Microsoft's 2014 Build Conference : Nothing Surprising and Totally Boring

Today is April 2, 2014; I was waiting from a long time for this day to come. The reason was the start of Microsoft's Build 2014 event started today at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Finally Microsoft will unveil Windows Phone 8.1. I was so excited to see what they are gonna offer new in the world of mobile ecosystems. The main reason was that since I bought Lumia 720, I was attracted to Windows Phone platform; I liked its smooth and innovative live tiles interface. In the world continuously filled with chaos of Apple Vs Android, Windows Phone seemed a peaceful alternative. Rather than going with their clumsy Windows Mobile OS, Microsoft VP Terry Myerson decided they needed a new OS built from scratch to battle Android and iOS.

Windows Phone is an amazing operating system, it offers some really nice features like Data Sense, Live Tiles and a much better and easier to use interface. I was so much involved in this ecosystem , that I used to browse the WPCentral app multiple times in a day to quench my thirst of recent developments. But now, as its been 7 months and the early fever has started to cool off. Moreover, the Windows Phone 8.1 did not surprised as much as I had expected. There were no groundbreaking new innovations, just few tinkering and new features announced to offset demand for similar features in other platforms. The main features released today were Action Center and Cortana both of which are in response to other similar features in iOS and Android. While Apple released Siri in October 2011 and Android released Google Now in July 2012; Microsoft launched Cortana today around 30 months after Apple. This shows that Microsoft is not launching any innovative feature, but just following the lead of Apple. The other groundbreaking feature as mentioned by Microsoft was Action Center, which is nothing but just a modified version of Notification Center and Control Center Combined.

Actually I felt the conference, so boring that I was working really hard to keep my self awake while trying to listen to Joe Belfiore. Completely useless and boring. I still remember how amazed I was to see Scott Forstall's demo of Siri on iOS6. It seemed like a breakthrough. I realized that Apple not just posses the skill to think and develop innovative products and services, but they also have the coolest presentation skills I have ever seen from a company. Everything is in sync, rehearsed and perfect; when they first launched Siri, it worked flawlessly on stage, while Cortana got stuck multiple times. I don't know how it will perform in real time.

Now, I am believe I understand what Steve Jobs meant when he said, "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products".