday post. "If we don't say anything, then we shouldn't expect other people to read our minds. So we get our voice out there."

Speaking of New Coke, Shaw even had a take on the metaphor.

"If anything, Windows 8 is like Diet Coke," said Shaw. "Diet Coke was a product that mapped an entirely new need expressed by the marketplace, something that tasted just like Coke but had zero calories."

Diet Coke is the world's second-biggest soda, behind only Coke itself and ahead of Pepsi, which it passed in 2010.

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Microsoft may backtrack on Start button in Windows 8

Analysts urge company to recant design ideology as nod to customer complaints

Microsoft may recant its Windows 8 design theology, bloggers reported Tuesday, by offering Windows 8 users an option to bypass the "Modern" UI and by restoring the Start button and menu to the beleaguered operating system.

A pair of longtime Microsoft hands, Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet and Tom Warren of The Verge, citing unnamed sources and messages on Windows discussion forums, said Microsoft was considering those tweaks for an upcoming update, called "Windows Blue" by some and "Windows 8.1" by others. The upgrade, the first of a planned faster development and release tempo, is allegedly slated for an October debut.

Warren pointed to evidence that Microsoft might allow boot-to-desktop with Windows 8.1. Foley added that the Redmond, Wash., developer was also pondering a return of the Windows Start button and associated menu.

Analysts welcomed the news, assuming it's accurate.

"I don't see this as a defeat but as a good thing," said Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. "It's shows you're willing to make changes based on customer feedback."

The tweaks would be a concession for Microsoft. Publicly, the company has repeatedly maintained that its design decisions were correct and its executives have suggested that users would, in time, learn to live without a Start button and grow to appreciate the Start screen.

Today, Microsoft declined to comment on the reports.

But contrary to Microsoft's assertions that the dual user interfaces (UIs) in Windows 8 were "fast and fluid," customers have barraged the company's blogs and the Web in general for more than a year with complaints.

They were most upset about the disappearance of the iconic 17-year-old Start button and menu, but also griped that they weren't able to boot right to the "Classic" user interface (UI), or desktop, rather than first hitting the tile-style Start screen. Both issues have been sores spots among longtime Windows users, and at the top of virtually everyone's most-hated lists.

Even Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen took Windows 8 to task, calling it "puzzling" and "confusing" when last year he urged the company that made him a billionaire to offer an option that set the desktop as the default mode on boot.

And they voted with their wallets, either by staying away from Windows 8 -- and shying from any new PC purchases -- or if forced to the new OS, by supporting a cottage industry of third-party add-ons that restored both boot-to-desktop and the Start button. StarDock, for example, claimed earlier this year that its $5 Start8 add-on had been downloaded 3 million times, with thousands of people trying it daily.

Even with that on the line, StarDock CEO Brad Wardell applauded Microsoft's presumed move. "I hope Microsoft adds back the Start button and a boot to desktop option," said Wardell in an email Tuesday. "While we would miss the short-term revenue boost of Start8, it is important to keep the Windows software ecosystem healthy and growing."

The talk today suggests that Microsoft has rethought not only the design of Windows 8, but also its strategy.

"The feedback they've had should tell them that people are not ready to live in the Modern UI, so they need to make [Windows 8's desktop] as good as, if not better, than Windows 7," said J.P. Gownder, an analyst with Forrester Research. "When the tipping point happens, perhaps in a couple of years as the Windows Store fills up, when all the key apps are there, then they can rethink."

And withdraw the Start button yet again, Gownder meant.

Most outside Microsoft believe the company's decision stemmed from a misguided touch-first doctrine, fueled by the belief that only if customers were forced to run apps would they buy apps, and that only by coercing them could Microsoft quickly create a pool of users large enough to attract app developers to the new platform.

Gownder understood that thinking, even appreciated it, but still said it had been wrong.

"I understand Microsoft wanting to drive charms," Gownder said, referring to the set of persistent icons for chores such as searching, sharing content or accessing the OS settings. "There is an argument toward design purity, to reimagine Windows, and that people must become comfortable with the charms. That's legitimate. But the overwhelming feedback was that perhaps the train was taking off a little too early."

Moorhead argued that backpedaling wouldn't significantly hurt Microsoft's push toward an app ecosystem.

