http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-os-chief-myerson-on-the-future-of-one-windows-7000028286/
ZDNET: It's clear that Metro/Windows Store is the heart of Microsoft's Windows vision going forward. But how should we be thinking about the role of the desktop? Many believe the desktop is going to be going away, but others think it can't and won't. What's the reality?
MYERSON: We actually value using the desktop. I feel highly productive using it. It's very familiar to me. We plan -- (as) we talked about at the Build conference -- to bring modern apps to the desktop. We are going to have machines that have a great desktop experience.
It (the desktop) is also not the right experience for a phone or a tablet. And so how the Windows experience spans these form factors and is familiar across them -- that's what we need to deliver if we're going to delight people in the whole ecosystem.
The desktop is part of our future. It's absolutely core to Windows.
ZDNET: What about Windows RT -- not WinRT, the API (application programming interface) -- but Windows RT, the Windows flavor on ARM? Does that have a future?
MYERSON: Windows ARM processors have a future, and there's tremendous innovation in the ARM ecosystem. I think Intel has a fabulous future. There's tremendous innovation going on with Intel.
We want to take advantage of the innovations in ARM. I think ARM chipsets have a bright, vibrant future, and Windows will run on those chipsets.
ZDNET: We've been hearing rumors about the Windows Phone OS and Windows RT somehow becoming a new OS that's different from Windows RT as it exists today. Is that the right way to think about it?
MYERSON: We will have great version of Windows on ARM. One thing we're working through is how do we really delight customers in all the form factors that will have ARM chips.
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ZDNET: What does "One Windows" really mean? There can never be a single version of Windows that runs on every platform because of the difference in form factors. But how should we think about how you get as close to "One Windows" as you can?
MYERSON: I think the most important thing is the one developer platform across the Internet of things, phone, tablet, PC, Xbox, PPI (Perceptive Pixel touch displays), the cloud. One coherent, consistent excellent place, one way for developers to target the Windows ecosystem and delight our customers.
ZDNET: I'm interested in hearing more about what you mean when you say "Internet of things" from the Windows perspective. Is this just the new name for Windows Embedded? Or is it more than that?
MYERSON: We have a Windows Embedded product today that is a catchphrase for several different things. We have versions of full Windows, versions of Windows Phone, we have Win CE, we have .NET, versions of .NET. They're all caught under this catchphrase, Windows Embedded.
We need to clarify this in the coming months for our customers. The classic Windows Embedded customer isn't building a piano right now. What we're talking about is an evolution of our Windows Embedded business, as well as our Windows Embedded offerings.
It's quite exciting actually because these are our enterprise customers. Instead of like talking to them about their productivity desktops, (we are talking about) their products themselves. So it's just exciting. We will see where it goes, but we (think we can ) help out our customers here with doing some really cool stuff.
ZDNET: When you announced at Build that you'd be making certain versions of Windows, Windows Phone and Windows for Internet of Things OSes all available for free, why did you draw the line at nine-inch screens? Is the thinking that the versions of Windows that will be free will be a single SKU around the time of Windows 9?
MYERSON: Obviously we'll have SKUs for things that are free and SKUs for things that are not free. So that is I'd say an accounting statement. That's an accounting more than a strategy statement.
We have these great OEM partners and we really want to encourage designs with those (under 9-inch) screen sizes, and that was a place where strategically we felt we needed to invest.
ZDNET: On the upper end of the spectrum, we know Xbox One OS is built on Windows 8 at its core. At Build, you indicated that at some point you're going to be able to run universal apps on the Xbox, too. Does this mean you could technically run a CRM app on an Xbox?
MYERSON: I don't know that I would. But you could.
Xbox is an experience that's really designed for a large screen, large shared screens in the living room.
We also have this product -- it's still called Perceptive Pixel -- which is just a magical experience in conference rooms that's a large shared screen. On these large shared screens, is CRM appropriate? Is Halo appropriate? We want to enable the creativity of the ISV to put what they want to put there.
In my office I expect to play Halo on the PPI. In my home I don't expect my kids to play CRM.
ZDNET: I would. Maybe.
MYERSON: We're a platform for our partners' creativity. I don't want to judge what they've put on that screen. CRM on the Xbox, I don't know. A weather app on the Xbox, hey, maybe. A sports app on the Xbox, yeah, I think so. A CRM app for the PPI board, you know, maybe.
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Microsoft OS chief Myerson talks turkey on transparency, cadence and cross platform
Microsoft OS chief Myerson talks turkey on transparency, cadence and cross platform
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The Internet of Things is a headless or small screen device. With Xbox and PPI we're talking about large screen devices. It really comes back to enabling the creativity of our developers to get out to these various places as efficiently as possible.
ZDNET: Can you give us any more clarity on timing? At Build you showed a mockup of a Start Menu. You confirmed the Start Menu and windowed Metro-Style apps are coming some time after Windows 8.1 Update. Will these be available this year? Not until Threshold/Windows 9 next year?
MYERSON: The reason we (showed) that work is we thought it was important to share with developers. When do we deliver it? I really don't have anything to share there. We're just not ready yet.
ZDNET: What about wearables? We've heard Alex Kipman of Kinect fame is working for you on some kind of wearable device software. My sources have said that. You know those sources.
MYERSON: Yeah, right.
ZDNET: Could you give us general guidance on where you're going with wearables?
MYERSON: Not really. With our Internet of Things work we are enabling our customers to build great stuff.
ZDNET: I'm curious about your philosophy regarding when your team is willing to share vs. when you need to shut up. What's your thinking about how to strike a balance? With your direct predecessor, there wasn't much of a balance.
