Rapid expansion of touchscreen-enabled notebooks could be good for Windows 8
A research firm focused on the display supply chain, NPD DisplaySearch, recently predicted “a rapid expansion of the touchscreen-enabled notebooks over the course of the year. Last year, the company estimates that touchscreens were present on only 3 percent of notebooks sold, but it expects this number to grow to more than 12 percent during the course of 2013.” And the growth of touch can only be good for Windows 8.
Windows 8: A Transformational Change
Last week, our consultant Josh, discussed some of the reasons why Windows 8 has been slow to launch. I’d like to take the topic a step further and cover some of the challenges any company faces when they are truly engaged in transformational change.
Windows 8 is Slow to Launch, But It’s Too Early to Declare Failure
We mentioned a few weeks ago that Windows 8 has taken its time ramping up compared to other Microsoft launches in the past. I ran into a provocative article this past week saying that Windows 8 has failed.
Windows 8 Ramping Up Slowly But Surely
I noticed an article in the news this week about Windows 8 and the slow gains it has made on the PC market. According to an article on zdnet.com, although the gains have been steadily growing each month, so far Windows 8 has only taken 2.26% of the market share. By comparison, Windows 7, its older counterpart, took 7.7% of market share during the same timeframe when it launched in 2009.
There are some good reasons for this slow uptake. For one thing, Windows 7 was not a disruptive and completely new way of operating a PC like Windows 8 is.
Entrance’s First Windows 8 Application
We were pretty excited about the launch of Windows 8, and as a proof of concept we took publicly available well data and used it to create an application that shows how an energy company might be able to use it. The app shows a high level view of a group of wells with drill down ability to see the specifics of any given well. In the image below, I have drilled down into the date for one of these wells.
This is a great example of business intelligence meeting new technology! Read more about Windows 8 applications and how they might apply to your business need….
Windows 8 and the Healthcare Industry
I ran into this article a few weeks ago about Windows 8 tablets and the healthcare industry, where the author wrote about how, “Windows 8-based tablets might also have a very substantial role to play in healthcare. In fact, Windows 8 tablets might, in some cases, be even more appropriate to healthcare than iOS or Android devices.” There are two big reasons for this:
SharePoint for Windows 8 and Phones: How could this increase productivity?
Microsoft announced today that they are getting close to releasing an application that will allow users to get updates on the people and documents they follow through the SharePoint Newsfeed. A preview of it is already available today for Windows phone users. Windows 8 users will also soon have an app that will allow them to use SharePoint and save content for offline use.
“We are looking to further pivot to a devices and services world in a more unified way,” said Microsoft VP Jeff Teper. ZDNet.com says this is a “reflect[ion of] Microsoft’s new emphasis on remaking itself as a devices and services company, an evolution of its software and services charter.”
Building a Windows 8 Application: Lessons Learned from a Developer
I have been working on a Windows 8 app for a while. Given that creating a Metro Style app is new territory for us, there has been a bit of a learning curve along the way. One place this was especially true was when I started dealing with SQL queries. Prior to this project, I had certainly encountered SQL in web design, but I had never needed to create my own database or write any code that accessed the database itself. I recognized the importance of SQL, however, so when I first became an intern at Entrance Software I listed SQL programming as a skill I’d like to learn.
You may remember my blog post about IndexedDB, and you may be wondering what happened to my excitement about it. Well, I was very happy with my implementation of IndexedDB in my app: collecting data was fast and mostly easy, and it definitely improved the app overall. However, I had a single problem: IndexedDB required that the app fill the database at least once, and that process took far too long for the dataset I was working for. IndexedDB is still very useful, but only if you plan to store data locally and build it up slowly. I began to look into SQL as a replacement.
Windows 8 Tips Give Insight Into UI Needs
Would you believe that the list of the “12 Windows 8 Starter Tips and Tweaks” from Maximum PC includes, wait for it, bringing back the start button?
“If you want to bypass the Windows 8 Start Screen, remove your ability to accidentally pull up its sidebars, and restore your Windows Start Button to a place of prominence in the corner of Windows 8’s Desktop Mode, there’s one free app that can perform all this magic: Classic Shell. Give it an install, and you’ll find a wealth of easy-to-manage options for removing some of Windows 8’s more controversial user interface elements.” David Murphy for Maximum PC
Entrance Launches Software Portfolio Assessment!
If your company is anything like ours, the release of Windows 8 has gotten you wondering what the ramifications are for your company. The question becomes not if you should switch, but when? If your company is using Vista, Windows 7, or some similar operating system, certainly you need to be aware of Microsoft’s plans for sun setting support for those products.
More importantly, the question you need to ask yourself is, do we have a road map that both maintains the status quo of existing IT systems and plans for change and improvement in the future? Are your systems even performing at par currently?
If not, Entrance is here to help! We have recently launched a new service, called a software portfolio assessment, where we will help answer questions like:Read More
Four Windows 8 Tips from a Senior Software Architect
The Windows 8 buzz just goes on and on, and you may be wondering, “Is this operating system even appropriate for an enterprise situation like mine?’
