2010: The Year Of Touch

We all know that Microsoft added Windows Touch to Windows 7 to bring touch computing mainstream and it will be this year that we start to see the benefits of Microsoft having added support for touch interface. Increasingly there will be more all-in-one-desktops, notebooks, netbooks and monitors that are touch enabled and because of this more developers will look to add innovative ways to use touch which will increase sales and complete the cycle.

Then, of course, there is the ever present rumour of the Apple tablet, or iSlate, which will bring touch interface to the very front of the consumers’ attention. It seems that some companies are planning to combat the rumour of the iSlate before anything is confirmed with rumours of a Google/HTC partnership for a Chrome OS tablet. It remains to be seen if there will be anything new to touch control added by Apple or if it will just be a large iPhone.

Talking of phones there will be an increasing number of touch only smart phones coming from the likes of HTC and Sony. There will probably be some interesting apps appearing for Android and I hope for Windows Mobile. Although no one seems interested in writing apps for Windows Mobile 6.X maybe 7 will inspire developers to create some, much needed, useful apps for the platform.

Microsoft may have another trick up its sleeve with the Courier concept that I hope will come in to fruition sometime this year and then there is the plan to bring the Microsoft Surface to our homes, not something I expect to see soon but maybe some aspects of the interface will work its way into new platforms.

However by the end of the year we may have already gone beyond touch and have entered the realm of touch-less control when Microsoft release their Project Natal which, to begin with, will only be for Xbox but I would hope an expansion of the technologies involved.

2010: The Year Of The Cloud

I know one of the most popular buzzwords for 2009 was the Cloud but I think 2010 will be the year it really comes to the masses. Microsoft will be launching its Windows Azure platform properly in February followed by Office 2010 and the Office Web Apps which will see Microsoft embrace the Cloud like it has never done before. I am also expecting Windows Live Wave 4 to contain much more Cloud based content with new services, improved storage and ways to access programs online. It is also possible that Windows Mobile 7 will be more cloud orientated, we know there plans to be a high level of social networking incorporated with the mobile OS.

Apple will be looking to take more services to the Cloud or face being left behind as Google forces all tech companies to focus more on the internet. With regards to Google we will see the first browser OS which really can’t be any more Cloud focussed and I expect many more Cloud services and greater integration of those services with its Mobile OS.

2010: The Year Of The Ribbon

Windows 7 uses it in its standard applications, we know that Office 2010 will be featuring it in all the applications and from the leaked screenshots it appears that Windows Live Wave 4 will use the Ribbon interface.

It seems to me that Microsoft are finally beginning to agree to use a more coherent design approach to their applications where the Ribbon interface is used in content creation applications such as Paint, Word and Movie Marker. Those three suits of applications will be the most used from Microsoft and it will be great to have the Ribbon mainstream but I would hope that work on the next versions of Visual Studio and Expression Studio.

Another type of application Microsoft is content browsers such as the Zune Software which seems to be the inspiration for the unreleased version of Windows Live Messenger which could also be described as a content browser. Microsoft seem very keen on the linear interface for their entertainment devices, Zune HD and Xbox, and I would expect that any new entertainment devices would follow a similar approach.

Lets hope Microsoft can continue the good design and interfaces of 2009 in their new products of 2010 and that other software developers will use the Ribbon interface and create new and exciting interfaces.

I have many questions and hopes about what we will see this year and I am looking forward to playing with the new applications and devices that will come out over the year, maybe some of which we will see as early as next week at CES.

So what other combinations are there from Microsoft that fulfil the Software + Services strategy?

Current Software + Services

Windows Live – A great example of the strategy

Live Mesh

Part implementation of strategy

Coming Soon Software and/or Services

Looking at what Microsoft currently offer and are planning to offer there are a few areas that need to be addressed before this strategy is truly realised.

