Windows 7 was a huge success for Microsoft after the blaring failures of Vista, but it appears it is going to be the end of the line for the moused-based point and click interfaces that has made Microsoft the financial powerhouse it has become over the last thirty years. Enterprises and consumers upgraded to the pinnacle of the interface PC uses have got used to for decades – there really wasn’t much left to do in such an interface muse-based.
Windows 7 Phone showed the world the Microsoft has grasped the movement of digital devices towards touch-based interfaces with it’s easy to use tiles that are actually notably more useful than the basic icon grid on iOS and basic Android. With more and more people accessing a “computer” more regularly on their smartphone or tablet/slate than on a desktop or laptop, touch is the growth area and Microsoft understand that just as well as Apple or Google.
Apple have stated their desire to bring OSX and iOS closer together in OSX Lion to focus on touch devices, and Google’s Android OS was built as a touch interface from the get-go, but Microsoft may be the one to convert the masses, and more financially important – convert the enterprise sector. They can do this by offering an interface designed for touch, but that also has a layer for using a mouse so that those unsure about the change can slowly evolve at their own rate, not overnight with a system upgrade.
It will be a slow death for the trusty mouse that we have all grown used to with the development of the home PC, but if Microsoft can keep the promises they make in the first Windows 8 video below – they may be the ones that finally push everyone towards touch.