

Microsoft has only demoed Windows 8 tablets in landscape mode thus far, which lead to speculation that landscape is all it would support. It also led to a large amount of skepticism about the operating system and its viability on tablets. But this week on the official Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft developers confirmed that Windows 8 will support both modes and that Metro developers will have the tools to create apps that can work in either layout.
Although it will support portrait views, Microsoft is still heavily emphasizing landscape views. In a blog post last month, RedMonk co-founder and analyst James Governor described Windows 8 as the first OS for the widescreen Web. Governor wrote:
A while ago the growing prevalence of wide screen monitors set me thinking about information representation and user engagement a while ago: these screens lend themselves to context-adding sidebars, and intriguing context juxtapositions. Thus for example, SAP’s activity stream platform Streamworks never made sense to me until I saw it demoed as a sidebar to a traditional SAP business application screen; where structured data, manipulation and entry met unstructured conversations and semi-structured business docs. In other words- what is Twitter if not a sidebar?
Microsoft has a lot riding on Windows 8. Apple dominates the slate-style tablet arena and is slowly eating away at Microsoft’s dominance on the desktop. Still, Windows will likely be the dominant platform for quite some time. So the user interface guidelines Microsoft establishes have big consequences, both for Microsoft’s future and for developers, who will be stuck building apps for Windows for years to come. A landscape-only approach, while innovative, may have been too radical. This seems like a good compromise.
Support our open free content by sharing and engaging with our content and community.
Where Technology Leaders Connect, Share Intelligence & Create Opportunities
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation serving innovative audiences and brands, bringing together cutting-edge technology, influential content, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — such as those established in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology, and AI. .
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a powerful ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands, with a reach of 15+ million elite tech professionals. The company’s new, proprietary theCUBE AI Video cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.