Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: Windows 8 is ‘the end of Windows’

[GAP]

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: Windows 8 is ‘the end of Windows’
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October 19, 2012 Sean Ludwig

NEW YORK CITY — Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, always game for a little tech trash talk, said that Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system would be “the end of Windows” and that “Windows is irrelevant.”

Benioff, answering questions at a press conference at the Cloudforce show in Manhattan, mostly kept to the script of promoting Salesforce’s cloud services during the Q&A session with reporters and analysts. The main Cloudforce keynote mostly mimicked all the announcements at Dreamforce last month, except for the just-announced addition of 20 social analytics services to its Marketing Cloud.

Veering off-script (or was it?), Benioff talked about Windows 8 in regard to the entire computing market. He first spoke about a conversation he had had with an exec-level Salesforce customer and how this customer said she wouldn’t move her company to Windows 8.

Then, Benioff turned to his own thoughts on the new Microsoft OS, which launches Oct. 26. He said that people were not having frequent conversations about traditional computers anymore — people are instead talking about which smartphones and tablets they want to buy. He name-checked the iPhone 5 and the Kindle Fire HD as examples.

With that in mind, Windows 8, he noted, was no longer important. He said CIOs had upgraded to Windows 7 because they didn’t have another choice, but now things have changed.

“Windows 8 is the gambit — will [CIOs] upgrade, or will they do something else?” Benioff said. “It’s the end of Windows. … Windows is irrelevant.”
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[PuckChaser]

Windows 8 is the new Vista and ME. Everyone will skip it for the next version. Microsoft has failed 3 times at releasing OSes that no one wants, they haven't learned yet.

 

[Oompah-Loompah@]

Windows 8 is the new Vista and ME. Everyone will skip it for the next version. Microsoft has failed 3 times at releasing OSes that no one wants, they haven't learned yet.

They got a habit of bad OS->good OS->bad OS.

i.e.

Win 98->ME/2000->XP->Vista->7->8.

Maybe Windows 9 or whatever will be good.

 

[a_majoor]

I was rather surprised and impressed by a tablet running Android, which is the OS for non Apple Smartphones. Given the ever expanding market for smartphones, I would expect a new "ecosystem" would arise with companies using Android phones connecting to Android powered office and portable machines, while iPhone enabled companies would start migrating to Mac products and iCloud to tie everything together.

RIM might still exist as a shadow of its former self; Blackberries have been the Government phone of choice for a long time, and there are security advantages to having a proprietary platform; RIM might become a government company much like Iridium was purchased by the DoD to maintain the global satphone network which the company had created.

 

[MeatheadMick]

I bought my wife a new touchscreen laptop with Windows 8, and while we were initially both skeptics... In my opinion it's a pretty neat idea. Still has the comforts of the desktop we've all grown to endure love, but the start menu opens up into a tablet like environment. With a mouse I can see it being a bit of a PITA until you get used to it, however with the touchscreen monitor, it's quite ingenious.

We shall see how it goes... hope it's a worthwhile evolution and not just another gimmick.

 

[a_majoor]

Does your Windows 8 platform support your legacy programs? That was the true horror of Windows "upgrades" and new release OS's; finding out your programs and data were no longer accessable, or mangled in translation

 

[FJAG]

This summer I bought a new laptop with Windows 7 and must say I like it over my old stalwart XP. I've got a free upgrade to Win8 with the computer but am going to be very slow moving there but in no way am I writing it off.

Hate to disagree with the experts but I don't think Windows has reached the end of the line just yet. I've used my son's iPad and although I hate Apple with a passion, I thought the iPad was a good surfing tool . . . BUT . . . I can't see myself "working" with an iPad just yet. I have apps that don't exist in the Apple world and there are no viable alternatives. Similarly, unless I add a keyboard and prop the thing up, it just doesn't meet my work pattern - i.e. sit at a desk or in an easy chair and typing.

While I think the windows desktop/laptop market is an ever shrinking one, there are still hundreds(?) of millions of workers out there that will for a very long time yet be stuck in their cubicles hammering out spreadsheets and letters or documents that need keyboarding and a reasonable monitor (or as in my case multiple monitors to run the several apps I have open simultaneously). The iPhone and iPad (or their clones) won't hack it there. 

A new and efficient Win operating system that can switch back and forth between the traditional desktop and the newer touch screen format strikes me as a good idea -- especially for the folks writing the apps that can then write one app that will then work on tablets, desk/laptops and phones all at the same time.

Cheers