What's so great about Windows 8?

What's so great about Windows 8?

Ant: Metro.
Tony: What? I thought you were a committed Mac user.
Ant: I am.
Tony: So you think that Windows 8 will be the downfall of Microsoft?
Ant: No. Don't be ridiculous.
Tony: So if Metro is so great why wouldn't you want to use it?
Ant: I'm thinking as a developer not a user.
Tony: Huh?
Ant: Metro encourages and enables publishers to create the type of mobile apps that everyone loves on iOS and Android without expectations that legacy support is built in for XP, Vista or even Windows 7
Tony: The Gordian Knot is cut!
Ant: Slightly dramatic but yes.
Tony: But hasn't every tablet apart from the iPad failed?
Ant: Microsoft doesn't need to gain iPad size market share of the tablet market for Windows 8 to be relevant. Apps built for Windows 8 will work on the desktop and this is one way that people without tablets can access your publications - whatever electronic shape or form they take.
Tony: A bit like people being able to buy Angry Birds on OS X?
Ant: Yes, reach your customers in as many places as possible.
Tony: But you said that you didn't want to support XP, Vista or Windows 7.
Ant: True - and maybe some of the metro type apps will creep backwards onto Windows 7 a bit like iOS apps crept onto OS X if they were a success - but at the moment we're cutting the Gordian Knot to move forwards remember: iOS, Android, Win 8.
Tony: The logic being that OS X, Linux and Windows (pre-8) are secondary for the type of apps most publishers are likely to produce?
Ant: Precisely, you're really starting to understand this now.
Tony: In other words, the new mobile devices are more personal and provide an excellent testing ground.
Ant: Bravo!
Tony: But is the Windows 8 app market going to be big enough to worry about? I've heard that Windows Phone 7 doesn't have anywhere near as many apps as Android and iPhone.
Ant: I'm going out on a limb here, but I expect that in a few years iOS and OS X combined will represent 30% of the app market, Windows 8 will represent 30% and Android will represent 30%.
Tony: Crazy. Doesn't OS X only have a 5% market share?
Ant: OS X actually has over 10% in the UK (http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-GB-monthly-201102-201202) and over 15% in the USA (http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-US-monthly-201102-201202) and I'm comparing to Windows 8 not the whole Windows family.
Tony: But still Mac is a niche market.
Ant: OS X combined with iOS represents nearly 20% of web traffic in the USA.
Tony: Is that true?
Ant: Yes.
Tony: But it isn't a very global statistic. Are you hiding something?
Ant: OK, this figure shrinks to nearly 9% when you look at the worldwide figures (http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-201102-201202)
Tony: Ha!
Ant: Yes, but where do the majority or your customers come from?
Tony: Fair point.
Ant: And remember we're talking about modern mobile apps - Apple is currently no. 1 in this space.
Tony: OK, I submit.
Ant: So let's say for the sake of argument in three to four years Android has 30% of the app market, mainly on phones, Windows has 30% spread across traditional PCs, a slice of the tablet pie and some mobile phones, and Apple has its 30% in a more uniform way across, iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Tony: * ignores the sly Apple praise *
Ant: Windows 8 is going to be just as interesting to publishers as iOS and Android, and that makes it great.