Mary-Jo Foley at ZDNet argues that the Windows 8 interface will be consistent across all devices, partly contradicting what I wrote yesterday about the system (in that on a tablet Windows 8 would be closer to iOS in concept than Windows).

Given that we’re a year away from Windows 8’s release and Microsoft’s being quite contradictory about it, I’d say there’s a lot of time for things to be nailed down. I suspect there is also an internal struggle at Microsoft. I’ll bet there are certain people within Microsoft arguing hard for retaining ‘proper’ Windows on tablets, because “that’s what people want”, and others arguing to ditch it, because “that’s what people need”. Alternatively, perhaps we’ll end up in a situation where the Desktop ‘app’ that boots the ‘classic’ Windows experience exists on tablets, but is all but irrelevant, due a lack of app support and the interface not being suitable for touch. That wouldn’t be great, but assuming there are plenty of Metro-style apps, that wouldn’t hugely affect performance nor the experience of using a Windows 8 tablet.

Tsk, eh? Those pesky, uncooperative (if you’re a tech pundit) markets are really screwing things up. Last week, we got the news that in the face of myriad iPad killers, the iPad’s share had PLUMMETED. No, wait. Electronista reported IDC’s data as stating that

the iPad had gained share, moving up from 65.7 percent at the start of the year to 68.3 percent.

But surely all those wonderful Android tablets with loads of ports and Flash and not-at-all-iPad-like shells are selling fast, right?

Multiple Android tablets’ arrivals only led to Google’s share shrinking, dropping from 34 percent in early 2011 to 26.8 percent mid-year.

Oh.

Still, I’m sure that won’t stop plenty of people banging on about how the iPad is doomed at some point in 2011, or 2012, or definitely by 2013. 2014 at the latest. Or maybe 2015. Just like Apple itself, really. Now Steve Jobs is no longer CEO,  the company’s pretty much screwed, as evidenced by the hard-hitting article in the New York Times, Without Jobs, Apple Shares Hit All-Time High:

At the end of regular trading Monday, Apple shares closed at $411.63, up 2.78 percent, with a new record-high market valuation of $381.62 billion. It is now clearly the most valuable company on the stock market, displacing Exxon Mobil, with a market capitalization of $358.34 billion.

Ah. Still, give it a week or two and I’m sure we’ll have analysts and pundits falling over themselves to argue that this time, the new iPhone won’t sell, because of all the great alternatives out there. Just wait and see!

As I’ve said before, I’m concerned with Windows 8’s attempts to be all things to all people and provide a ‘desktop’ underneath the touch-based loveliness of the Metro interface. The more I read, though, the more I wonder whether Microsoft’s pulling off a feint, attempting to coddle its long-standing partners (“Don’t worry, guys—it’s still the same old Windows underneath. Honest!) while setting up a potentially audacious land-grab for the tablet space.

Late last week, Microsoft rudely shut the door in the face of plug-ins (source: Wired), citing that doing so

improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers.

Presumably, Adobe will soon release a statement that Steve Jobs only quit as CEO of Apple to hold Microsoft hostage and force it to ditch Flash Player from tablet devices. And today Ars Technica reports on interesting developments in a primer for Windows 8 devs:

[Distribution] of traditional desktop applications will proceed as usual. […] Metro apps, on the other hand, will be “Distributed through the Windows Store. Apps must pass certification so that users download and try apps with confidence in their safety and privacy. Side-loading is available for enterprises and developers.”

No plug-ins in the browser. A sleek, modern interface. An app store-only route for applications, with a 70/30 split. Sounds familiar. Thing is, I’m not going to be snarky here, because this is Microsoft doing things right (and, to be frank, at least the company’s created a unique interface, rather than ripping off Apple, unlike certain other players). And, as I said, perhaps the dual-OS thing is largely a feint, a unified code-base that will provide touch-oriented components to desktop users who want them (in a manner similar to OS X Lion’s Launchpad), but won’t enable tablet users access to raw Windows, instead showcasing a version of Microsoft’s future. I sure hope so.

BGR’s Zach Epstein has decided that Windows 8 (Microsoft’s unreleased operating system that was recently previewed) is the business, and he happily says so in his article Sorry Apple, Windows 8 ushers in the post-post-PC era. (Grammar pedants will also note the lack of a comma before ‘Apple’, which rather changes the meaning in that sentence, BUT!)

The difference in opinion between Apple and Microsoft is largely down to the line drawn between their operating systems. Apple has iOS for smartphones and tablets and OS X for the desktop. Microsoft instead limits its mobile OS to smartphones and is instead banking on a hybrid of sorts working across tablets, laptops and desktops. It calls this a no-compromise approach, and yet it is a compromise.

