Johannesburg - Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. If you attend a lot of conferences, you’ll know that the kit handed out to delegates is usually pretty substandard.
A pen that doesn’t write or, worse, gushes ink. A cheap sling bag that starts fraying almost immediately. A T-shirt that’s made either for a giant or a midget, emblazoned with a hideous corporate logo that would be enough to relegate it to the charity pile even if it fitted perfectly.
So I didn’t have high expectations going into Microsoft’s Build Tour conference in Midrand recently. But I was pleasantly surprised. Apart from a handful of tech journalists, the delegates were all programmers and app developers, and the organisers had reckoned, correctly it turned out, that the geeks would bring their own bags and pens.
The T-shirts, though, were a revelation. Mine fitted – sort of. And while the word “Microsoft” was there, it was in small print on the sleeve. The front was devoted to an arresting image. A variation on the Ascent of Man theme, it showed the evolution of computing devices starting with a newt-like creature holding an abacus, followed by a bird with one of those old magnetic tape computers, a chimpanzee with a laptop, an ape man holding a smartphone and, finally, modern man wearing a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses.
Apart from being a pretty cool shirt that I’ve worn a few times, it’s the perfect metaphor for Microsoft’s remarkable evolution over the past five years or so – accelerating in the past 12 months – from a corporate dinosaur on the brink of extinction into a surprisingly agile, multifaceted and forward-looking company whose software is as at home in the boardroom and server centre as it is on a gaming console, PC or smartphone.
This renewed energy and sense of purpose was evident in the palpable air of excitement that pervaded the assembled nerds as we awaited the arrival of keynote speaker Pete Brown, Microsoft’s principal programme manager and roving product “evangelist”.
He didn’t disappoint, While his message was aimed at developers, it translates into great news for consumers.
In a nutshell, the company aims to have its new Windows 10 operating system, due for release next month, running on one billion devices within the next two to three years.
It’s a hugely ambitious – some would say laughable – goal. But Brown and his employer believe it’s achievable. Older versions of the venerable OS like Windows 7, XP and even (I shudder at the memory) Vista already run on hundreds of millions of machines around the world.
Microsoft has taken the (for them) revolutionary step of offering a free upgrade to Windows 10 to all owners of earlier versions of the OS, provided it was legally purchased. You may even have received a prompt by now to reserve your free copy.
If most users take them up on the offer, that will already put them pretty close to that goal. Then there’s all the new devices Windows 10 will work on, from dirt cheap mini computers like the Raspberry Pi and Microsoft’s own Lumia smartphones to giant 88-inch Surface Hubs.
Heck, the new OS will even power Microsoft’s HoloLens, a Tron-like prototype headset that lets you see virtual objects as if they existed in the real world.
Microsoft also hopes to make it much more attractive for developers to create apps for Windows 10 through the tantalising prospect of only having to write one app, rather than dozens for a myriad devices. To this end it’s even offering a way for developers of iOS and Android apps to easily “translate” them into Widows 10 apps.
Microsoft is betting that that lure of a billion potential users combined with its “write once run everywhere” philosophy will ignite a firestorm of app development, getting existing Windows users excited about the product again and attracting millions of new customers which will, in turn, bring further developers into the fold in a self perpetuating virtuous circle.
Will the strategy succeed? It’s too early to say. But I hope it does.
Whether you use its products or not, a strong Microsoft is in your interest. The more competition there is in the personal and mobile computing space, the better for all consumers.
And I really, really want a pair of those HoloLenses.
l For updates on the Windows 10 roll-out, visit my personal blog alanqcooper.tumblr.com.
l Got any questions or comments? E-mail [email protected] or tweet @alanqcooper.
Sunday Tribune