"This is very positive, because it doesn't take away from the experience of 'Metro,' " he said, using the older term for the Modern UI. " It just gives users a way to get back to Metro that's obvious. It doesn't say anything about Metro, doesn't say it's good or bad. It doesn't change that argument at all."

Gownder urged Microsoft to backtrack on the boot-to-desktop and Start button controversies, noting in a longer blog post Tuesday that the horse had left the barn -- users were already adopting Start button emulators -- and that the company should accept the inevitable, if only to keep its enterprise customers happy.

"Microsoft needs to step back and do this," Gownder said. "Enterprises are not about to support one of these workarounds. For them, this [functionality] needs to be in the OS layer."

Redmond has done 180-degree turns before. When customers howled about Windows Vista's intrusive User Account Control (UAC), the prompts designed to warn of risk when installing and running software, Microsoft dramatically reduced UAC's impact in Windows 7 three years later.

Now it has an advantage, as it's committed to a faster release cycle -- one executive called it "continuous" -- and assuming the leaks are correct, can modify Windows 8 in a third of the time.

"Microsoft misstepped a number of ways with Vista," Gownder said. "But they did change it. They have an established market and a lot to offer, and [Windows Blue] is, by no means, the last chance for Windows 8."

What a reversal will not do is magically turn around depressed PC sales, on which Microsoft is reliant for Windows 8 sales. Offering options to boot to the desktop or restore Start functionality won't change the dynamics of the industry, where consumers in particular are buying less expensive touch-enabled tablets rather than replacing older Windows computers.

But what if? What if Microsoft's design ideology had been more flexible before it shipped Windows 8? Would it have made a difference? Would Windows 8 devices be flying off shelves?

Not likely.

"Had Microsoft added the option of restoring the Start button and boot-to-desktop, they would be in a slightly better position than they are today, but not much," said Moorhead. "In fact, Metro app development would be behind the curve had they added the options."

The UI mistakes, Moorhead added, were secondary to a more fundamental misreading of the market and the available technologies. "In retrospect, Microsoft should have marketed and built a more pervasive and high quality touch pad experience. "They misjudged the number of touch-based devices that would be out, and under-emphasized the quality experience of a good touch pad."

Apple, for instance, has ignored touch-based computers thus far, instead depending on larger touch pads built into their notebooks and on the gesture support they've integrated with OS X.

Had Microsoft taken that approach for Windows 8, it could have avoided the entire touch screen issue -- shortages caused by low yields, and corresponding high prices -- Moorhead asserted.

"Unlike touch display functionality, which can add $100 to the [bill of materials], a quality touch pad may cost as little as an incremental $5," Moorhead said.

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Microsoft Surface sales suck

Or do they? If you listen to some analysts, Surface, and other slates running Windows 8 or RT, started slow out of the gate. Considering how much tablets sapped PC shipments in Q4, slow forebodes trouble ahead. Or does it?

"There is no question that Microsoft is in this tablet race to compete for the long haul", Ryan Reith, IDC program manager, says. "However, devices based upon its new Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems failed to gain much ground during their launch quarter, and reaction to the company’s Surface with Windows RT tablet was muted at best". He estimates that Microsoft shipped just 900,000 Surfaces during fourth quarter, which means to stores and not actual sales to customers.

That number sure looks low compared to any manufacturer in the top 5. Even lowly ASUS shipped 3.1 million units. But sell-through matters more. Except for about 10 days of the quarter, at retail, Surface sold exclusively through 66 retail shops in Canada and the United States. Apple offered iPad through an average 390 shops -- 150 outside the United States. Accounting for online sales and doing some best guesstimates, I get 14,680 iPads sold per Apple Store and (assuming 600,000 units) 9,090 Surfaces per Microsoft shop.

However, when adjusting for actual sales days (Microsoft's slate was available for only about two-thirds of the quarter), Surface-sell through averages out a little higher than iPad on a per-store basis. Meaning: Given limited distribution, Microsoft's tablet sells better than IDC shipments suggest.

Size Matters
Microsoft's problem is something else: Size. "We believe that Microsoft and its partners need to quickly adjust to the market realities of smaller screens and lower prices", Reith emphasizes. That's a polite way of saying Surface RT costs too much at $499 and Pro, for sale starting February 9, is already overpriced. But are they? Really?