Windows Live

The majority of this suite works brilliantly as both software and services but there are a few offerings that need to be added too:

• Web Messenger needs a lot of work done to it to make it a real counter part to the software, currently it looks awful and has such limited functionality it doesn’t feel like a final release of the service but more of a beta version
• I am not sure if the link between Photo Gallery and Photos needs to be changed but seeing how Office applications are now accessible though the internet maybe Microsoft should consider adding editing features to the web service so users can edit their photos online before publishing them to the internet
• I can’t see a version of Movie Maker coming to the browser soon however I think there should be a place to upload and view the movies online
• An online version of Writer would be brilliant and seeing how it is such an internet oriented application it makes sense to have a version accessible through a browser for times when people aren’t at their own PC and can’t install Writer
• A way to access SkyDrive from a PC using explorer really should be added as this would increase the usefulness of the service hugely as users could save their work from their PC directly to the cloud and even use it for things such as backups

Live Mesh

There isn’t much that needs doing to this offering as its works very well however a few more controls of what and when something is syncing would be a great addition. There is talk that this will be moving the Windows Live suite and I would hope it becomes part of the SkyDrive.

Zune + Zune.net

I was surprised to see the addition to the Zune.net website to allow users to listen to music through the browser but if this is the way the team are taking it then maybe there will be the option, in the future, to stream music from your own collection to listen wherever you are.

Windows Mobile + My Phone

I think the My Phone features and functions will be great when its final release launches on October 6th but I do think it need to be combined with Windows Live to create one place to go for all online storage and contact information, it would also keep both offerings more up to date for users to have only the one place for both.

Windows + Windows Azure

I am not entirely sure what Windows Azure will be like when it is finally released but I know I am looking forward to using it in whatever form it may take to bring the PC to the cloud and as I have yet to use it I can’t suggest improvements.

Office + Office Web Apps

The Office Web Apps are still very basic but their potential is huge as I know there have been times when I have needed to alter something but haven’t been at a PC with Office on and with it coming to Mobiles too it will really be a great service.

The Future

The XBox has yet to have any service but that is perfectly understandable seeing as it is so different from anything else, but who knows maybe in the future Microsoft will want to compete with OnLive and bring out a streaming service for games on TVs and PCs.

I know there are plenty of other applications from Microsoft that has no service counterpart at all, such as Visual Studio, but maybe over the next few years we will be seeing more software have a version on the internet as more and more offerings go to the cloud and lets hope Microsoft improve what they have already done to achieve their goal of Software + Services.

At home and university I use desktops for nearly everything I do, I sometimes need my netbook around campus or in lectures, and so I use a powerful OS like Windows 7, so would have little need for a cloud OS designed for the lesser powered computers such as netbooks. But the times I do need my netbook it is generally for quick tasks or accessing the internet, when a mobile just isn’t capable of doing the task.

As I mentioned I had issues getting on the internet on holiday but I have had many issues using it at university, through too many people being on it to “planned maintenance” to the wifi and network. A lot of the times I have tried to use my netbook to access the internet I have had issues with it outside of my control, until 4G is really taken up by providers I don’t see much improvement with my experience of the netbook mobile internet. This causes a major problem for cloud OSes. Obviously there is always the option to have a SIM card in newer netbooks to allow a virtually always online experience but the contracts for that can be quite expensive, so too can wifi access in hotels etc.

I assume there will be ways for cloud OSes to run applications locally on netbooks but how much functionality will be lost when not being able to access the cloud. I guess that there will be local file storage access so things can be saved to the netbook, but what about drivers for devices that users might want to plug into the computer. I have never had a problem with connecting devices to an offline Windows machine but how will a lightweight offline cloud OS machine cope?

Another point is that if an OS is able to work just as well offline as it does online is it really a cloud OS? Just because it can store files and run applications using the internet doesn’t make it a cloud OS, I do that with most things on my netbook as it is.

I can see cloud OSes being useful for a computer that has an always on internet, but in that case it is likely to be a desktop and why run a small, light weight OS on that kind of machine. For machines that are designed to be very mobile I can see the benefit of a Cloud OS as it means they don’t need to be very powerful or have a huge amount of storage if everything is pulled from the internet, yet it is this very feature that causes me to be concerned about Cloud OSes. I think I am happier with the idea of having a normal OS that is as useful whether there is internet or not and then opening up a huge amount of cloud services that will enhance and simplify the user experience when there is internet access, like Windows Live currently does. I also don’t want to have pay a subsciption just to be able to use some of the basic features of my computer.

It will be interesting to see how the light weight, cloud operating system of the future work and develop but I am much happier knowing that my computer is going to work the way I want it too in a lead lined room and will only get better to more connected it becomes. I would hate to have a device that was only as good as the connection it had (aside from mobile phones which require much less bandwidth to work than a computer on the internet).