Windows 10 Creator Update available April 11

So the Windows 10 Creators Update is here.  Based on Windows 10 build 15063 - that will eventually be referred to as 1703, MS completed the 2nd of the Redstone branch milestones.   

Mostly likely there will be a cumulative update added to the base 15063 build as was just the case with Mobile that received 15063.2 yesterday.  

The update is scheduled to begin rollout on April 11 to current Anniversary Update production users and will "take several months" to deploy.

So the $64 question for most folks is - should I upgrade ?

Generally the answer is yes.  MS did improve the OneCore component of the OS and continued on it's path of transitioning from the ancient Control Panel to settings along with improving many of the native apps.

If you have a device that supports Touch, Pen input you'll also see nice improvements with improved apps like Sticky Notes and Sketchpad along with Ink capabilities in apps like Maps. 

In some ways I feel that Windows 10 is very Surface oriented.   Sure it runs well on many diverse platforms.  I run it on everything from an 8 year old HP desktop to tablets, laptops and yes even a phone.   But so many of the cool features are really focused towards a Surface - especially a Pro 4, Book or Studio. 

If your a Mobile user - I would say most likely you'll be disappointed.  While early on there were indications that MS was going to focus on Mobile during the Redstone II branch - at the end of the day - that was just not the case.   

In fact in my opinion MS has taken yet another new direction with "Mobile" with their announced partnership with Qualcomm and Windows 10 on ARM program. And that indicates to me that the current portfolio of Windows Mobile devices - from Nokia, Alcatel, Acer, MS, whomever are effectively dead.   Sure MS will support them for the near term - but I expect to see two things here shortly

First is another level of device support trimming for the Redstone III branch.  I expect devices like my Nokia 735 to not move forward from Redstone II - just as my Nokia 635s did not move forward from Redstone 1.

Second - even the devices that do hang on - like maybe the Lumia 950/950XL HP Elite X3, etc - will not see much innovation in Redstone III.  I don't think MS and Qualcomm will spend the effort to try and make Windows 10 on ARM run on those older platforms and it is probably not even technically impossible.

So until we see the "new" mobile platform from MS - Redstone II is probably the end of the line.

Back to PC.  As I've stated in other posts - one of the goals MS had with Windows 10 was to help drive new PC sales via the new features like Hello, updated touch and pen.  

As we all know PC sales have been sliding the past 5 years and have been absolutely dwarfed by Smartphone sales which today are nearly 6 times the market size in terms of units sold.   

And while I think Windows is a good OS - it will not save the industry.  I'm not even sure it will stop the bleeding.  And even with all those cool new features I'm not 100% convinced that folks will ante up the additional $$ / unit to get those features.  

I know that I even have a hard time with it.  When you get used to a price point - let's say $700 for a device - it gets hard to justify a $1K price tag for features you may or may not use.  And when you look at Surface prices - sometimes you just gag.  And that's why they sell mostly to the enthusiast market and are relatively low volume compared to Dell, HP & Lenovo.

As far as the Creators Update rollout is concerned - MS mentioned today that is the release will begin on April 11 and may take several months to get it rolled out to the current Windows 10 Production footprint.  Considering it is several hundred million devices - it kind of makes sense.   

And so now it's on to Redstone III.  My personal belief is that the focus will be oriented towards new devices coming this fall.  We continue to see the transition from legacy UI to the new Settings area and obviously a whole set of revs around the native apps.   We'll have about 7 months to play as Redstone III is targeted for an October or November release.

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