MYERSON: We want to get feedback from our customers on our work. That feedback will make it better. We don't believe that we have all the perfect ideas inside the team. We want to be out there with our work to get feedback from our customers and iterate with them.
Getting the customer feedback and listening to the customers needs to be at the core of how we deliver really high quality products.
ZDNET: Does that mean Microsoft will be embracing more tester feedback, like it did in the "before times"? Or will you continue to rely primarily on telemetry data in developing products?
MYERSON: I do think that telemetry data is part of the feedback cycle. Getting the quantitative feedback of how people use your products is part of the feedback cycle.
So much has changed since the old days, you might say. We're dealing with a wider range of computing devices, different customers, different blend of customers. So it's hard to say we'll go back to the old days. It's just different. But we do want to iterate and develop these high quality solutions with the customers.
ZDNET: Could you explain in your own words what your strategy is with Windows 8 right now? There are so many headlines claiming it's a disaster, that Microsoft is reversing course. How would you characterize what's going on?
MYERSON: We are listening to feedback and responding to feedback.
We're trying to get to one program and platform that spans all kinds of devices, from the Internet of things to phones to tablets to game consoles to servers to whiteboards. We're trying to get that whole spectrum, and you get a whole bunch of different input modalities there. Now you get Kinect, you get mice, keyboard, touch, speech. What we've added in the update (Windows 8.1 Update) is more support for mouse and keyboard in some new ways, but we didn't take away anything on touch.
We're not stepping back. We totally believe in touch. Touch is just fantastic. But there are hundreds of millions of new PCs shipping every year without touch. We want to support those. We want our customers to love our products. If they come to us and say I'd love it more if it supported this, we want to be a company that listens and responds and responds quickly.
ZDNET: Speaking of quickly, what's your thinking about how often you update Windows? Is Windows 8.1 Update a one-off? Or will the team do what you did with Windows Phone 8 and release a number of near-quarterly interim updates for Windows?
MYERSON: From a platform perspective we need to make investments that take us years, and then there's things that we can do that take less time. For all of our customers, we're investing in those long term things, and we're also investing in the short term things. Our challenge is how do we schedule the delivery along the way where we actually get both done.
We're not constraining ourselves to saying we're only shipping three years. I think you've now seen that. But we're making investments that will take three years. Part of having a rich and ongoing relationship with your customers is not going dark for three years.
universalappsbuild
ZDNET: There are many who believe now that you -- the former head of Windows Phone engineering -- and your Windows Phone team are running the Windows show that you'll follow the same update course as you did with phone.
MYERSON: Honestly, my leadership team is very balanced across Xbox, Windows, Windows Phone, and embedded. We have people that have incredible experience in the core operating system. We have user experience people. We have enterprise people. We have consumer people. It's a well-balanced leadership team.
ZDNET: So we shouldn't just assume whatever you did in Windows Phone is going to be the policy throughout the Operating System Group?
MYERSON: No. There is a broader set of devices and a broader set of customers than Windows Phone reached. There's a common core of expectations but they also have their specific (needs). We're always open to more feedback, too.
ZDNET: Last year, during a financial-analyst conference, you made it seem as though there might be different cadences of deliverables for different customer sets. The idea was maybe not all customers -- especially those in the enterprise -- want and need regular, constant updates. Are you still thinking that way?
MYERSON: We are. It's too soon to like share what we'll actually do, but I think that's true. There is a mission critical deployment. There is a factory floor deployment of Windows. There is a my mother-in-law's PC. And then there's what satisfies my 12-year old son. He wants the latest and greatest and he'll tolerate things that are different.
Being able to satisfy (all those) customers, delight (all those) customers is something that we really want to do. So maybe it's not (a split along) consumer and enterprise but you could categorize it as consumer and enterprise in some ways. It's a simplification of the spectrum.
ZDNET: Let's talk Windows Phone. There have been rumors you are looking at ways to get Android apps on Windows Phone in order to gain marketshare. Is this the case?
MYERSON: We certainly are watching these various developments going on. There are third parties that are enabling (Android on Windows). We're always keeping our eyes and ears open to what people are using and talking about.
But for us it's all about the Windows platform and Windows developers and delighting end users with the work of our Windows developers.
ZDNET: What about those Nokia X phones running on Android? I know Microsoft is buying the part of Nokia's business that runs non-Microsoft software, alongside the part that runs Windows Phone. But will you keep those around once the Nokia transaction is final?
MYERSON: More users of our applications and services is fantastic. If someone is (using an iPad), I hope they really are using Office and OneDrive and Skype, on that iPad. That is a fantastic Microsoft customer. It's great for Microsoft. The same will be true of Nokia. I genuinely feel that way.
ZDNET: But you're a big advocate for Microsoft developers. Many of them hate Nokia X because it is Android and sends mixed messages about Microsoft's commitment to the Windows Phone OS.
MYERSON: I think that the thing to focus (on) is they are Microsoft customers of our apps and services. And we will win them back to Windows.
ZDNET: Now that there's Office on iPad and Android apps on Nokia phones, what is the value proposition for Windows?
MYERSON: The answer today is the best enterprise manageability is on Windows. The best security is on Windows. The best games are on Windows. The best Office is on Windows. All those things are true today. And we're investing into the future to maintain this place where the best applications and games are on Windows.
ZDNET: With CEO Satya Nadella talking up mobile first, cloud first -- and strongly emphasizing cross-platform -- does Microsoft's value proposition remain that these things will be first and best on Windows?
MYERSON: It's the right thing. I think it's great customers would be using Office and understanding how productive Office is. That's great for Microsoft.
The strategy is we want to win those users wherever they are. Windows is the best, so we're going to see the best version there.
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