Windows 8- The good, the not so good and the bad

Having experienced Windows 8 across multiple form factors and having digested opinions, articles and what not, here is what I think, a little over a month since the "8" paradigm formally launched.First off, one of the most unique things to have ever happened is that there were more people who knew and were excited about the iPad Mini and wanting to get their hands on one than about the Windows 8 ec0system. The only excitement I heard was over wanting to play with Nokia Lumia 920. Many of the folks I interact with are from Asia and Europe where Nokia was the Apple of its day. And they still have quite a bit of excitement for the brand even if they have all moved onto iPhones and Android devices. And the desktop version of the product is an afterthought. Over a month after launch, I know a grand total of 2 people out of over 100 people I have talked to who uses the desktop or laptop version of the OS. How times have changed.The GoodThe Lumia 920 is selling well. This must be good news for Microsoft and the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem and ecstatic news for the Finnish giant which was literally hanging onto the Lumia 920 for its dear life. There is genuine excitement for the product and people who have bought it have not regretted the purchase. I spent sometime with the product. I found it to be bulky - both by size and weight and I dont even use an iPhone 5. That said, the experience was fluid and pleasant. I liked the HTC 8X a tad more but with a higher price tag, lesser memory and not much excitement behind it, I can see why the Lumia is doing better.I had written about my early impressions with Windows 8 on my desktop and I stand by much of it. It is a very touch centric OS upgrade that with some investment of time and effort, yields a good experience. It has its quirks and faults but its a solid first step in moving towards a fuller touch experience driven OS.The Not So GoodWindows 8 adoption on the PC side of the business is not as rapid and dramatic as the industry expected. Granted, it is a radical overhaul that people were expected to adopt a tad slower than with previous versions of the OS but still- the PC industry definitely is being challenged and you could argue, overtaken by the tablet business and Windows 8 might be the first big victim. No one talks about the desktop at home anymore. People use their work laptops at home for typing intensive work and tablets for everything else. The home PC buyer is part of a shrinking population. Intel and Microsoft are the biggest names to be affected by this shift.While the sales of Windows Phones bodes very well for the eco-system and more importantly for long term developer adoption, there are some niggling questions for me. For a premium product like the Nokia Lumia 920, why was there so much discounting and promotion in the first month of launch?. With a $99 contract price point which is lower than most premium smartphones, it was further discounted by every major sales outlet from Walmart to ATT Wireless to Amazon Wireless. While this has sparked sales so much so people are waiting for their devices to be shipped, someone is paying the difference. And it is not trivial. Whether it is ATT or Microsoft or Nokia or Walmart, it is not a sustainable model for the devices in the long run. Time will tell where the impact is felt.The BadI dont believe Surface is selling very well. And I dont think it will at this price point. The product is not competitive at this price against the behemoth that is the iPad. And it does not offer the compelling experience that the Android and iOS ecosystems offer. I think the product and the ecosystem offers a lot of promise and the Surface is a good first step but it is not ready to go up against the iPad. I spent 30 minutes with it recently and came away disappointed. The keyboard experience was less than great, there was quite a bit of lag typing in Microsoft Word, some design decisions were puzzling and overall- it offered a less than thrilling experience especially compared to the fantastic iPad 4 experience across at the Apple Store.I dont believe the $899 price point for the Windows 8 Pro  is competitive and I don't believe that it will sell well until the price is dropped. I also believe that 4 hours of battery is not acceptable for a tablet product. Agreed it has a powerful CPU and a great display but people will compare it with the battery life of the iPad and the power and ease of use of the Macbook Air and I don't think the Surface Pro can live up to those expectations.But here is the silver lining. Microsoft's first generation tablet product is being compared with Apple's 3rd/4th generation tablet product. That in itself is commendable. Added to which things will only get better from the ecosystem standpoint. As more users adopt the Windows 8 ecosystem, developers will build more dedicated and unique Windows 8 experiences and this will definitely boost sales of devices because of the virtuous cycle.Personally, I like what I see on the phones side, am reasonably satisfied with the Windows 8 desktop upgrade and not really into the Surface tablet for now. And with a rapidly shifting marketplace, things will only keep changing. For now, all I can say is that this is not the Microsoft of the 90's or even the 2000's. Its a whole new ballgame and a whole new Microsoft.