Microsoft’s Windows 8 hasn’t reached the quality of iOS, he says

Jul 8, 2013 13:52 GMT  ·  By

You probably remember Jean-Christophe Lalanne, the CIO of Air France and group CIO of Air France-KLM who said in mid-June that Windows 8 was disappointing, unintuitive, and inferior to iOS.

Well, Lalanne wanted to bash Windows 8 once again using almost the same words, just to explain that Microsoft hasn’t managed to improve its operating system enough to compete with iOS in the tablet market.

He however pointed out that bringing more high-quality Windows 7 apps on Windows 8 should be a priority for both Microsoft and developers, as the Metro UI could offer them a strong advantage in the fight against Apple and iPads.

“We think that for the existing applications that are running on Windows 7, it could be interesting to think about refurbishing them for Windows 8,” he was quoted as saying by Computing.

“It should be easy with the adaptable design mode to use with tablets, but at the same time using the tablets as if they were classical desktops. So the new platform where the screen becomes the tablet [Surface], could be very interesting for us,”he continued.

Lalanne toned down his words a little bit and explained that his company’s staff might after all end up using Windows 8 on tablet at some point. But he didn’t miss the occasion to criticize the operating system once again.

“I think that for the staff - not for the pilots, not for the cabin crew - but for the rest of the users, we should absolutely study the use of Windows 8 tablets.”

“But the difficulty we have today is that we don't consider Windows 8 to be major enough. We think they have not reached the level and quality of iPads.” Lalanne noted.

Microsoft, on the other hand, begs to differ and says with every single occasion that Windows 8 is much better than iOS, pointing to the productivity side of its tablet. Both the Surface RT and the Pro can be equipped with the Office productivity suite and removable covers.