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Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

#21

Post by rednukleus »

timbre wrote: post #20

Has Microsoft ever produced a good version 1? Maybe XBox? I don't know much about games. But for the most part I think what MS is good at is slowly improving a turd until it's really quite nice. DOS, Windows, IE, Office, and Visual Studio were all much worse than their competition initially, but successful by their fourth versions or so. But I don't know if MS has the heart anymore to go through a few rounds of failu…

Most big tech products are like that. The first Android and iOS devices were pretty crap (but showed promise).

Re: Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

#22

Post by btipling »

mittermayr wrote: post #9

to be honest, what fascinates me is that microsoft seems to have invested a lot of work the past few years to bring forward a pretty decent line up of integrated products. if you want windows and office like you had, that's fine. and much of the windows 8 UI disaster was actually made up by the press to have a great story, even that one video with the guy's dad. i was shocked when i saw that. then i installed windows…

I imagine, since you say you love C# are you a .Net programmer? Others have pointed out that .Net programmers are Microsoft's biggest cheerleaders these days and have a conflict of interest in speaking about Microsoft's future since maybe they have staked their career on .NET.

Re: Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

#23

Post by hippee-lee »

rednukleus wrote: post #19
jake_D wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses work on desktops and active directories. WinRT makes no sense on the desktop, and it offers no AD. So MS has nothing to offer here, B2B wise. They made a huge mistake, pretending that desktops and mobile devices are the same beast. And they're gonna pay for it, in sales and market value. At the end of 2013, they should be a even less relevant than today.

> At the end of 2013, they should be a even less relevant than today. At the moment, Microsoft own slightly less than 100% of the enterprise desktop market. At the end of 2013 they will almost certainly own slightly less than 100% of the enterprise desktop market. You live in a bubble.

True. But also at the end of 2013 even more employees will be bringing their own devices - phones and tablets to work so they don't have the enterprise lap top. These devices will run Android and iOS in a roughly 50/50 share of OS distribution.

The enterprise supports the work their employees need to do by giving them the traditional desktop tools - this is Microsofts market and always has been. But more and more those tools are overkill for the job the employee needs to accomplish so they are turning to the tools that work for them in their personal lives.

Re: Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

#26

Post by rbanffy »

brudgers wrote: post #2

If Microsoft was a B2C company, the article would be spot on. They are not, however, Apple. They are primarily B2B. Windows didn't come to dominate the desktop because consumers loved it. It dominates because it provides a value proposition to businesses. Success with consumers is part of that value proposition, and one of the things which gives it an advantage over Linux. RT is a long term strategy. It's not a table…

> Windows didn't come to dominate the desktop because consumers loved it.

PC users did not hate it. Most DOS users were not ready to move to Macs and Windows provided an easy migration path, with 3.1 being, finally, good enough and able to run multiple DOS applications simultaneously.

Re: Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

#27

Post by zanny »

mikecane wrote: post #25

What problem does Windows RT solve? Aside from niche use cases for IT types, nothing I can see. Potential customers seem to agree -- they're not buying it.

It solves the problem of Microsoft not having a tablet. There was a big pie in ipads, they wanted some pie, make a tablet. While they were at it, they could make it one of the most closed platforms ever conceived to try to make that app store money. Because that is where the new revenue is at, after all. That was Microsoft's arguments, at least, I'd imagine.

Re: Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

#28

Post by jfb »

btipling wrote: post #22
mittermayr wrote: post #9

to be honest, what fascinates me is that microsoft seems to have invested a lot of work the past few years to bring forward a pretty decent line up of integrated products. if you want windows and office like you had, that's fine. and much of the windows 8 UI disaster was actually made up by the press to have a great story, even that one video with the guy's dad. i was shocked when i saw that. then i installed windows…

I imagine, since you say you love C# are you a .Net programmer? Others have pointed out that .Net programmers are Microsoft's biggest cheerleaders these days and have a conflict of interest in speaking about Microsoft's future since maybe they have staked their career on .NET.

It's hardly a conflict of interest to cheer for your preferred technology on an Internet bulletin board.

Re: Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA

#30

Post by shoopy »

brudgers wrote: post #5
keithpeter wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" RT is a long term strategy. It's not a tablet OS. It's the phone too, just not yet, fully.It's not targeted at consumers. It's targeted at enterprise. " Comments on the original article point out that Windows RT lacks outlook and active directory integration. Is that the case?

They are shipping an MVP. The first iPhones didn't have an AppStore, or 3G.

The bar for "minimum" has been raised since the iPhone's release.
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