So I get this call from MS for a study to share my thoughts on WIN10 IoT.
The first call was to see if I meet the criteria. 15 minutes, at the end he says I do, Now onto level 2, the next call will determine if I will be a good candidate for the hour long call. Talk to the next guy, asks more questions, another 10 minutes. At the end he says Thank you for your time, but I would not be a good fit for the 3’rd call. I say really, why? He says that since I am not currently developing a product for sale with Win10 IoT that this is the reason. So I say back, I have to say I am confused. WIn10 is not even released yet, Visual Studio 2015 is not released yet and Win10 IoT is not released yet. So who in their right mind would start developing a product for sale with these conditions?
He says, many have already started to do so. I laughed and said well thanks for the opportunity anyway.
I am still in shock over that. There are (as he says) many that are making products to sell using all this beta software. Don’t get me wrong I think this Win10 IoT is cool, but its no where ready for market yet.
As far as I know, you are not even allowed to sell anything, that uses the preview/beta Versions.
So the products in the making can only be longer planned products, that have no fixed release time yet.
And in fact, I can belive that some companies do the development already, so their product is nearly finished when the Win10 stuff goes live.
@ dft277 - I actually deal with them on a daily basis but it’s the same set of Microsoft people that I have known. Never anything like the phone calls above.
I have had cases where MS has hired a 3rd party design firm to handle Usability studies. The call was FOR Microsoft, FROM Microsoft, but not BY Microsoft. I did have at least one experience very similar to the one described. Several screening calls and then either a pass or fail to get into the study. It was standard procedure.
I miss the good ole days when Microsoft would actually reward you for participating in their longer surveys. For several years, I got my VS upgrades that way. Now you’re lucky if they offer you an Xbox game (which is useless to me…). I still do them anytime they ask because I believe it benefits me in the end. But it doesn’t seem like it would be much for them to throw in a useful software license if it takes more than 15 minutes of ones time.
How do you think we get launch hardware and apps that are available when a new operating system is out? There are LOTS of companies developing software and hardware and drivers on pre-release Windows 10. It takes much more than a week or so to design, develop, and manufacture a laptop or phone.
We manage a number of them closely, but there are many others who are going it on their own.
Of course, they don’t release the product with pre-release Windows, they just have it ready for launch.
It’s similar in IoT. Our primary commercial audience for Windows 10 IoT Core right now is actually device OEMs.
