Everyone Happy All The Time
/Microsoft's big push behind Windows 8 (and its new tablet, the Surface) has been all about the promise of “no compromise”. Microsoft wants its offering to be all things to all people. But to anyone who thinks critically about anything, ever, that's just plain stupid. Design is all about compromise. It's about choosing what battles to fight and what battles to cede.
The 11" MacBook Air. If you want a laptop that compact and portable, the screen won't be very large. The battery life won't be as good. The thermal envelope doesn't support jamming a ton of processing power in it. Why? Because those are the things that need to be sacrificed at the altar of portability.
The 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display has the opposite problem. It has a large (and gorgeous) display, better battery life, and scads of horsepower. But it's much bigger and much heavier than the 11" Air.
The iPad (4) is bigger, thicker, and heavier than the iPad Mini, but those are the tradeoffs that had to be made to keep the battery life the same and still run the retina display/A6X processor.
Of course, despite all the high-minded talk, this is also true of the Surface (from Matt Honan):
Microsoft’s new tablet is an altogether curious device. It’s something completely new and different. It is, in some ways, better than an iPad. In some ways, worse. It’s brilliant, and yet it can be puzzling as well. Confoundingly so at times. It’s a tablet of both compromises and confusion. It is a true hybrid — neither fully a desktop nor mobile device. That’s reflected in all sorts of ways. It is Wi-Fi only, but won’t run traditional Windows applications. It has a full-featured keyboard and runs Microsoft Office — but it’s certainly meant to be touched and swiped and tapped.
It’s different.
And of course — but again, not unexpectedly — Windows 8 runs into similar compromises (from Tom Warren):
Microsoft has made the decision to remove a number of features from its Office 2013 RT release to ensure battery life and reliability are not impacted on tablet devices.
Some compromise is fine as long as we don't go overboard (remember netbooks?). Consumers understand compromise. Further, people in general understand compromise. We do it all the time in all aspects of our lives. Our electronics are no different. And Microsoft, I don't blame you for compromising; we all knew you had to do it. But please, please don't treat us like we're stupid.
That's one thing I won't compromise on.