With Apple’s iOS kit, developers couldn’t bank on legacy with iOS, so they were forced to adapt applications radically; with Windows 8, ‘standard’ Windows lurks underneath. How many developers will pay scant regard to touch? How many will make the assumption that when you want to do ‘proper’ work, you’ll connect up a mouse and keyboard, and so won’t bother creating anything like iOS apps GarageBand, iA Writer, Brushes, NanoStudio, Numbers, and so on?

Maybe I and like-minded journos are wrong in thinking Microsoft has this arse-about-face and should concentrate on utilising the excellent Metro as a clean-slate for its slates. Epstein certainly seems to think so.

Apple bloggers were apparently so flustered by [Windows 8] that they resorted to bombarding Twitter with jokes about cooling fans and Silverlight instead of stopping for a moment to realize that Microsoft is showing us the future of computing.

The fans thing might have been a jibe, but when you’re banging on about a tablet being able to run Photoshop and Office as-is, you’re not going to be doing that on the kind of hardware that currently exists and is predicted to exist over the next year. One of the true benefits of a tablet is silence—I don’t want a fan inside my tablet. But more to the point, the ‘future of computing’? Really? Even the iPad isn’t the future of computing—it’s the present.

The PC was the future, and it let people perform functions they never thought possible. Then the tablet was the future, and it let people interact with content in ways they never thought possible. Now, the future means all things to all people.

To clarify, then, the future of computing is a mish-mash of the present of computing and the past of computing. OK, got it.

PCs are not going away. They will continue to be the primary means of computing for business and consumers alike. Tablets are not going away, either. They will continue to provide a much more intuitive way to interact with a consumer electronics device. Microsoft’s vision, however, unifies these devices.

And thereby compromises both. Desktop systems won’t work with touch; touch-based interfaces might be OK with a pointer, although they’ll be a bit clunky. Launchpad on OS X Lion is a case in point from the Apple camp.

One platform to rule them all. The technology exists to enable users to carry a single device that is as portable and usable as a tablet, but also as powerful and capable as a PC.

Capable in what sense and to what people? While I still mostly work on my Mac, that’s increasingly out of habit. I can just as easily write on the iPad and I’m more focussed when doing so. Also, most of my recent music ideas have been worked out on the iPad, rather than on the desktop, despite it being more powerful and ‘capable’.

It has a battery that can last all day, but it can also run Photoshop, Excel and Outlook.

This being the mythical ‘weighty tasks do not drain me’ battery, presumably.

It can weigh next to nothing and slip into a slim case, but it can also power two monitors and run proprietary enterprise software.

And it can make toast.

Apple paved the way but Microsoft will get there first with Windows 8. A tablet that can be as fluid and user friendly as the iPad but as capable as a Windows laptop. A tablet that can boot in under 10 seconds and fire up a full-scale version of Adobe Dreamweaver a few moments later. A tablet that can be slipped into a dock to instantly become a fully capable touch-enabled laptop computer. This is Microsoft’s vision with Windows 8, and this is what it will deliver.

Maybe Epstein is right. Perhaps this is what people want. Or maybe it’s what they think they want. But I’d sooner see more companies push boundaries in providing interfaces and systems that help us move on, rather than leaving one foot rooted in interface archetypes that are three decades old and that no longer provide an intuitive means to access and manipulate information. With Windows Phone, I thought I’d seen a new and brave Microsoft, a company willing to try something innovative and exciting. With Windows 8, I see the same company that’s tied to its past, scared to move on, bar adding some gloss to dated conventions.

Much has been said about Apple’s attempts to weld bits of iOS to OS X. Generally, I’d argue that system-wide functionality like autosave is a boon to the desktop, but the iOS-like launcher called Launchpad is just awful. Still, despite nods to iOS, it’s pretty clear Apple still has two operating systems. They are distinct and separate and apps are designed for each, even if they share a name. For example, Numbers exists for Mac and iOS, but the spreadsheet app is hugely tailored for each environment.

Now take a look at PC Pro’s Windows 8 gallery. If you had no idea about Microsoft’s plans for Windows 8, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a gallery of two different operating systems—and that’s because it sort of is. Microsoft has smashed its lovely mobile UI into Windows with a brick. The net result is a touch system that will in many cases reveal ‘standard Windows’ underneath. Microsoft argues this is about choice, providing people with the ‘power’ of Windows on tablets, but also a touch UI. It argues it’s a no-compromise approach. I say it’s the result of a company that didn’t have the balls to bet the farm on something truly new, unique and suitable for the future of computing.

Apple got things right with iOS, even if it took a while. Amazingly, Microsoft’s Windows Phone team then not only created something that didn’t rip off iOS, but also sometimes bettered it. But once again a lack of vision and a desire to ‘respect’ legacy is holding Redmond back. What a pity.