You see, they think of WinRT as a somewhat broken version of “full Windows 8” (Win8) — as people have come to calling the heavyweight version, to distinguish it from its cousin on the other side of the tracks — because WinRT doesn't run on x86 processors from Intel and AMD and can’t run legacy Windows applications.
Many Windows shops have important legacy software investments.
Just ask any CIO whether he or she would like to bring an endpoint onto the corporate network that can’t handle the software on which the business runs, and he or she will likely tell you what to do.
What is this toy called Windows RT? It only runs new “Metro”-style apps (I don’t think you’ll ever get away from that moniker entirely, Microsoft) as well as a version of Office for business productivity and a browser. It must be for consumers; real businesses can’t use this thing! And yet it has Office. Hmmmm.
Given the apparent ugliness of this bastard child, most of the new Windows products expected out this month from hardware makers reflect a distinct bias toward Win8.
To examine this phenomenon in more detail, I put together a spreadsheet of expected offerings. By eliminating all the normal desktops and notebooks that will come with Windows 8 preinstalled either at or near launch, I was able to focus on the specialty products — the convertible tablets and all-in-ones — that take explicit advantage of Windows 8’s touch capabilities.
And here’s what I found:
Lenovo will have one WinRT unit out of six on offer, and it’s neither the least expensive nor the one with the longest battery life. The Atom-based units are cheaper and run longer on a charge.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) won't have any WinRT devices in this wave of products, but, according to one HP executive, the company “will have something eventually” in the WinRT department.
Dell expects to launch with a single WinRT unit among its mostly Win8 offerings.
Acer sent along a note, saying “no RT versions today, but still looking at that category. We may have something in the future.”
Asus has one WinRT offering. Sony has none. Toshiba’s lineup is all Win8.
Samsung showed a WinRT tablet in August, but is declining, for the moment, to bring it to market, according to Samsung’s SVP of consumer marketing in the United States, Mike Abary. He told Mashable last week that the company feels WinRT products could create “customer confusion.”
So, PC hardware makers are loading up on Win8 units for the holiday and for the most part eschewing WinRT.
One might imagine from this array that WinRT is a dead puppy. But there are a number of signs to the contrary.
In fact, in the long term, WinRT could represent Microsoft’s main thrust in endpoints. To wit: Microsoft’s own Surface unit runs WinRT, and the company has ordered millions of units for the launch.
Look more closely at what WinRT actually is, and you see that it is quite Apple-like. In fact, gun-shy from its encounter with the Justice Department, Microsoft needed “permission” from Apple to bring out the kind of locked down, controlled environment that WinRT represents. Distribution is only through the Microsoft (app) Store and requires approval. Gone, the days when programmers just wrote code to the application programming interface (API) and put it on the market directly.
WinRT is much simpler than Win8. Having dumped (unceremoniously) most legacy support, it runs better, with a smaller footprint, and is more secure.
Apple has been doing this kind of thing for years. It has trained its customers to accept legacy abandonment as the price of getting new technology and the next great product. Apple fired all the customers who wanted legacy years ago.
Win8 is where things have been.
WinRT is where things are going.
The whole Windows refresh, and WinRT in particular, has been shaped by the mobile market. Even Wall Mossberg called Windows 8 “inspired by tablets and smartphones.”
Qualcomm, which is supplying its Snapdragon systems on a chip (SoCs) to several vendors about to launch WinRT systems, highlights several capabilities that distinguish these high mobility devices from PCs.
One is “connected standby,” an extreme-low-power state that enables battery life measured in days and yet still wakes up the moment a message (i.e., phone call, text, instant message, notification) comes in.
Another is instant on. We’re not talk mostly-instant or almost-instant here. Just on.
Off, too.
Yet another is security. These systems just don’t have as many entry points for those who would do mischief. And remote kill is an important capability for people whose valuable data could end up in the wrong hands.
And then there is protection from data loss due to a mobile mishap. When data is backed up to the cloud, the loss or breakage of the device is much less traumatic. The WinRT version of SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud backup and sync service, is tightly integrated into the software.
All these things come from the high-mobility world — a landscape of Google phones and Apple tablets. It is this world, far more than the legacy PC, that has shaped WinRT development.
And so why are all the PC hardware manufacturers bringing out Win8 versions in 4Q12? Because legacy will still govern the bulk of the PC market for a while yet. However, the old way will become progressively marooned as time goes on, not quickly, but over a period measured in years.
As communications become more reliable, faster, and more ubiquitous, more heavy lifting will be done in the cloud. Endpoints will become neater, cleaner, tighter, smaller, more secure, and more mobile. Interfaces will be more universal and interchanges will take place at a higher level.
WinRT represents the best shot Microsoft has against Apple and Google.
This strategic repositioning is not without consequence, however. As Microsoft slowly leaves the legacy world behind in order to keep up with its rivals, a tension will be introduced into the market along a fault line I highlighted in a previous column: the x86-ARM divide, which falls at the bottom of the stack shown in the graphic at the top of the page. Over a period of years, as apps get “Metro-ized” one at a time, the shift will be away from x86 and toward ARM.
The need at the endpoint will be less about raw performance and more about low power. Performance will be handled by specialized modules (e.g., video accelerators) on power-sipping SoCs. A balance of communications, performance, and power savings — the type of thing Qualcomm is known for — will become the holy grail.
And isn’t it just a coincidence that Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm’s CEO, will be delivering the headline keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January? This fact alone is emblematic of the tectonic shift taking place in personal computing.
© 2012 Endpoint Technologies Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Twitter: RogerKay
