Quote Originally Posted by dilettante View Post
But the times they are a-changin' and I think you are overestimating Windows stranglehold on the desktop down the road. I don't expect it to disappear at all, just to lose more and more ground over time to alternatives.
You should not forget that Windows was created for the desktop and is still the best tool you can use at work. Tablets are not an alternative when it comes to using a computer in your office. It is true that iPads and Android devices are becoming more and more widespread, but it is also true that they are not used to deal with office stuffs (e.g. to write complex documents, work with graphics or multimedia, manage huge amounts of data etc.).

The Mac is the only serious threat to the Windows monopoly of desktop computers. Thank God, for the moment it is too expensive to replace Windows. People know you can do the same things buying a Windows PC for half price.

Personally, I think that MS made a mistake when they tried to impose the Metro interface on the desktop version of Windows. Multi-tasking is one of the most useful tools that (classic) Windows makes available, and using apps in full-screen mode would mean to go back to the DOS era.

I am firmly convinced that the best strategy for MS should consist in optimizing the classic Windows OS also for the use on tablets. They should invest in developing more powerful hardware for the tablet market and, more importantly, they should reduce prices as much as they could. The dual-purpose cover/keyboard that Windows tablets are equipped with makes a tablet as useful as a desktop PC (because it allows you to get rid of the cumbersome virtual keyboard which "invades" a large part of the screen) provided that it runs the classic Windows OS.

If there were no differences between a desktop PC and a tablet, even in terms of prices, it would make a lot of sense to take Windows into serious consideration when deciding which tablet to buy. What a shame MS are too blind to see!