[rayiner]

Possibly because they'll do it right and not have the amorphous mess that is Windows 8?

There's sparks of brilliance in Metro, but it's too goddamn flat. It's not obvious what parts of the UI can be clicked and manipulated.

Apple is also hailed as genius for "inventing the tablet" even though Microsoft tried to make tablets happen for a decade before the iPad. It's just an example of execution having more impact than conceptualization.

[runjake]

>Apple is also hailed as genius for "inventing the tablet" even though Microsoft tried to make tablets happen for a decade before the iPad

The iPad has more in common with the Newton, which came years before the Tablet PC.

Tablet PCs, while great (I liked them anyway, especially with OneNote) might have been called a tablet, but it had little in common with the tablet concepts as presented in the iPad. Tablet PCs didn't even get capacitive touch until after iOS devices came out. They were wholly stylus-based until then -- no pinches or swipes.

[siamore]

>Tablet PCs didn't even get capacitive touch until after iOS devices came out.

That's not true, I own a HP Tx2 which was released before the iPad and it has a capacitive touch screen it works great and before it there was the dell XT2 too.

[naz]

The iPhone is an iOS device.

[siamore]

Yeah you're right, The dell XT with capacitive touch was released in december of 2007 with a capacitive screen, the iPhone was released on june of 2007, I thought the op meant the iPad.

[gnaffle]

Well I did have a capacitive touch screen "tablet PC" (Panasonic Toughbook). But that's pretty much irrelevant since the UI didn't have pinches and swipes and wasn't designed primarily for use with fingers.

[fdmvsh]

There still were Tablet PCs with capacitive display before though, for example the ThinkPad X60 Tablet had an optional MultiTouch display and it came out in 2006.

[barista]

Dismissing Microsoft's metro design by calling Windows 8 is a typical example of a straw man that you get to see here on HN. Flat design as it is done in the Metro UI on Windows 8 is gorgeous particularly on touch based machines. The fact that there also exists an older UI is because of the legacy that Microsoft has to support It's the price you have to pay for being in business for 30 years. I clearly see the need to go to non-metro UI diminishing as new updates and apps come along. Command line UI lingered on for a while after windows 3.1 came and the legacy UI will probably have the same lifeline.

[rayiner]

I'm talking about Metro. It's very pretty, but it's not all that functional. It uses space poorly and it's hard to distinguish what is manipulable and what is not. It's particularly problematic on WP8, because at least on a larger screen the physical separation of the UI elements gives some clue to what does what. E.g. the "people" app on WP8 is quite a mess. It's not at all clear how to get around in it.

[kenjackson]

E.g. the "people" app on WP8 is quite a mess. It's not at all clear how to get around in it.

I just looked at the People app. I don't find anything confusing in it at all. Virtually everything in there is tapable. I didn't see a single thing in there that I thought someone would be confused about (at least with respect to the UI -- it's a bit confusing as to what content gets streamed in, but that has nothing to do with Metro).

[lostlogin]

Its not a price anyone has to pay, its a choice made. Plenty of companies have been around a while and choose not to support old stuff - cutting or keeping the ties is part of the design.