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Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

qz.com

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Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#11

Post by brudgers »

If Microsoft is netting $200 per unit, this represents only $400,000,000 of some net revenue projection (assuming the report is correct). Yes, it's more than a rounding error. But it's not going to have much impact on the bottom line.

Deathspiral?

Microsoft isn't betting the farm on becoming a hardware company.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#13

Post by freehunter »

colkassad wrote: post #2

So I was in Best Buy the other day and asked a Microsoft rep who was there touting Windows 8 where the Surface tablets were. He said they only sell them online and through their store. Why is that? Perhaps they would sell more Surface tablets if they had them visible in a Best Buy where a good portion of middle America demos new electronics? On another note, why is the Nokia Lumia 920 an AT&T exclusive? If they want…

Perhaps they're trying not to compete with their OEM partners, but rather trying to set a benchmark to help their OEM partners compete with Apple.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#14

Post by Cookingboy »

Sumaso wrote: post #10

"As a result, pundits are already declaring this the beginning of (or an important milestone in) Microsoft’s death spiral." Really? So much of their business is relying on the Surface RT that it will spell doom for the entire company? Highly unlikely.

It's not that their other businesses are failing, but pundits are calling this the nail in the coffin in Microsoft's effort of breaking into the mobile market, and in a bigger picture, transitioning some of their aging business/product line to cope with the new consumer market. If you put it that way, then it does seem like a slow and long decline is what awaits Microsoft in the future.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#15

Post by glesica »

noinput wrote: post #12

Semi-unrelated, but I really enjoyed the mobile optimized version of quartz. Intuitive nav header based on scroll gesture & pull to refresh and get a new article were a nice touch.

I found the desktop version of the site nearly unusable. While I was waiting for the Javascript mess to render the actual content I hit the scroll wheel, the screen flickered a bunch of times, and I ended up one a completely random article somehow. Horrible.

Edit: Scrolling up at the "top" of the page should do nothing, not go to some other page.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#18

Post by pekk »

Tichy wrote: post #5
wildranter wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coincidentally both strategies were implemented by Apple, or sort of. Anyway, seems like Redmond's photocopiers have been running like crazy lately.

So many companies just do cargo culting when they imitate Apple without understanding :-(

When Apple makes a white and slightly rounded version of something that others made years ago, it actually turns out that they are inventing it for the first time.

It doesn't exist until Apple makes it.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#20

Post by TylerE »

pekk wrote: post #18
Tichy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many companies just do cargo culting when they imitate Apple without understanding :-(

When Apple makes a white and slightly rounded version of something that others made years ago, it actually turns out that they are inventing it for the first time. It doesn't exist until Apple makes it.

It isn't about rounded corners.

It's about polished implementations that don't suck running on solid hardware.

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