According to NPD DisplaySearch, market demand shifts towards smaller, and lower-cost models. The firm forecasts that slates with 7-7.9-inch displays will account for 45 percent of shipments this year. By contrast, 9.7-inchers will fall to 17 percent -- that's the size of iPad, the category leader. But Apple offers the 7.9-inch iPad mini, whereas Microsoft and its partners offer nothing in this rapidly exploding size segment.

Apple tablets are pricey, too. Starting February 5, one iPad 4 will sell for $929. But fruit-logo pricing starts lower, at $329 for 16GB iPad with WiFi. Microsoft is locked lowest at $499 with a 10.6-inch slate. What the company needs more is a broader range of sizes and prices, the strategy competitors like Apple, ASUS and Samsung pursue. That would preserve current Surface pricing.

Such an approach doesn't easily fit Microsoft's current tablet strategy, which is all about making a traditional desktop operating system available on more form factors. But that's not what the market wants today, when tablets displace some computer sales rather than replace PCs altogether.

Reith warns: "In the long run, consumers may grow to believe that high-end computing tablets with desktop operating systems are worth a higher premium than other tablets, but until then ASPs on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices need to come down to drive higher volumes".

Give a Little
Simply stated: Working with partners, Microsoft must make gaining market share the top priority. Tablet shipments grew about 75 percent year over year and quarter on quarter to 52.5 million in Q4. Laptops lead the PC category, but NPD DislaySearch predicts that tablet shipments will exceed notebooks this year. Again, that's not so much slates replacing PCs as displacing new sales, as capabilities overlap. Microsoft doesn't want to be left behind Android and iOS slates. This is a platform war that nobody wants to lose.

 

ASUS tablet shipments grew 402.3 percent year over year and Samsung's by 263 percent, according to IDC. These are phenomenal gains, and both companies offer models running Windows 8 or RT alongside Android. Something else: They also sell what Microsoft doesn't -- smaller slates with screens 7-7.9 inches. Short term, Microsoft's options are limited with Surface. But working with partners, Microsoft could bring Windows RT to smaller screens. Such a strategy would preserve Surface pricing and Microsoft's strategy around bringing desktop Windows to new devices.

But there's a wrinkle. Android costs ASUS and Samsung nothing, and Apple realizes the cost of iOS through research and development. Whereas, Microsoft partners pay to license Windows RT. I wouldn't recommend that Microsoft give tablet OEMs Windows for free, but co-marketing contributions and other incentives could temporarily make the fees essentially zero -- on smaller slates.

Already Apple feels the pinch. In Q4, iPad shipment share fell to 43.6 percent from 51.7 percent a year earlier, even as volumes increased (22.9 million from 15.1 million), according to IDC. However, for the second quarter in a row, iPad share declined.

Apple's falling tablet fortunes show just how dynamic is the segment, and that competitors can and will gain share. But for which platform? Android or Windows RT? Microsoft can answer the question, even in part, by adjusting its tablet strategy.

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Microsoft revenue up, aided by Windows unit sales, though profit declines

The results are the first to include Windows 8

Microsoft reported a drop in profit for the second quarter of its fiscal year, though revenue increased, thanks partly to a 24 percent jump in sales from its Windows division.

Microsoft's revenue increased 2.7 percent to US$21.46 billion in the quarter, which ended Dec. 31.

Net income shrunk to $6.38 billion, or $0.76 per share, from $6.62 billion, or $0.78 per share, in Microsoft's second fiscal quarter of 2011, the company said on Thursday.

CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement that Microsoft's "big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows," along with other initiatives like its Surface tablet and the new Windows Phone 8, are paying off.

The Windows division generated revenue of $5.88 billion, up 24 percent year on year. However, on a pro forma basis revenue was up only 11 percent, when factoring in a net deferral of revenue for the Windows Upgrade Offer and the recognition of previously deferred revenue from Windows 8 pre-sales.

The Server & Tools business, which includes products like SQL Server and System Center, posted revenue growth of 9 percent to $5.19 billion. System Center revenue was up 18 percent, while SQL Server revenue climbed 16 percent.

