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"At first glance, it looked like the big thing Microsoft revealed to its developers in San Francisco is week was Windows 8.1, the first major update to Windows 8. \nThe real new product on display, however, was humility.\nThrough some of the changes in Windows 8.1 and other course corrections it's made recently, Microsoft is becoming notorious for retreating on key decisions. What does that mean for the company and its vision of the future? And what does that mean for its millions of customers?\nSEE ALSO: The Problem With Windows 8\n\nThe Windows 8.1 update has many new features, but those reversals were the things that stood out, including the return of the Start button and a \u201Cboot to Desktop\u201D option that lets users bypass the busy, touch-friendly Start screen and go right into traditional Windows. Both garnered applause from the audience when CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned them in his keynote at Build 2013, even though they'd been announced weeks before.\nWhile Microsoft needed time to create Windows 8.1's new features (like the search \u201Cheroes\u201D) and refine others (like multi-window Snap), there was no reason it couldn\u2019t have had the Start button and boot-to-Desktop mode in Windows 8. Microsoft has been clear that a key part of Windows 8.1 has been responding to feedback, and users demanded those resets.\nUsers complaining about changes in software is nothing new, of course, and companies sometimes even listen and make course corrections based on that feedback. However, the frequency and speed with which Microsoft has been changing direction lately makes one wonder if Ballmer has a weathervane on his desk tied directly into Twitter and Reddit.\nEven before Windows 8.1 was first leaked and announced, you could see the rapid-response approach forming. When Windows 8 launched, IE10 in the modern UI had a special flavor of Flash \u2014 one that would guarantee a good experience (with minimal battery drain for portables) but would also only work with sites that Microsoft had pre-screened. In March, Microsoft abandoned that approach, in part due to negative user feedback.\nEarlier this month, we saw the granddaddy of Microsoft reversals with the Xbox One. After first declaring that owners of the coming game console wouldn\u2019t be able to re-sell or give away games \u2014 or even play them while offline \u2014 Microsoft quickly nixed that plan after a Pacific Rim-scale backlash. Pre-owned games would work for the Xbox One the same way they did with the Xbox 360, Microsoft said. It might have also punctuated it with, \u201COur bad.\u201D\nIn each of Microsoft\u2019s do-overs, you can at least see the thinking behind its original approach. Whether it\u2019s minimalist design that obviates the need for a Start button or an all-digital strategy aimed at building new experiences around games (and facilitating subscriptions), you can see how Microsoft was trying to aim far, to show it understood \u2014 or at least had a clear vision of \u2014 the future.\nSo what does it mean for that vision when Microsoft backpedals? Is Microsoft projecting too far ahead with its strategy, forcing upon us a world that\u2019s all touch, always connected, tied into our identity, where all data and content exists in the cloud \u2014 a world that perhaps we\u2019re not quite ready to embrace 100%? Or is it simply not executing well enough in the details of that strategy?\nOr is the problem with users? Should we be less knee-jerk and fearful of change? While some aspects of Microsoft\u2019s vision are compelling, they require letting go of the old ways of doing things. Would customers be better served by a more Steve Jobs-esque approach that assumes the creator knows better than the user?\nFor all the anguish caused by some of Microsoft\u2019s decisions and subsequent reversals, they show the company is making real progress toward some vision of the future, even if that future keeps shifting out of focus. As the old saying goes, if you\u2019re not making somebody angry, you\u2019re probably not doing anything noteworthy.\nImage by Mashable, Pete Pachal"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/06/28/microsoft-do-over/>