"You'll Get Used to It"

Microsoft's response to complaints about its tablet OS:

The company's answer to this kind of criticism can be found in a post from Jensen Harris, director of program management and formerly a key member of the Office 2007 Ribbon UI team - a project that also ran into user opposition.

Harris describes how every new version of Windows has had vocal opponents, but that users are won over in time. "Although some people had critical reactions and demanded changes to the user interface, Windows 7 quickly became the most-used OS in the world," he says. Clearly Microsoft believes that history will repeat; though Harris conveniently forgets the warm reception Windows 7 won even in preview.

On the other hand, in the world of cellular phones where consumers have had a choice between a clumsy Microsoft interface and a competitor's superior product, the competitors dominate. I wonder if Google is confusing its power as a monopoly ("We design what we want and our customers eventually get used to it") with a viable business model for markets in which they're presently an also-ran.