Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#21

Post by tar » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:23 PM UTC

astrodust wrote: post #15

Zirro wrote: post #10

Finally. One of the major reasons I use Apple-products today is that the hardware and software works together out of the box, which creates the feeling that they were made for each other. With clunky PCs, I've never experienced that feeling. Hopefully Microsoft can get it right this time, and make it feel like a quality product. While I enjoy using my Apple devices a lot, they do need some competition to fuel innovat…

This would burn so many bridges with their hardware manufacturers that some would defect and go with some other platform almost immediately. Microsoft thinks they're the king of the hill with Windows but it wouldn't take long for vendors to team up together and make Chrome OS, Android, or some other Linux variant into a viable alternative. All this alternate OS would have to do is everything that Windows XP does. The…

I know this is not really plausible but I wish this would make some manufacturers switch to Ubuntu or some other Linux distro.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#22

Post by mtgx » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:35 PM UTC

kloc wrote: post #12

Designed by Microsoft and made by Nokia? This could be the very reason Nokia opted for Windows phone than choosing Android.

I think it's the other way around. MS partnered with Nokia, and then decided Nokia could do a tablet for them, too.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#23

Post by mtgx » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:36 PM UTC

Zirro wrote: post #10

Finally. One of the major reasons I use Apple-products today is that the hardware and software works together out of the box, which creates the feeling that they were made for each other. With clunky PCs, I've never experienced that feeling. Hopefully Microsoft can get it right this time, and make it feel like a quality product. While I enjoy using my Apple devices a lot, they do need some competition to fuel innovat…

And if successful, they could wipe out all of their hardware partners. I doubt Windows 8 is going to be very successful, though. Most people will not see "Metro" as "Windows", and in the tablet space they will have to start from scratch, like everyone else.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#24

Post by wmf » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:41 PM UTC

They could call it the Zune tablet.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#25

Post by grecy » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:43 PM UTC

If this is true, is sounds a lot like Microsoft's foray into the portable digital music player market.... It reeks of trying to play catchup, but not quite ever getting there.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#26

Post by mc32 » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:47 PM UTC

greyman wrote: post #16

I am looking forward to this. Currently, I am using my wife's iPad now and then, and while the display and smoothness of interaction is top notch, I can't say I like the operating system... iOS isn't bad as an application launcher, but I find it too restricting for a tablet. I can't do basic things like configure something like startup script for an app, forward the output of one program to another one, etc. etc... W…

I'll have to wait and see.

I'm wishing against hope that they'll bring to life some of the features in the Courier concept: Infinite journal, clip and paste, touch+stylus (stylus for writing ideographs --which are cumbersome by finger).

Dual screen? Maybe as an alternate model. One of the main ideas is that it would not just be a presentation medium but also a production medium.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#27

Post by Roboprog » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:48 PM UTC

dman wrote: post #6

gfosco wrote: post #3

Unless they have a screen that can rival the Retina, this is dead on arrival.

What if its for 50 bucks and subsidized via ads? Or if it allows you to play Xbox games remotely over the internet? Or if it has great handwriting recognition? Or if you can program on it using any language you want?

That's probably not far from the approach they will take. And it will be a cluttered clusterbomb of a mongrel, nowhere near as useful as a Kindle or a Nook (or an iPad).

But I'm only basing that on about 27 years of using MS's products. (whether I want to or not)

The sad thing is, it will be cheaper than an iPad, and it will have a long list of features, and it will be pitched to VIPs in various organizations, as well as poorer customers, who aren't sure what they want to do, but see the list of things and the price.

It will suck, and it will eat up many times its cost difference in lost productivity, but it will probably get the biggest market share. Sob.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#28

Post by brudgers » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:49 PM UTC

Microsoft has been looking at making a tablet since the Courier which was previewed in the run up to Apple's release of the iPad. What their ultimate strategy is remains to be seen but my guess is that if they are branding and distributing the hardware it's as a result of lackluster interest among consumer electronics companies in manufacturing such a device.

Such disinterest, if it is the case, isn't particularly surprising given the consumer market's acceptance of Android driven tablets, and it may be reasonable to see Microsoft choosing to take on the hardware side for the sake of conducting research (ala' KIN).

Alternatively, a Windows 8 tablet under the XBox brand makes a lot of sense given the success of that franchise and the level of acceptance that console competitors have achieved with portable gaming devices...e.g. Gameboy and PSP. A gaming focused marketing strategy has a lot going for it - "Mom, I can even do my homework on it because it comes with Word" and integration with XBox Live is already part of the Windows Phone 7 Gaming Hub.

I suspect that a gaming focused device would match up pretty well against the iPad (and Android) because XNA offers a way of facilitating cross platform development. On a larger front, integration of a tablet with Kinnect would offer the potential for some really interesting applications out in the workplace.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#29

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:52 PM UTC

raganwald wrote: post #18

This feels like PowerPoint-driven strategy. All of the executives in Microsoft are like circling vultures, fighting with each other over the flesh of the Windows cash flow stream, trying to get their organizations funded. You’d think they could just leave and found their own companies, but no, they’d have to make something people wanted relatively immediately, instead of being able to mouth platitudes about being “st…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#30

Post by novalis » Fri, Jun 15, 2012, 8:58 PM UTC

Zirro wrote: post #10

Finally. One of the major reasons I use Apple-products today is that the hardware and software works together out of the box, which creates the feeling that they were made for each other. With clunky PCs, I've never experienced that feeling. Hopefully Microsoft can get it right this time, and make it feel like a quality product. While I enjoy using my Apple devices a lot, they do need some competition to fuel innovat…

Funny how I always had that "it just works" feeling from the machines I build and never got the same feel from any brand available. This feeling is also helped by being able to choose the hardware at the time of build and not some middle of the road to high end options given by a manufacturer that simply overprices said "options" and makes wild claims about it. Plus, I always find it a joy to know the machine down to the bolt and not having to fall back on weird care guarantees. With the exception of servers that have to be serviced by a third party because of scale and time economy, this simply works for me. I don't see how microsoft can one up that, but hey, you never know. Hope it at least allows for some people to try it.