The Windows RT Review
by Vivek Gowri & Anand Lal Shimpi on October 25, 2012 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Windows RT
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Windows 8
- Tablets
Windows Store and the 3rd Party App Situation
So the third party app situation, out of the gate, is the biggest issue I can see with Windows RT. Obviously, with ARM processors, typical x86 legacy programs are out, so you’re forced to rely exclusively on the Windows Store for third-party applications. Within the Windows Store itself, almost all of the applications are compatible with both x86 and ARM architectures - Microsoft claims around 90% off the apps on the Windows Store at launch are compatible with both Windows 8 and Windows RT, and it appears that a lot of developers will be releasing applications on the Store for both platforms simultaneously.
The problem is that currently, there aren’t that many apps, and of them, not many are very good. Obviously, we’re still a couple of days from launch and I’m expecting a significant uptick in the number of quality apps on the 26th particularly, but also over the coming weeks and months. As the new versions of Windows gain market share, the Store will grow and mature.
Let’s talk about the Store itself. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, the Metro visual style looks great here, as it does almost everywhere else. Metro just lends itself well to anything involving lots of rectangular pictures (or app icons, in this case). Unfortunately, the Store is a bit poorly organized, and it’s difficult to find really relevant applications. The “Top Free” list needs a “Top Paid” companion, and there absolutely needs to be a “Sort by most reviews” option. Those two things would make it significantly easier to find the high-volume, headlining applications in any given category. I also really, really want the option to see all applications made by a specific developer (like, say, Microsoft.) The inability to do so is a pretty significant oversight from where I stand. These are all pretty simple fixes, just a few extra organizational options that would go a long way to making the store easier to navigate.
For right now, the best apps I can recommend on the Store are staples like Kindle, Netflix, Evernote, and Wikipedia, along with news and shopping apps from USA Today, NBC News, eBay, Newegg, and Popular Science. Other notable applications include IM+ and a number of internet radio apps like iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio, and Slacker. In addition to those and a number of applications and games from Microsoft and Microsoft Studios - Xbox SmartGlass, Fresh Paint (a new paint application), OneNote MX (the Metro redesign of OneNote, still a preview), the Modern UI version of Remote Desktop, Reckless Racing, Hydro Thunder, etc - there’s not much out there, except maybe Fruit Ninja.
There’s still a lot of 3rd party stand-ins for applications that will get first party support, like a BBC News application actually developed by BBC and things like that. These independent apps can sometimes be good, but are almost always outdone by the first party ones. It’s just a matter of design and quality. I know that ESPN is slowly but surely bringing out their suite of applications - their cricket and football (soccer) apps were both released recently, which indicates that Scorecenter and their other applications for online radio and live video will all hit the store in the near future, but they’re just one developer. I just don’t know how much time it will take for a majority of those applications to be released. Skype isn’t currently available in the store, but will be on the 26th, which makes me wonder how many new applications will hit Windows Store in time to coincide with the official launch date of Windows 8. I want to revisit this a week from now, or even just two days from now, to see where things stand.
I’ve seen a lot of early reviews of Windows RT-based tablets decry the app situation, but I’m assuming the growth will occur significantly more quickly than it has for, say, Windows Phone, for one simple reason: this is still Windows. A very different kind of Windows, yes, but it’s not like people will stop buying Windows computers. Windows Phone has had issues gaining marketshare over the last two years, but starting tomorrow, 85% (or more) of computers being sold worldwide will be running either Windows 8 or Windows RT. There are too many people out there with new Windows systems for developers to somehow just stop releasing Windows applications.
It's important to remember that devs aren’t creating apps for Windows RT specifically, they’re creating new applications for the new Windows UI, which just happens to cover two very different hardware platforms. Nobody worries about the state of Windows 8 applications because all of the legacy desktop apps will still work, but the Windows Store will develop and mature at the same pace regardless of whether you’re looking at Windows 8 or Windows RT. Everyone worrying about Windows RT tablets and third party apps should have the same concerns about touch-centric apps for Windows 8 tablets.
But regardless, we’re still missing some huge applications at this point: Facebook, Twitter (though Rowi makes for a good stand-in), Dropbox, Pandora, Yelp, any kind of Google service, anything from Adobe, and generally useful but not necessarily headlining financial and bank-specific apps. Check back with us in a few days, because I don’t think the Windows Store will stay as sparsely populated as it is currently, but until that changes, there will be questions.
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Sherlock - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
IMHO WIndows RT on ARM is an stop-gap solution till the x86 architecture becoms power efficient to give tablet like running times. I belive Microsoft began working on Surface about two years ago & at that point of time, there was no viable competitor to ARM, in terms of power efficiency. This is the primary reason I belive Microsoft had to create an ARM version.Several of the commentators on this site have mentioned that they see no reason to buy an ARM over x86...and it definitley makes sense. Why have an fragmented ecosystem?
