Microsoft Really Is On A Roll

Microsoft continued it’s gradual unveil of Windows 10 yesterday.  It didn’t touch on any of the enterprise features, which have been strangely down played so far, but it did clearly demonstrate its vision of a single platform spanning all form factors.  For the first time in over a decade it looked like a there was a real benefit to buying into the Microsoft eco-system.  As a person who is currently all Apple when it comes to mobile devices and a dedicated Windows user when it comes to notebook and desktop, I ‘almost’ opened my wallet and bought an 8 inch Windows tablet and a Lumia 1520 and I still might. 

What got me excited wasn’t just the demos, which were great, it was being engaged in a compelling journey into the future with a company I believed in.  Unfortunately while I love Apple devices I dislike the company, their walled garden, lack of choice, inflated prices, lack of innovation and elitist vibe.  By contrast the new Microsoft is a revelation:

1. services everywhere on all operating systems and all form factors
2. a more humble, open approach
3. a focus on Windows as the best, but not the only, client for their services, great news for me as a committed Windows user
4. their renewed focus on power users: all form factors, multiple screens (and desktops), remote desktop, hyper-v
5. the incredible innovation in, and choice of, hardware, from low end to the highest quality premium devices
6. their amazing stream of recent innovation, from the band to the HoloLens to the Surface and Surface Hub none of which I will be buying, but all of which I might consider in their next, smaller and lighter, iterations
7. their superb Plex support, which means I’ve finally forgiven them for not updating Windows Media Centre

Microsoft has won me over, I’m excited, I’m ready to invest.

I wrote this post sitting in the car, on my trusty Thinkpad x230.  I’m parked up on the beach front at Cleveleys looking out at waveless sea, enjoying the view that I’ve shared in the photo at the top of this post.  Next stop brunch at Vincent’s cafe and a few hours walking the cliffs and listening to podcasts, wondering how everyone else will assess Windows 10 and what yesterday meant to Microsoft and the rest of the world.