A Microsoft exec has insisted that the desktop is not being slowly killed by touch user interfaces, insisting that the company fundamentally disagrees with carrying around both a tablet and a laptop rather than one device.
Speaking at a round-table event for the launch of Windows 8, vice president of Windows web services Antoine LeBlonde insisted that choice is key.
"I would argue with [the assertion] that the desktop is dead because there are so many great desktop apps out there today and for a lot of people they are an important part of what they have to do day in and day out," said LeBlonde.
"Having a version of Windows that keeps running those things, maintains backwards compatibility and makes sure we can run those apps as well as we always have is a big part of the value of Windows and will continue to be.
"That being said, they are important for some people, but there are other people for whom that is not what they spend their time and in the world of no compromise in giving choice making sure that people can do what they want to do is the order of the day."
Choices
LeBlonde insists that having a traditional desktop and a more touch friendly 'modern' UI in the same operating system is vital for the current crop of computers and tablets.
"In a way I think of what we have done as being all about choice," added LeBlonde. "You can do what you want. You can run desktop apps, you can run Windows Store apps - you can do both.
"We talk a lot about the idea of Windows 8 being about not compromising. Not compromising between running the apps that exist today versus the apps that exist tomorrow.
"Running on a desktop or running on a tablet - you choose what you want and it's the same experience across all of these devices."
LeBlonde feels that people are doubling up on devices rather than having the best of both worlds, and he insists that Microsoft wants to solve the issue.
"I think if you cleave the world into two pieces you create an either or," he added.
"I'm going to be blunt about it, you just have to look at the amount of people who are walking around with multiple PCs today and that's because the world is cleaved in two.
"We're walking around with [a tablet] and we're walking around with a laptop and there's no reason [for that].
"There are the same components inside these things, it is just a software choice someone made on your behalf.
"A fundamental point of view we have is that you don't need to have multiple devices like this to do what you need to be doing - whether it's sitting on couch watching a movie or taking notes."