The answer is, maybe, depending on what you want to use it for. Here are four tips that you should consider from a software architecture perspective:
Windows 8 Launches Early: “Swiping is Believing”
We were excited to hear today that the long awaited Windows 8 operating system launched a day early. The reports have been rampant from early adopters of the product detailing the good- increased functionality and attractive interface, to the ugly – namely, the Start-less home screen that contributes to an unaccustomed learning curve for a Windows product.
But in their press event, Windows executives were confident and very enthusiastic about how much people will learn to love Windows 8 once they get past how different it looks. Chief executive Steve Ballmer encouraged the crowd to head out to stores and try out new Windows 8 machines. “In the case of Windows 8, seeing, touching, clicking, and swiping is really believing.”
Microsoft Educates Windows 8 Users
We’ve all been hearing the hype about the Windows 8 launch. The reports so far point to a UI that will be foreign territory to most users, who are very familiar with the old desktop environment. A recent article on cnet.com noted that “early adopters have claimed that the new interface may be difficult to understand for new users and was not designed with traditional desktop PCs and laptops in mind.”
In creating an operating system that is so completely different, Microsoft has a very interesting challenge: how to train Windows 8 users in a brand new language? And more importantly, what good reason do people have to switch from a perfectly fine operating system to one that, at least at first glance, has such a steep learning curve?
Entrance Quoted at the Houston Tech Fest by Chinese Media
Entrance is excited about the coming launch of Windows 8. At Tech Fest, there was some buzz about how it will change how we use technology and what it means for Microsoft. Entrance’s marketing manager, Laura ten Bloemendal was quoted there by CNC Media in their “Lifestyle Bites”:
“The Windows 8 is coming out in October. That’s driving a lot of companies to do a lot of changes. Then they are thinking about what their systems are doing right now. It’ s a very high-level topic in the industry at the moment. They are thinking about what’ s coming next. And when you do that, you have to have very specific business drivers behind it. I think that’ s what is driving all these people to talk so much. It’ s going to justify the investment and the technology that will then pay off.”
Windows 8 versus Traditional Mobile Platforms
Last week we covered some of the reasons a company would use create a Metro Style application in the business world. This week, we’d like to cover why you might choose Windows 8 as the platform for your information consuming (versus producing) employees.
With the ubiquity of smart phones and tablets, technology decision makers have many options for deploying mobile apps. The app could be designed to target a specific device/OS, such as Android, iOS for iPhone or iPad, and now Windows 8. The app could also be built as a web application designed for use on a phone or tablet. Why target Windows 8 instead of another mobile platform?
Where Does Windows 8 Fit in the Business World?
A Closer Look at Metro Style Apps
Last week, we covered what Metro-style apps are, how they relate to Windows 8 and how they can be useful for quickly consuming information. This week we would like to cover when a Metro-style app would be a good fit in the business world. While the Metro-style would not be appropriate for all business applications, we believe that it can be an extremely valuable approach for the right scenarios.
Wondering How Windows 8 Will Play into Your New App?
Metro style apps and your business
Companies creating a new custom Windows application or considering an update of an existing Windows application should at least consider the unique features of Windows 8.
You can think of Windows 8 as running two separate application eco-systems. One eco-system is very close to Windows 7, and is meant for traditional desktop applications. In this eco-system we have a task bar, we can run multiple windows in windows, and we have tools similar or identical to what we’re used to in prior versions of Windows (e.g. control panel, task manager, folders and files). Desktop applications built for Windows 8 will also run on prior versions of Windows.
Why HTML5 is Magic
I talked up JavaScript a lot in my last blog entry, but the true hero in my time working with Windows 8 has been HTML5. JavaScript has been around for a while, even if it is somewhat improved for use with Windows 8, but HTML5 is relatively new. I’d never had any experience with HTML5 before starting work on my app, although I spent plenty of time coding previous versions of HTML. I’m still not truly well-versed in HTML5, even after spending time developing my app; I didn’t create much with it beyond a layout. Where HTML5 really shined, for me, was in other developers’ work.
The amount of resources available for HTML5 is staggering, and they couldn’t be easier to use. I came into my app knowing that, at some point, I would have to display data in various charts and graphs. At first, I was worried that I would have to create my own solution; then I performed a web search. Not much later, I had fully functional and customizable graphs, with advanced controls like zooming in on time frames. I literally dropped one open-source JavaScript file into my project, and I gained access to all the graphing options I could want, all rendered in beautiful HTML5.
Windows 8 Metro is, above all else, a design philosophy.
Metro is brand new. I have to hope that, in the final release of Metro and Windows 8, there will be an “Update” method for ListViews. I may be wrong, though, because it’s possible that ListViews aren’t meant to update immediately. Metro is, above all else, a design philosophy, and Microsoft might very well mean to limit it in these small ways. I found a way around the limitation, albeit an ugly one, but maybe next time I won’t expect to be able to update the ListView. Maybe I’ll show the updated information in a better way, a more Metro-friendly way.
That’s what I feel Microsoft intends to achieve with Metro: a new wave of standardized, friendly applications. As users, we will be treated to thoughtfully-crafted interfaces where every tool and command is where we’d expect it to be. But, as developers, we will have to change how we think of UI design, and perhaps place more importance in it than before. The goal has always been to create user-friendly interfaces, but, with Metro, Microsoft is creating an opportunity for all developers to approach UIs in the same way.