Tech companies especially Samsung have had a rough year. Similarly, other tech giants including Google and Apple have had their own share of difficult times. However, despite all these challenges facing these tech giants, Microsoft can be said to have had a smooth year since almost all its projects have been successful. For instance, the Surface Studio is arguably the best device consumers have seen this year and the company has shown a tremendous improvement with the windows 10.
The Developers
It is not possible to talk about Microsoft success in 2016 without talking about the developers. Although the 2008 Steve Balmer’s enthusiasm failed to achieve much, the announcements made by SatyaNadella during the Build 2016 event were calm and composed and probably the best news ever heard by developers.
In 2016, Microsoft assured developers that it was ready to work with them. From a single (Windows) cross-platform development, Bash shell in Windows, Xamarin integration, PowerShell on Mac and Visual Studio, Azure integration, the bot framework and so much more.
Surface Studio
Surface Studio remains to be a gadget worth dying for in 2016. The idea was to create a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 the equivalent of a PC, and that’s what Microsoft did exactly. The Surface Studio boasts to have a 4.5k display thanks to its 28 inches. Currently, the Surface Studio has the thinnest display and most importantly, its color environment allows for switching between DCI-P3 and sRGB.
Its great display results from the sixth generation Core i7 Intel processor, a GPU of Nvidia 980M, 2TB storage, and 32GB RAM. This great display is perfectly attached to a free to gravity hinge. This makes it easy to slightly adjust the display’s angle. Additionally, the PC is available with a fully supported Surface Pen and another not so common accessory known as the Surface Dial.
The Xbox Play anywhere
Currently, there is no any other gaming platform that provides the cross-platform abilities provided by the Microsoft Xbox Play anywhere project. This premise works very easily. All you need to do is to buy an Xbox One game, and you will be in a position to play the game on your PC too. It is easy to stream games on PC and additionally, the Xbox One is able to stream games to an Oculus Rift headset connected to a PC.
Although the kinks in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) are yet to be ironed out perfectly, the promise to have it done soon is very fulfilling. Also, the tech giant has confirmed that it is still committed the PC Master Race and has insisted that the first party titles will be available to Windows and Xbox in that order.
The HoloLens Augmented Reality (AR)
Whenever you think about augmented reality, Holo Lens has to come in mind. The development kit goes for about $3,000, but it does not matter. Demos by Microsoft have been great, and people have shown some positive feedbacks. AR has shown some compelling gaming features, and although VR is excellent, most people don’t think that it matches the AR potential. Microsoft has also shown some interest in bringing augmented reality to life.
The Progress of Windows 10
Without a single doubt, Windows 10 is shaping up to become an exciting and robust operating system. Although Windows has for a long time been a useful and functional operating system, not many people can admit to loving the way the Windows operating system works. Linux has a geek appeal, and the Mac operating system has caught the attention of iFans as well as some designers and developers.
The bottom line is, although Windows was powerful, functional and people understood it, it was never that cool. It only served the purpose of a tool for people to work with and nothing else. During the Windows 10 early days, it experienced some problematic functions, which are yet to be resolved. For instance, there are still plenty of bugs that need to be taken care of. There is need to deal with the ads that appear on the lock screen once and for all and users still complain about synching issues.
With that in mind, Cortana remains to be the leading digital assistant after Google Now, and although Siri is great, it still has some difficulties with peoples’ accent. Moreover, the Windows Ink has displayed the capabilities of a great pen input since most people find Apple’s Pencil to some extent boring. Also, Windows Edge is showing some major improvements now, and people love it. Microsoft incorporated the Windows Hello (biometric authentication) to Windows 10 long prior Apple became conscious about putting TouchID on Mac.
See Also: Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence Approach to Solve Cancer Problem
Conclusion
Although Windows 10 is currently not the best operating system, it has proven to be the most exciting operating system in 2016. Consumers have loved most of the new services brought forward by Microsoft, and this has contributed to the company’s success in 2016. Additionally, developers have had a great year thanks to the recent announcements by SatyaNadella during the Build 2016 event.
