Lazycoder

Why Apple can push out new tech faster than Microsoft

Yeah. See I ‘get’ that XAML is a godsend for developers. More than ‘get’, I ‘GROK’ that it’s a great idea. I thought it was a great idea when I saw XUL, but that never really got off the ground. I just don’t think that end users will care one way or another about XAML. It’s just another application to them. It’s the kind of thing that, when a developer sits down and explains what is really going on, the user will say ‘neat’ and move one. Microsoft has a great opportunity to push that kind of declarative rich UI design into a lot of peoples living rooms. That being said, I think Apple has the same opportunity but they can get it done faster.

Why do I say that? Well, the Windows users are slow adopters. Not too many people went rushing out to buy the shrinkwrap upgrade of Windows 2000 or XP. The last time I remember a big rush was the last time that Windows underwent a major UI revolution. Windows 95. Compare that to the number of pre-orders for Tiger. Mac users upgrade their OS more often and voluntarily. Windows users use whatever came with the last PC they purchased. Sure the technologically savvy will beg/borrow/buy/steal the latest build or version of windows, but they make up a small percentage of the entire Windows userbase. So Apple could come up with something similar and push it out faster than Microsoft. It wouldn’t have as great of an impact on the market as Microsoft’s would. But it would get here quicker. So if Longhorn comes out in 2006, lets say it’ll be ubiquitous in late 2007-early 2008. That’s pretty forward thinking for a market that moves as fast as the technology market does. In fact, it might as well be flying cars. (where are they?)

It’ll be interesting to see how XAML applications are architected and distributed and, ultimately, exploited. The demos I’ve seen so far are just web apps with flashy graphics. You could create the same kind of UI in Flash today. It’s still the same “click the link and something happens” motif. How is the logic distributed? Is it all embedded in the XAML markup? Can you do P2P in XAML? Is it really just Microsofts attempt, along with Metro, at the Flash market?