Microsoft … tapped Steven Sinofsky to reimagine Windows… And he did. Sadly, the result was Windows 8. The reason this happened is that while Sinofsky had the maniacal power and force of will of a Steve Jobs, he lacked Jobs’ best gift: An innate understanding of good design. Windows 8 is not well-designed. It’s a mess. But Windows 8 is a bigger problem than that. Windows 8 is a disaster in every sense of the word.
I saw this when looking at the pre-release of Windows 8. I used it for an hour or two. I knew Microsoft was doomed, and Windows 8 would be the single biggest disaster for the company. Ever.
Microsoft is trying hard to reverse the biggest failures, however they have a way more significant problem to solve. The idea that Windows everywhere would be a smart architecture, and they could smooth customers into buying Windows not only on PC’s but on smartphones and tablets. Just not working.
Instead of trying to please customers in the best possible way for each type of device, they relied on their installed base to eat the Windows everywhere message. At the same time Apple did the right thing, delivering the optimal solution for each platform. Once again the obvious underlying mistake was to optimize on marketing and sales benefits, instead of trying to solve the customers’ problems in the best possible way.