Windows RT is good.There is said it.Sure it doesn’t have a lot of apps and has some serious branding issues, but it’s a good system and a worthy competitor to iOS and Android… or at least it would be if the market would give it a chance. There are reasons that the market is less than enthusiastic for the platform: some of them valid others not so much. Let’s go through them.
Platform Lock-in aka Apps: It’s tough to convince someone to move platforms when they have made a (potentially) sizeable financial investment in another platform and its apps. Also, developers (myself included) have been dragging their feet when it comes to developing for the platform, so there is a pretty good chance that there will be an app that you really love from another platform but can’t get on Windows RT. Data lock-in can be another major lock-in factor, since migrating data between platforms can be challenging if at all possible — try moving app data out of iCloud.
Bad Marketing: Fine, so I teased this one in the intro, but it is a really big issue. I still can’t successfully explain Windows RT to my non-techie relatives. Sadly, Microsoft insists on using that Windows brand for a product that, though it shares a software core with true Windows, is different in a number of significant ways — chief among them is the fact that Windows RT cannot run traditional Windows applications. Also, what exactly does a group of dancing university students and other random folk have to do with consumer electronics?
Lack of Devices: Other than the Microsoft Surface RT and (my Windows RT device of choice) the Asus Vivo Tab RT, there really aren’t a lot of good Windows RT devices widely available on the market.
Microsoft: For whatever silly reason there is a vocal group of technorati that write off anything from Microsoft. I know there have been some issues in the past and Microsoft’s current campaign to compel Android manufacturers to pay royalties for patents that Android supposedly violate — I agree this is a scummy business practice but has nothing to do with Windows RT itself.
Yes, I like Windows RT and yes, there are legitimate issues with the platform, but, still, if you give it a fair shake, you might find that there is a bit more there than you initially thought.