The Business Division, which includes the Office suite, reported $5.69 billion in revenue, down 10 percent. Adjusted for the impact of the Office Upgrade Offer and pre-sales, pro-forma revenue rose 3 percent. Revenue from server software including Lync, SharePoint and Exchange hit "double-digit percentage growth." Microsoft is expected to ship a new version of the Office suite this quarter.

The Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes the Xbox products, saw revenue decline 11 percent to $3.77 billion. Microsoft sold 5.9 million Xbox consoles in the quarter, down 28 percent, while its Skype business, also part of this division, saw a 59 percent increase in call minutes.

The Online Services Division, which includes online advertising generated by Web properties like the Bing search engine, increased its revenue 11 percent to $869 million.

Overall, Microsoft said that its pro-forma revenue was $22 billion, when adjusted in part to reflect revenue deferrals for several Windows, Office and video game offers, as well as pre-sales.

In a conference call to discuss the results, CFO Peter Klein called the numbers "solid," and said Microsoft is building momentum behind Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, and behind upcoming releases like Office 2013 and its Surface Pro tablet.

Microsoft also experienced "strong growth" in multi-year licensing revenue, he said, exceeding 15 percent year on year, a sign that enterprise customers are making long-term bets on the company.

Windows 8 sports a radically redesigned user interface based on tile icons that is optimized for touchscreens found primarily in tablets but also in newer "hybrid" laptops and some desktop PCs, like all-in-one systems.

The new OS started shipping in October, and Microsoft has said it is satisfied with the product's sales, a message that is at odds with skeptical views from market researchers like NPD Group and IDC, as well as financial analysts from Morgan Stanley.

In November and again in January, Microsoft said that Windows 8 shipments were "roughly" in line with Windows 7 shipments at the same stage of the sales cycle three years prior.

However, NPD Group declared in late November that Windows 8 had failed to give the consumer Windows PC and tablet market enough of a boost, and that in the first four weeks after its launch Windows device sales fell 21 percent year on year.

Later in early January, NPD Group said that Windows 8 "did little to boost holiday sales or improve the year-long Windows notebook sales decline."

About a week later, Morgan Stanley financial analysts downgraded the firm's recommendation on Microsoft's stock from Overweight -- the equivalent of "buy" -- to Equal Weight, the equivalent of "hold," citing concerns over Windows 8 sales and over the PC market dynamics.

Meanwhile, IDC reported that worldwide PC shipments fell 6.4 percent to 89.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, year on year, a steeper decline than the 4.4 percent IDC had anticipated. A big part of the problem was that Windows 8 failed to jump-start sales, IDC said.

Even while expressing satisfaction with Windows 8 sales, Tami Reller, CFO and chief marketing officer of the Windows Division, acknowledged in January that OEM partners hadn't made enough Windows 8 touch devices to meet the high demand for that type of computer.

"Frankly, the supply was too short," she said then at an event held at the CES show in Las Vegas where she answered questions from a JP Morgan analyst.

"There was some misalignment between where products were distributed and where the demand was," she added.

Some tablets running Windows RT -- the Windows 8 version for ARM chips -- didn't get the type of distribution that would have been "ideal," she said.

Microsoft's CFO reiterated these points Thursday, saying Microsoft is working with its chip and OEM partners to fine-tune the availability of Windows 8 devices to make sure there is the right mix of price points and configurations.

A similar effort is under way with developers to increase the variety and volume of Windows 8 applications. And Microsoft is taking steps to expand the distribution of its Surface tablets.

Its early days," Klein said. "An ambitious endeavor like this takes time.

Microsoft has sold more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses, he said, repeating what Reller had said earlier this month. At the same time, Windows 7 deployments continue, and it is now on more than 60 percent of enterprise desktops worldwide, according to Klein.

Microsoft is counting on Windows 8 to help improve the operating system's minuscule share in the white-hot tablet OS market, where it lags significantly behind iOS and Android. Meanwhile, the PC market, where Windows has historically been the dominant OS, is shrinking.

Last year, Gartner forecast that worldwide media tablet sales to end users would total 119 million units in 2012, up 98 percent compared with 2011, and that Apple's iOS would continue its dominance with a projected share of over 61 percent. Windows tablet shipments were expected to be only 4.8 million in 2012.

Microsoft has been offering Windows 8 Pro upgrades at discounted prices as low as $14.99, but prices will shoot up after Jan. 31 to $199.99.