I believe that as time passes on & people get used to the Modern UI & the x86 architecture catches up, Microsft would phase out their support for the ARM version.
Microsoft could have chosen to do away with the "Desktop" environment with Windows RT & created a Moder UI version of Office (I don't agree with the argument of they not having enough time...they have been at it for 2 years) but I guess they deliberately chose to retain it so that users experience the familiar environment while using their killer app in this war - Office. I think people have underestimated the importance of bundling Office with Windows RT which remediates the biggest shortcoming of Android/iOS tablets
prdola0 - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
Hi, the article is nice, but I keep wondering about one thing. Why do Apple articles start with a nice and colorful image of the devices, and a lot of it's competition articles start with a smudgy ugly images or devices turned off? Maybe it's just accidental, but please give it a thought. It looks a bit like bias.B3an - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
Lol i've said this before! They often put more effort in to images taken of Apple stuff, which i've never liked as it's bias in way.But to be fair, this time the image at the start of this article is old and to show the Win 7 tablet. It makes sense to have it with the opening of the article.
beginner99 - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
...but doubtful very usable in practice. I really like the thinking behind Surface with the touch keyboard cover and other things. According to this review Windows 8 isnt that bad on tablets. I'm just gonna believe that.However the Application load times are very, very bad. 7 sec for mail app? That is just frustrating. Just shows that ARM is still very much underpowered....Or that surface uses an extremely crappy flash storage.
milkod2001 - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
@prdola0this site belongs to Anand a trully Apple fanboy plus there's no such thing as unbiased review, any review on any web is only as good/positive as much is reviewer/site owner getting pay
yyrkoon - Sunday, October 28, 2012 - link
Funny, I thought the review was rather in favor for Microsoft. This review, and the Microsoft surface review. Both.Anand is no dumbie.. I absolutely HATE anything Apple based on pure personal beliefs / reasoning. Yet, even I, can not deny that iOS as far as polish goes is second to none. Until now. And the hardware used is usually top quality.
At a higher cost, with less freedom, and a strangle hold on their software regime. A lot of people claim these are all problems from Microsoft. Which may be true, but Apple trumps Microsoft in computer-land tyranny. Until now.
It could be that 90% of the market will be driven to using Mint Linux x, in the not so distant future. We'll see if Microsoft gets another clue.
GnillGnoll - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
I very much like that the on-screen keyboard has cursor keys, even if it's just left/right. It's one of the main features missing from the iOS keyboard, as precisely positioning the cursor with your finger is a huge pain.I assume that Ctrl+Left/Right skips words, and that Shift+Left/Right can be used for selection. Does anyone know if there is a way to go up/down?
I don't like that quick access to punctuation is so limited, though.
bitbank - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
From your comments throughout the article, it's clear that you're a fan of Metro and you overlook many of the shortcomings of Windows Phone and Windows RT just because of the "smooth tiled interface". The truth is that the GUI isn't that important. It's not where you get your work done. Apps are where you work.As you said, an ARM version of Windows is good to wake Intel from their slumber and get some competition in the low cost/low power CPU market. Intel's Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors get decent battery life and run 3-5x faster than the best ARM offerings to date. I get 8-10 hours of battery life out of my 17" HP Sandy Bridge notebook with the medium capacity battery. I would much rather have an x86 slate running Windows 8 with support for legacy apps. Having a half-baked version of Office on an ARM based WinRT tablet isn't much incentive to be stuck with virtually no apps.
WindowsRT feels a lot like the launch of Windows CE notebooks. Interesting form factors and improved battery life don't make up for lack of app compatibility. The value of Windows is in its huge selection of apps. Win8 Pro is taking the right approach. Similar to the transition from DOS and 16-bit to 32-bit apps with Windows 95, there needs to be a transition product (Win8 Pro) which bridges the gap between old and new. When presented with a completely new device with no legacy support and very little app support, it makes very little sense for the average user to buy it. Besides reviewers and people who have to buy the latest gadget, why should an average person want to buy WinRT? According to you, they should patiently wait for the app store to get some decent apps. That's asking too much. The smart move for the average consumer is to wait a year or so and see if developers have given any attention to Windows 8's "little brother" and published apps in both x86 and ARM versions.
karocage - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link
But the interface is how you navigate all those apps. It's legitimate to point out that WP7 and W8/RT have clearly surpassed iOS in terms of speed of navigation between things like the back button, hubs, task switcher, charms and so on. That's not a function of the tiles really - although of course the tiles are another place where MS has a much better implementation than Apple.steven75 - Friday, November 2, 2012 - link
Completely disagree on speed of navigation. Are you familiar with the four-finger swipes on an iPad to switch apps, bring up the "task manager" tray, etc?I'll give you getting to the settings screen to find apps settings takes longer but thankfully on iOS apps launch lightning fast unlike on RT.