At Microsoft's Build conference, Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem, displays a prototype Windows 8 tablet. Photo: Microsoft
First, the platform is slated to run on both x86 processors for PCs, and on ARM chips for tablets. Second, it’s a single OS platform with two distinctly different user interfaces. You’ll be able to divide your time between the touch-optimized Metro, which borrows its look, feel and navigation from the Windows Phone OS, and a traditional Windows 7-like desktop experience.
On desktop PCs, this dual-interface approach shouldn’t be a problem. Metro doesn’t demand many resources. It should run on PCs just fine.
But there’s still a nagging question: How will legacy desktop applications run on ARM-based tablets, if they run on ARM at all? Desktop apps can be resource hogs, and ARM-based tablets may not have the horsepower to run these programs quickly and elegantly. Not only could application performance suffer, but desktop apps could also suck battery capacities dry.
Well, a bit of clarity is maybe, possibly emerging. A Thursday report says Microsoft might allow a limited number of Windows 8 desktop apps to run on ARM-based tablets.
Microsoft is considering “a restricted desktop for Windows 8 ARM,” sources at The Verge say. Applications would have to earn special certification, and would likely be limited to Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. This jibes with reports that Microsoft has been working on a lighter-weight version of Office for tablets.
We asked Microsoft to clarify, and received a “no comment.” However, past statements from Windows lead Steven Sinofsky suggest ARM tablets won’t support the desktop component of Windows 8.
“We’ve been very clear since the very first CES demos and forward that the ARM product won’t run any X86 applications,” Sinofsky said to investors at a financial analyst meeting in September. “We’ve done a bunch of work to enable a great experience there.”
So how do developers feel? Alexandre Brisebois, a senior .Net developer at RunAtServer, thinks it would be best for Microsoft to offer the same Metro and desktop interfaces everywhere, on both x86 and ARM devices. Conversely, Darren Baker, the business development director at Sogetti Global (a company that makes custom Windows products for businesses), says offering a desktop interface of any kind could be problematic for new tablet users.
“People would buy an ARM tablet, and think they have this copy of MS office that’s going to run there, but it won’t,” Baker says.
Nonetheless, the Windows 8 dual user interface scheme does offer Microsoft and hardware companies a chance to rethink the tablet space as it exists today. This could lead to a tablet that’s both interesting and well-integrated with other Windows products.
“You’re actually going to see tablets that are focused on a specific kinds of tasks: video acceleration for media, or you have legacy app compatibility for desktop users,” Baker says. “It’s not really about the tablet itself. It’s about what you can enable with the tablet.”
Baker used a theoretical United Airlines app as an example scenario for different use cases:
“If they develop an app for end users, it’s going to be ‘I need to use this to get information quickly, then move on with my life.’ They will develop an app for the Metro UI. It’ll launch, get you flight details, and then you can go on to what you want to do next. If an app’s geared toward someone who’s sitting at a desk, they may not need the Metro UI at all, just the desktop interface. Then they could just have a Metro tile that gives you Metro information as needed.”With the beta of Windows 8 coming out later this month, Microsoft’s tablet plans should soon be revealed. But for now, only one things’s for sure: Regardless of whether the desktop U.I. will appear on ARM tablets, Windows 8 tablets will offer a dramatically different alternative to Apple and Android tablets.
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