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Microsoft and Ballmer not getting the iPad

arstechnica.com

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Re: Microsoft and Ballmer not getting the iPad

#3
The best thing Microsoft could do at this point is put together a Metro style touch-centric UI that is the default for Windows tablets. Give developers a quick & dirty way to port their existing applications to a touch-centric UI. It wouldn't be the most elegant solution but it would be closer to what people seem to want in a tablet.

Re: Microsoft and Ballmer not getting the iPad

#4
post #3

The best thing Microsoft could do at this point is put together a Metro style touch-centric UI that is the default for Windows tablets. Give developers a quick & dirty way to port their existing applications to a touch-centric UI. It wouldn't be the most elegant solution but it would be closer to what people seem to want in a tablet.

Put an app store on and require it. Don't approve apps that don't roughly fit touch guidelines and "feel good": be strict, perhaps capriciously, making examples of some — or, rather, letting them make examples of themselves through their public complaining. This will scare developers into making their apps seem as non-desktop-Windowsish as possible in hopes of being approved.

Out Apple Apple.

Re: Microsoft and Ballmer not getting the iPad

#5
post #3

The best thing Microsoft could do at this point is put together a Metro style touch-centric UI that is the default for Windows tablets. Give developers a quick & dirty way to port their existing applications to a touch-centric UI. It wouldn't be the most elegant solution but it would be closer to what people seem to want in a tablet.

Personally, I hope it looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIPjJElVx0U

One can dream, right?

Re: Microsoft and Ballmer not getting the iPad

#7
post #3

The best thing Microsoft could do at this point is put together a Metro style touch-centric UI that is the default for Windows tablets. Give developers a quick & dirty way to port their existing applications to a touch-centric UI. It wouldn't be the most elegant solution but it would be closer to what people seem to want in a tablet.

The best thing Microsoft could do is to innovate and do something no one's done. Everything they've done of late is in markets where someone has already done very well in, and they've done such a half-assed job of it that it's a guaranteed fail. Think what you want of Apple, but their products have been things largely not done before. Microsoft is copying the wrong half -- the product ideas themselves -- they should be copying the act of innovating.

Re: Microsoft and Ballmer not getting the iPad

#8
post #2

Microsoft should bring life back to the Courier. I'd buy that.

I bet they would, but most likely a tiny feature from it a bit at a time. I'll say they canceled it not because they didn't like it, but because it would take too long to finish. They felt Apple would have too much head start if they didn't produce _anything_ in the mean time. This rush is pretty much confirmed by their actions and this interview.
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