I'm going to take a stab at writing on something cool, hip, and current. Microsoft Surface was announced today. Before reading further, I urge you to visit the site and watch the videos. Was the site down? Have you watched them? Good.
My first reaction to the whole product pure unadulterated want. It's not up to need yet, but it's close. I saw the technology about a year ago on Channel 9, back when it was called "touch light". Minority Report come to life, yeah, cool. I won't be around to see it. Then today's announcement came. End of 2007! Crap! I might even see this in my house before I hit 25! Clearly this is something to get excited about.
The different types of software that could be developed for this technology is phenomenal. Entertainment, enterprise, other areas listed in the numerous news articles: they could all benefit from this kind of cool. I want an SDK, I want this hardware, and I want to on the cutting edge writing the cool stuff. My friends have said the same, quote [capitalization improved]: Man, I would kill to be able to work on something like that. As this Forbes article states, this is Microsoft's Mac. A direct successor to their successful console line.
Which means I won't be developing software for it anytime soon.
Microsoft's best SDK strategy for this device, in my humble, un-educated opinion, is to keep development expensive and closed. Same thing Apple is rumored [Still rumored? I'm not sure.] to be doing with the iPhone. Technology built for user interaction, needs to be 100% reliable, usable, and stable. Windows has thrived due to easy access to development tools. Anyone can develop any type of Windows application cheaply. 'Anyone', sadly, isn't a developer. Most Windows applications are shoddy and bug-ridden. They're hard to use. Ugly icons abound. Microsoft can't let junk applications like this touch [ah! ah?] Surface.
Google for screensavers. Screensavers are graphical programs that all provide the exact same functionality: preventing monitor burn in. Yet dozens of different companies have developed competing versions, all being differentiated simply by bling. Looking at this evidence, the market for screensavers or animated dancing girls on a consumer Surface device would be huge. Development companies would be crazy-stupid to miss out on the opportunity; they'd all rush software to market, full of the WPF equivelent of animated GIFs.
And that would blow. My coffee table has big enough problems dealing with beer-can rings. It certainly doesn't need crap software infiltrating it's OS. Microsoft is sticking with corporate customers to start off. Good call. A consumer grade device would either need to have incredible software restrictions or be closed entirely. I'd wager that all software placed on such a device would have to go through the equivalent of the hardware WHQL process. It'll be out of the range of the average independent software developer. The thought really saddens me; I don't care to wait for other certified developers to write cool applications for Surface. I want to do it myself. The best software strategy for Surface just happens to disagree.
Print | posted on Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:58 AM