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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5595646" data-attributes="member: 8835">There's some important nuggets here.While the multi-touch technology opened up some UI possibilities, consider that on a tablet sized screen, you need "stretching" less than on an iPhone.My point being, a tablet with a UI like iOS could have been done in 1997 with comparable tech like my Compaq PC Companion running Windows CE.  Well, not literally, but close enough.It ain't that hard to code the home screen of iOS.  Or the basic UI effects. barring the multi-touch stuff (which stretching is handy and cool).but MS had their head up their arse.  From my PC Companion to the WinCE 5/6 that was running on the Tilt we owned for a month, MS clung to the Windows metaphor.  A box, with a min/max/close button, Start button/task bar, and each application's MenuBar.On a PC, I love these things.  On a small screen like a smart phone or tablet.  These things take up serious real estate.Apple wasn't the only or first to trim the fat.  Small screens need less stuff, but they need a consistent UI look.  Apple is really good at that stuff.  Ultimately, thats why they're on top right now.Even now, Windows8 is being previewed.  The first videos of it, make it look like Windows Mobile 7 on your PC.  There's no "windows" anymore, unless you run a legacy app.  The mouse is a "secondary" interface, based on a comment heard in the video.  Why?  Because MS is assuming that the next gen PC will be a touch screen computer, not a traditional screen.  And with the way MS works, manufacturers will conform to MS's hardware requirements on all new PCs certified to run Windows8.The gist is, the big mobile OS brands have been refining how a touch screen interface should work (where WinCE failed) and now MS is taking that concept to the big PC OS.  You can expect then that the next desktop PCs and laptops (and even some tablet-like PCs) will look and act like tablets.  Rather than the current fair of "it's Windows.  On a very flat computer running very slowly"I can already by a cover for my ipad with a bluetooth keyboard.  Kind of like making it a laptop.  And Dell and HP have already done flavors of laptops with twisty screens, so they flip into a fat touch screen.  So a PC/Mac that is as thin as a Macbook Air with a twisty screen and Win8 or comparable touchscreen intended UI will be the next competition for tablets.</blockquote>

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