This entry has been cross-posted from our technical blog site, NSI Partners TechConnect. Written by our IT Services Manager, Matthew Frye
Going back a year now, I began stretching myself to try out and explore working with and navigating through multiple technology ecosystems, largely based on a challenge from one of the partners of the company. It has been a long year for device and ecosystem experiments. I have learned plenty about a wide variety of computer, tablet, and smartphone devices and ecosystems, and combinations thereof, all with productivity in mind. I’ sure I have raised the ire of my accounting department who has struggled to keep track of all these device swaps and rotations. I have done all this with two primary goals in mind: supporting client needs and maximizing productivity with all the new tools in the marketplace.Image may be NSFW.
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If you look back at my series of posts over the past year, many of them have related to all this experimentation. I’m now going to try my best to distill what wisdom I can from this crazy year of device and world-hopping, as it were.
1. Microsoft Office is still the premiere productivity solution for computing devices on Earth. I could go into lots of reasons for this, but suffice it to say, despite a plethora of other options and fierce competition from Google (and less so from Apple), Microsoft’s flagship software productivity tools are still the best.
2. The Office ecosystem is now much more flexible. This relates to Office365, Windows 8, tablets, and Windows Phones. There are now more ways to create, edit, store, share, and access Office tools and documents than ever before, and the products themselves have evolved as well. A lot of this is related to the move to the Cloud and all the mobile devices with increased computing power. But the bottom line is, it creates more ways to be productive in more places. You decide if that’s a good thing or not.
3. Android phones and tablets are unsecure and unstable. Granted, I’ve used several Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets, and there’s a lot of nice, appealing features to them. But not for business if you care about security and stability. They are great for nerds, developers, geeks, and people who want low-cost smartphones. I’m not recommending them for business use.
4. iPhones and iPads are stable, acceptable, powerful mobile devices but still miss the boat in a few areas for productivity. This is probably the most contentious point I am making, as I have used and loved several of these devices myself. Apple did a great job convincing the world that tablets are a NEED and not a WANT, and in pushing Microsoft and others to be more competitive in the portable device space. But even with improved battery life, light weight, a giant app inventory, and devices that are pretty secure and user-friendly, there are still some holes. Microsoft hasn’t pushed Office to the Apple portable devices, and the a third party alternatives are acceptable but not awesome. A full keyboard and computer processor still creates huge productivity advantages over mobile chipsets, and at even more competitive price points than ever before.
5. Windows Operating Systems will still drive most of the “productivity” world for some time to come. There are lots of other options. And most of them have their own strengths and value. Linux offers low cost or free Windows alternatives and some of the support is very good. And these are viable options if you operate mostly via a browser, don’t have need for proprietary software that isn’t available for Linux, or use software that is targeting Linux. OS X is a great and stable OS and Apple laptops and desktops running Intel chips can also host Windows OSes alongside OS X, so if you have the money and want top-notch hardware with the ability to run OS X and Windows both, then this is a good way to go. I don’t see Chrome, iOS, Android, or other mobile OSes replacing full computer OSes for essential productivity and multi-tasking/power user tasks.
6. Windows 8 is a great OS with some problems. It improves Windows 7 in many ways, including security, stability, performance and features. Microsoft is trying to be competitive and innovative and made too many “touch-centric” changes too soon without thinking through all the things they were asking users to adopt to. From what I’ve read about Windows Blue, I think a lot of these issues are going to be addressed. Going forward, I think Microsoft is learning from the other innovators in the computing world and will come up with more evolved solutions. Even though I don’t use a lot of the “Modern Style” apps on my laptop and desktop, I do like some of the interface changes and ideas.Image may be NSFW.
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7. Microsoft isn’t giving up on the smartphone market and Windows Phone continues to improve. Even with a very low market share and many many people saying Microsoft should just throw in the towel on smartphones, they aren’t doing it. And they are improving the phone OS, features, app support, device variety, and internationally are growing well. And for those who give Windows Phone 8 a try, it turns out to be a very compelling and useful interface with a lot of productivity advantages over the alternatives. Especially for those already invested in the Office and Office 365 ecosystems.
It’s been a crazy year, and the pace of technology innovations isn’t slowing down. Competition and change remain high, and it’s an exciting time to be alive when it comes to technology. However, there’s something to say for longevity and stability, and no one has really pulled Microsoft off the individual computer device throne yet. They may not excel in the consumer space right now, but for productivity, platform compatibility and business use, I think Windows, Office, and even Windows Phone are still the ones to beat.
The post Computer, Tablet, Smartphone Ecosystems… A Year of Experimentation appeared first on The NSI Partners Blog.