Microsoft had a big day yesterday and unless you were living under a rock, you likely saw the announcement of Windows 10. The preview, which is available today for download, has some notable gaps that we reported on earlier this year and are worth pointing out.
The announcement yesterday was targeted at the enterprise and the enthusiast user. Microsoft knows that it needs to rekindle its relationship with the enterprise and the features announced were primarily for power users. Knowing that, it"s not a surprise that many of the "consumer" features are still locked away in Redmond.
1. IE 12
IE 12, as we noted when we broke the story, would not be part of the technical preview. So where is it? While we do not have a hard deadline yet, it would make sense to hold that feature until the consumer preview is ready in early 2015.
The lack of a notification is a bit unexpected. Why? Well, it would seem like developers should be aware of this feature so they can start building apps that utilize this functionality. But, Microsoft did not mention the feature during the event. although, we all know that it is coming.
It is more than likely that they are letting private groups in on this feature behind close doors so that the big name developers (Facebook, Twitter, etc) can make use of the functionality when it becomes available. More so, even if this feature is not implemented until early 2015, that will still give developers a few months to prepare their apps.
3. Cortana
Cortana, we know she exists and we have personally seen her in action on internal builds of Windows 10. Alas, as you would expect, Microsoft considers this to be a feature for the consumer and chose to hold it back, again, for the consumer related preview that is coming early next year.
4. Nothing about ARM
Windows on ARM was not talked about either but like the other features, that platform is targeted at consumers. More so, with Windows on ARM said to be merging with Windows Phone, the user experience may be dramatically different than the current version of the OS.
We would not interpret Microsoft saying nothing about this platform to symbolize that it is dead but until they come clean with their intentions for that OS, the speculation will run wild.
5. Price
It is still far too early for Microsoft to be talking about the business model for Windows 10. Seeing that the OS will not launch for around 9 more months, they will keep pricing details close to the chest for a long time.
It is widely believed that, for some users, the upgrade will be free. Those running Windows 8 that are going to Windows 10 will likely not have to pay for the OS but the upgrade fee for those jumping from Windows 7 is still up in the air.
6. Satya Nadella
Microsoft wanted to make it clear that this was not the "launch" of Windows 10, at least, that"s what we were told. To make this statement, they did not have Nadella come to the event to signify that this was a smaller event for Microsoft.
Despite that, announcing the next version of your billion dollar line of business is a big deal, and based on the announcement today, this was kick-off for Windows 10. Even though Nadella was busy off traveling in Asia, the hype train for Microsoft"s next generation OS has begun even if its CEO was not there to announce the platform.