Originally Posted By: JeffS
I haven't played with it yet, but I would assume the integration is smooth enough that tablet users won't even be aware of the desktop OS. Is that not the case? If it is, then can't MS take advantage of both kinds of consumers?

They might be able to take advantage of both, but most likely it's going to be split by architecture. The people wanting the more iPad like hardware will likely end up on the ARM side, and are the ones who are less likely to step into the desktop OS side. I'm questioning why Microsoft is even bothering bringing "real" desktop Windows to ARM, when they won't be bringing a way to run x86 apps. Who is going to write ARM specific desktop apps for the consumer market, when they still need to also write x86 apps for the existing desktop market, and tablet style ARM apps for Windows, iOS and Android?

I can also see the x86 tablet side confusing the issue for many customers. They may see a friend with the bulkier x86 hardware running older apps in the desktop OS side, and not understand why the same can't run on their lighter ARM tablet.

I will applaud Microsoft for trying to be innovative here and bringing their Metro UI into the tablet space. I think it was pretty good on a phone, but question their future merger plans with it. Even the XBox is changing UI, again, to line up with Metro.