The influence of the recently stepped-down Steve Jobs remains palpable—not only for Apple products and fanboys. Jobs’ vision is now also being affirmed by PC giant Microsoft. Five times Windows proves Jobs right.
Flash ban
Apple’s archrival Microsoft is following the ban Steve Jobs pronounced on Adobe Flash. Windows 8 doesn’t go as far as iOS: it doesn’t outlaw Flash entirely, but relegates it to the dungeon of the legacy environment. There, and only there, Flash is allowed to run—just like Microsoft’s own Silverlight and other plug-in technologies. There’s no place for it in Metro, the new default Windows interface.
Why? Because leaving it out “improves battery life, but also security, reliability, and consumer privacy.” That’s not Jobs speaking now, but Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky. The Windows chief is echoing statements Jobs made in March 2008—a ban the Apple CEO later reiterated in no uncertain terms.
When the first iPhone came out, the newcomer to the smartphone market was met with heavy criticism. One of the chief complaints was the lack of Flash support. For years, that absence remained one of the main criticisms of the iPhone. Only now is HTML5 beginning to take shape as a fully-fledged alternative.
But few will quibble over that anymore—and the same now applies to Windows 8. The demotion of Flash, Silverlight, and the like in the next Windows release doesn’t even land badly. A spot poll of Webwereld readers yields a (non-representative) positive reaction. Only one fifth call it a major mistake, and barely one fifth see it as a trap set by the Windows maker. Nearly three fifths of the 775 voters think it’s a good move by Microsoft. Steve Jobs is right.
App tax
Apple made it easier for consumers to find, download, and buy apps by making it easier for developers to host, promote, and sell them. In exchange, it imposes certain requirements: 30 percent of revenue goes to the owner of the app store. And that store demands exclusivity. For content such as digital newspapers, that leaves little room for price-cutting. It’s allowed, but not outside the store. Discounts on apps or newspaper subscriptions may not undercut what’s charged in the iTunes and Mac App Stores.
Microsoft is going to do that too. In fact, it already does—for Windows Phone 7. But that mobile platform is a small player, so the impact of the mandatory 30 percent is correspondingly small. It’s very different for the large, nearly unavoidable iOS, alongside the again-small Mac OS X. Microsoft is following this example, but in reverse: after its small Phone operating system comes its large Windows platform.
The software giant is implementing the mandatory store channel with a 30 percent take rate for Windows 8. Not across the board for Windows applications. Those are and remain free, and may also be promoted in the upcoming app store (Apple) for Windows 8. It just appears that those existing programs will only get a placement and then a link there. Consumers will have to download, buy, and use them directly elsewhere.
The future belongs to Metro apps, for the new standard interface of “the new Windows.” And that future runs through the Windows Store, where Microsoft takes its cut. Because unlike traditional PC programs, Metro apps must be delivered via the Windows Store. Steve Jobs is right.
“Walled garden”
The mandatory store channel for developers mentioned above is for convenience—but also for security. Microsoft will review submitted application code: for security, technical operation, and content. It’s not yet known what the content standards are and whether, in addition to laws and regulations in different countries, fuzzier criteria such as “norms and values” will be included.
Microsoft promises in any case to make the review process transparent for developers. App makers will receive notifications about the stage their submissions are in. A vetting process that takes about 18 hours in total, according to Microsoft’s enthusiastic message at the Build developer conference.
Why is the Windows maker following Steve Jobs’ example? Because it’s becoming increasingly clear that while consumers say they want freedom of choice, they value a sense of security more. Do people want openness or convenience? Freedom of choice or the freedom to choose? Two trends suggest an answer. On the one hand, the failure of open source to conquer the world among ordinary users. On the other, the success of the iPhone. And now, Windows’ new course. Steve Jobs is right.
Apps over web apps
The very first iPhone was a device with a brand-new operating system for which there were no developers—and thus no apps. In fact, the iPhone 1 had no provisions for apps other than Apple’s own. The company under Steve Jobs said that was by design: the future belongs to web apps, Apple asserted. Until Apple decided the opposite once it had the app tools and the App Store ready.
Microsoft is now officially professing faith in web apps: applications for the new Metro interface in Windows 8 are built with web technologies such as HTML(5) and JavaScript. But also with C#, developed by Microsoft. And also with XAML, which Microsoft derived from the web standard XML. In the eyes of Microsoft critics, C# and XAML are tied to the company.
HTML(5) and JavaScript, by contrast, are not—at least not inherently. Microsoft has already tried to hijack HTML5 by touting “native HTML.” It quickly corrected that marketing talk, but the strategy remains. For true Metro apps that integrate well with the new default interface, some extra software code is needed. And those are native elements of Windows 8, as Microsoft explains and demonstrates at the Build conference.
That also includes a new layout mechanism for the web standard CSS (cascading style sheets): grids, from Microsoft. According to the company, that technology is even essential for Metro apps. It has submitted grids to the HTML5 working group for inclusion in the still-evolving standard. So we get web apps with a Microsoft flavor—embraced and extended. Steve Jobs is right.
Tying
Ironically, this is originally a Microsoft trait—but one Apple has perfected in recent years. Tying its own products together to earn more and to wrong-foot the competition. The app store as the only official option for apps—complete with a revenue cut—was already an example. But it can go a step further.
In the computer market, the smaller Apple must tolerate competition from the much larger Windows. The Mac maker even released a dual-boot tool so Microsoft’s operating system can also be installed on Macs. That slightly expands its own addressable market; MacBooks, after all, turn out to be very good Windows laptops.
For the large iOS platform, Apple shuts out the competition hard. Jailbreaks, alternative app stores, and other unwanted elements are actively blocked. For the large Windows platform there isn’t much direct competition, but there is all the more scope for tying. A free starter version of Office has long shipped on PCs that, de facto, come with Windows.
But it can go a step further by getting PC makers to choose the BIOS successor UEFI, which motherboard manufacturers are adopting en masse. And then having those PC makers choose Windows logo certification. To obtain such a coveted marketing sticker, certain quality requirements naturally have to be met.
Such as secure boot, which allows only digitally signed software to start on a PC. Software including drivers for PC components (think graphics cards) and the operating system itself. Linux—and Hackintosh as well—thus gets cut off. A PC then truly becomes a Windows PC. The entire device, just as the platform maker intended. Steve Jobs is right.