Former Microsoft Windows Chief Praises Apple's MacBook Neo, Laments Unfulfilled Vision from Back Then

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（Source: IT Home）

IT Home March 12 News, former head of Microsoft Windows division (2009–2012) Steven Sinofsky shared his thoughts on Apple’s new MacBook Neo, calling it “a computer with paradigm-shifting significance,” and also expressed regret that his original vision for Surface and Windows 8 did not come to fruition.

According to IT Home, Sinofsky was a core designer of the first-generation Surface RT and Windows 8 system. Windows RT was Microsoft’s first attempt to run Windows on ARM-based SoCs, but it ultimately failed miserably. The former executive said that the new MacBook Neo made him feel nostalgic—his vision for Windows and Surface ultimately did not materialize.

He began his post by praising the MacBook Neo: “I was completely blown away. This is a computer with paradigm-shifting significance… All the so-called ‘compromises’ in my view are entirely acceptable, even barely noticeable.” He shared his experience using the MacBook Neo and gave it high praise: “Neo doesn’t need to be better; it just needs to stay excellent… In five years, Neo will be more powerful than most devices today, and it will likely still sell for only $699. Moore’s Law has never failed.”

“To me, Neo is a replacement for the MacBook Air, and it looks cooler in color. It’s still a laptop made with ‘phone chips.’ That feels incredibly familiar. That’s why I feel a bit sentimental when I look at it,” Sinofsky said. “There’s a recurring pattern in the tech industry: a product that seems visionary or ‘released too early’ often isn’t much different from a ‘misdirected’ product. Almost all ‘early’ products are too far ahead in multiple dimensions. The concept is right, but the execution is wrong.”

Clearly, Sinofsky was referring to the reaction from media and the mass market when Windows 8 and Surface were first released in 2012. “So over the past decade, whenever I think of Windows 8, I often comfort myself: we were just too ahead of our time, or we made mistakes, or we moved too fast… But today, using Neo and reflecting on Windows 8 and Surface, I have to admit I find it hard to agree with that conclusion anymore.”

Sinofsky stated that Surface RT was essentially the 2012 MacBook Neo—a $599 device with high-end design capable of handling light tasks. “We had all the conditions back then, and everything was feasible. One thing I thought about was computing power. The first-generation ARM-based Surface (NVIDIA Tegra chip) with 2GB RAM and 64GB storage… running Office and browsing the web was completely fine. In other words, the hardware and software weren’t outdated. The environment at the time fully supported this device. It came with a keyboard / 32GB version for $599, and a 64GB version for $699.”

“Our real mistake was not moving the entire ecosystem quickly enough to a safer, more stable, and more power-efficient new application model. Many people resisted this—they wanted the old Windows app model. But we knew that the old mode couldn’t guarantee security, improve energy efficiency, or be reliable; it was designed for another era. From the day we announced ARM architecture, we planned to distance ourselves from the x86 Windows world and take a new route. I know that at Microsoft, any small change actually means a lifelong commitment to compatibility. You can see now that ARM architecture is being regarded as a permanent replacement for x86. That’s how we saw it back then, and I still believe it today: it’s the successor. This isn’t hindsight; it was our strategy at the time.”

Obviously, if led by Sinofsky, Microsoft would have developed ARM-based Windows into the future of Windows, rather than allowing it to coexist long-term with x86 Windows as it does now. Shortly after Windows 8’s release, Sinofsky retired from Microsoft, and his vision was not realized.

“I am writing these feelings today with absolute certainty: if we had persisted and convinced developers to shift to the new application ecosystem back then, within a few years, we could have reached the position Neo is in today… The development path for hardware was very clear at the time. I am confident we would have made foldable laptops, all-in-one desktops, and added cellular connectivity—related code was already written, and we even distributed prototype hardware externally.”

At the end of his post, Sinofsky thanked the Windows 8 team: “To this day, the results they delivered on schedule in one version surpass any other Windows team before or after. We were just ahead of our time, but we didn’t do anything wrong.”