Win10 Preview: Return to PC Market

Computer store news: Microsoft's rumored Microsoft Windows operating system (preview) has finally been released, and it has been widely speculated that "Windows TH", "Windows X", "Windows One" or “Windows 9” is different. The new Microsoft operating system is named Windows10.

In addition to the naming surprise, many of the so-called new main features of Windows 10 have not brought much surprises to the industry, especially in the current rush of Microsoft's rush to move out of the downturn (such as smartphones and tablets).

The industry knows that the traditional PC industry that Microsoft Windows relies on for survival and development has been declining over the years due to weak market demand and the impact of mobile Internet represented by smartphones and tablets.

To this end, Microsoft previously released Windows 8 called the integrated operating system, in order to solve the development of the PC industry, Windows can have greater achievements in the mobile market. But from the design core and features of Windows 8, it seems that Microsoft is more eager to expand its influence in the mobile market. One of the most typical manifestations is the introduction of mobile (touch-based dynamic tiles) elements into Windows 8 as the primary UI.

Of course, the classic "Start" menu in Windows disappears in the PC interface. But Microsoft's move has made previous PC users (including corporate users) feel uncomfortable and has become one of the main obstacles for users to upgrade Windows 8 from previous Windows (such as Windows XP and Windows 7).

According to the latest statistics from Net Applications, only 6.3% of PC users are upgraded to Windows 8 in traditional PCs. By contrast, Windows 7 and Windows XP users are still up to 50.1% and 25.3%. .

We believe that for an operating system that has been released for nearly two years, Windows 8 has failed to boost Windows sales in the PC market. Unfortunately, while boosting the Windows sales failure in the PC market, Microsoft has made little progress in the Windows8-focused mobile market. From the user's point of view, it can be said that Microsoft has offended the traditional PC users, and the new mobile market users have no pains to pay for Microsoft's painstaking efforts. Microsoft has not bothered.

Of course, in the process of Microsoft's efforts to promote Windows 8, the traditional PC market has undergone subtle changes, that is, Google's Chromebook with Chrome OS system is in the PC market, and the growth momentum is rapid. According to Gartner's forecast, Chromebook sales will nearly double in the next three years, from 5.2 million units this year to 14.4 million units in 2017. Last year, Chromebook sales were only 2.9 million units.

More importantly, according to a report released by the NPD Group, the rise of the Chromebook last year was mainly in the commercial sector, which accounted for one-fifth of the US commercial notebook market. The commercial field is the top priority of Microsoft Windows in the traditional PO market. Although Chrome OS still accounts for a small percentage of the PC market, Microsoft has clearly noticed this threat. The so-called thousand-mile embankment is destroyed by the ant nest.

With the previous experience of Windows8, the biggest change in Windows10 released to the industry is the return of the traditional PC"start" menu, and more emphasis on its functions in enterprise users. As Joe Belfiore, vice president of Microsoft's Microsoft WP business at the Windows 10 conference, said that in Windows 8 systems, when users open a modern application, they will feel to some extent. It is coming to a different environment.

We don't want this duality, but we want PC users who use the mouse and keyboard to see the user interface they are familiar with. In addition, we can see from Windows10 more like the combination of Microsoft Windows7 and Windows8. The main feature of Windows10 is to rectify the practice of over-emphasizing Windows8 (mobile) features and even abandoning traditional PC features. The traditional PC features, at least placed in the same important position.

Although Microsoft's Windows 10 return to the PC market is a smart move for Microsoft, Windows 10's improvements or additions to mobile market users (smartphones and tablets) are lacking, or relying on the mobile market before. There is no substantial improvement in Windows 8 compared to Windows 2.0, which is not a shocking new feature from Microsoft's Windows 10 conference, but it is designed to enhance the productivity of users throughout the operating system.

In summary, the biggest feature from Windows 10 is the return of PC features based on previous Windows 7 (functional features and supplements on the main features), indicating that Microsoft has failed to attack the mobile market with Windows 8 in the past two years. Beginning to move into the passive defense of the strategy, and the unintentional copying of the Windows 8 system in the mobile market on Windows 10 seems to indicate that Microsoft is still difficult to break through in the mobile market.

Perhaps in the era of Windows 10, Microsoft still did not understand that the so-called fusion system is not a simple superposition of two systems and the presentation of surface UI, but an organic and innovative fusion of this truth.