One special offer lets people upgrade an existing Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC and lets them acquire Windows 8 Pro for $39.99 via Windows.com download or $69.99 from a retail store DVD. The other offer, priced at $14.99, is for consumers upgrading a new Windows 7 PC bought between June 2 of last year and Jan. 31 -- they have until Feb. 28 to register for the special upgrade price.

After Jan. 31, people will also be able to upgrade for the first time to the regular version of Windows 8 for $119.99.

Windows 8 Pro is more advanced than Windows 8 in areas like security, networking, virtualization and remote desktop access.

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Why I abandoned Windows Phone 8

I recently acquired a Nokia Lumia 920 to experiment with Windows Phone 8. But a few weeks in, I'm already back to my Android-based device.

A few months ago, I forced myself to switch to Windows 8 on my desktop system (and laptop) and ended up liking the operating system very much. Once I got used to the quirks and garish look of the new Start screen and learned many of the shortcuts built into Windows 8, I found myself enjoying the operating system and was more than pleased by its myriad of enhancements and performance improvements.

I initially made the switch to Windows 8 because I wanted to fully immerse myself into the OS before formulating any strong opinions. Considering how much I ended up liking Windows 8 on my desktop, I thought I would conduct a similar experiment with my smartphone. For the last few years, I have been deeply entrenched in the Android ecosystem and have experience with a multitude of devices. I enjoy installing custom ROMs on the devices and have experimented with countless apps and utilities. At this point my smartphone is an integral part of my day-to-day computing, and I’ve grown fond of a handful of apps and the convenience of always having my inboxes and access to the web in my pocket.

I picked up a [Windows Phone 8-based Nokia Lumia 920 and was initially impressed. The hardware itself is excellent. The Lumia 920’s camera is top notch. The device is obviously well-built. The screen looks great, and navigating through Windows Phone 8 was smooth as silk. At first, my Android-based device (currently a Samsung Galaxy Note II) remained my daily driver. I kept the Lumia 920 handy until I felt I was comfortable using its email client, browsing the web. But eventually I customized the Start screen to my liking and got a good feel for what Microsoft and Nokia were trying to accomplish with the phone. I installed only a couple of apps and got comfortable with them too.

After a couple of weeks and a good initial impression, I decided to dive in head-first and make the Lumia 920 my daily device. At first, I was happy with the decision. I dug the Live Tiles and the Lumia 920 never lost its luster; it’s a great phone.

But as I started to install more and more apps and dig deeper into the Windows Phone App Store, I was regularly disappointed. There seemed to be three kinds of apps available for Windows Phone 8:

Apps specifically designed for the OS that showed signs of greatness
Quick-and-dirty ports of apps obviously designed for other platforms
Kludges that were nothing more than wrappers for mobile websites

The apps designed with Windows Phone 8 in mind were mostly great. I especially liked the IMDB app, which blows away its counterparts on other mobile platforms. The Facebook app was also very fast and responsive, but it wastes a TON of screen real estate with larger-than-necessary fonts in the navigation menu and wasted white space in the feed. There were times when I could only see a single post in my news feed because of all the wasted screen real estate. I’m not sure what the app developers were thinking with that one.

Then there were the obvious ports that just didn’t look right on Windows Phone 8. One in particular, Words with Friends, comes to mind. I know it’s an older title and games aren’t a necessity, but I enjoy playing Words with Friends; it’s a nice break in the day. Anyway, fonts (like the one used to display the score) were nearly illegible and the game is just plain broken. As of a couple of weeks ago, you couldn’t use words with the letter “Z” and the main screen wouldn’t update when it was your turn. You’d think with the amount of complaints logged in the app store someone at Microsoft would fix the game, but no such luck.

And then there’s apps like YouTube, which seem to be little more than wrappers for the YouTube mobile site. Minimal effort was put into optimizing the app for Windows Phone 8, and it shows.

As you probably guessed by now, my little experience was a failure. I’m back to my Android device and don’t plan to give Windows Phone 8 another try for a few months. If Microsoft wants people to give Windows Phone 8 serious consideration, they’ve got to get serious about offering quality apps for the platform. It’s not just about the number of available apps, it’s about the quality, and at this point in time Windows Phone 8 trails in both departments.

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