Isn't this just a continuation of Microsoft's recent-years strategy of waiting until other peoples' innovations created a market, and then trying to drop their entry into it? Zune, Xbox, Windows Phone, Windows Tablet, etc.. hell, didn't Ballmer explicitly state that was his strategy?
Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
41–50 of 99 posts
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#42I don't know guys, I just picked up dell venue 8 pro. this thing is nice. the whole Metro things works really well and it is fast and smooth. The quality of games/apps I am seeing is already better than my kid's Nexus 7 (long way from ipad tho). If they market this thing right, I can see it(windows tablets in general) gain some hold in pure tablet world.
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#43Microsoft isn't nuts. They simply missed mobile. Microsoft almost missed the Internet, and retained some of their dominance only after decisive top-down action and investment. By the time Microsoft understood what was happening in mobile, it was too late. The fiasco was compounded by Ballmer's indecisive reaction, but it was already set in motion. Anything Microsoft does with mobile, perhaps short of something that l…
> Microsoft isn't nuts. Yep. Their spectacular mediocrity is only now being revealed, that's all. Look, they've been great simply by virtue of being in the right place at the right time. There was an incredibly TREMENDOUS hidden demand for a PC and an operating system for it, and MS happened to be there at the time. A half-blind monkey in the same place at the same time would have made a truckload of money too. It wa…
> It was impossible to avoid being dragged up to (at least financial) greatness by that gigantic wave of history - if you happened to hang around in the right neighborhood at the time
Not impossible, as Gary Kildall demonstrated.
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#44Luckily Windows 8.1 is just barely capable enough for me to run virtualbox with an ubuntu image.
How people can get by using Windows 8.1 as their main OS (beyond using it merely as a shell to launch virtual machines) is beyond me. Microsoft deserves to lose big time in the marketplace for their half-assed attempt to glue a phone interface onto desktop PCs.
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#45Microsoft isn't nuts. They simply missed mobile. Microsoft almost missed the Internet, and retained some of their dominance only after decisive top-down action and investment. By the time Microsoft understood what was happening in mobile, it was too late. The fiasco was compounded by Ballmer's indecisive reaction, but it was already set in motion. Anything Microsoft does with mobile, perhaps short of something that l…
> Microsoft isn't nuts. Yep. Their spectacular mediocrity is only now being revealed, that's all. Look, they've been great simply by virtue of being in the right place at the right time. There was an incredibly TREMENDOUS hidden demand for a PC and an operating system for it, and MS happened to be there at the time. A half-blind monkey in the same place at the same time would have made a truckload of money too. It wa…
"A half-blind monkey in the same place at the same time would have made a truckload of money too."
I guess that makes Gary Kildall a completely-blind monkey.
Edit: HA! tzs, I guess great minds think alike! :)
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft / nokia are still likely to exceed iOS phone market share globally within two years as they are growing much faster. Nokia has been growing the market at the low end where there is no iOS and where android is a poor experience (and Windows Phone surprisingly is quite good). The US market is locked into high end phones due to the carrier subsidy model, but in the rest of the world the story is very different…
Nokia has done a great job of building marketshare on the back of extremely-low-margin phones like the 52x series, but I would hesitate to declare it a victory for Microsoft/Nokia just yet, it might just be a dead-cat bounce.
Not to mention that "market" share will be much lower on those low-end phones, as surely the kind of people buying them are not splashing out tons of cash on the appstore. That's what Apple has always gotten right - looked at things in terms of margin and value of the customer, rather than just shipping the most widgets.
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Surface Pro is an excellent device for enterprise, much better than the iPad. Problem with Microsoft is always their marketing and branding. They're making a huge push for consumers when they should instead be doing enterprise and education.
The problem with Surface Pro isn't just marketing and branding. It's a poor point in the design space. It's as expensive as an ultrabook, but makes major compromises in screen size and keyboard quality in order to be able to pinch-hit as a tablet. Enterprise and education aren't the kind of forward-looking places where you want to be pushing a novel form-factor. What Microsoft should have done was release a single Su…
I used to agree with you until I talked to people who own a Surface. IMHO Surface Pro's point in the design space is, in order, (1) a powerful Win8 tablet for most corporate work, (2) a good computer when docked to a big screen and keyboard, and (3) a small laptop when you need it (11" Air). That's actually a pretty good idea. I won't buy a Surface because (3) is the most important thing for me, so I require a 13"-14" laptop. Most HNers don't need (1) because they aren't in a MS IT environment. But for the bulk of non-tech Fortune 500 employees a Surface is pretty good, though expensive.
The same goes for Win Phone. They could be the new Blackberry if they stop chasing consumers. They will always be behind on apps, but they can succeed by having corporate apps deeply integrated with MS IT infrastructure. Neither iOS nor Android can do that.
Finally, MS is not known for getting things right in the first few releases. They ship crap and iterate towards adequate.
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you are underestimating the quality of Windows Phone devices. We'll see what I happens, but I wouldn't write Microsoft off the mobile market yet. Edit: market share is around 10% in five European countries according to this: http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/news-articles/Ap...
While WM7 may be quite fine (I heard this multiple times from real users), it would take long time and much effort to acquire enough mindshare. What WM devices lack is a killer feature . They are just another fine smartphone line, unfortunately incompatible with software for market leaders, Android and iOS. With this regard, Jolla looks about as good, and it runs Android apps, too.
>>>> What WM devices lack is a killer feature. They are just another fine smartphone line.
This is pretty much the case for any smartphone. A "killer feature" for me is something other than taking pictures and video, running apps, making calls and texting. I have yet to find a phone that has something besides these 5 basic features.
Microsoft has always been dominant in the enterprise market so the retail game is not where they're going to win and they know it. It looks like they're going to go after the more lucrative enterprise market:
"The new feature pack includes VPN functionality that will automatically trigger when protected resources are accessed, Microsoft said, plus S/MIME to sign and encrypt email and EAP-TLS enterprise Wi-Fi support. The pack will be released in the first half of 2014, Microsoft said in a blog post on Wednesday."
source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2044035/microsofts-enterprise...
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#49Microsoft should split up the company into smaller ones. This is something that should have happened with the anti-trust case a decade ago, but unfortunately it didn't happen. I said to myself at the time, it would have been the best thing for the software industry if we saw Microsoft split up into an OS company and an applications company. Now, I think they should split off Windows, Applications, X-box, and Mobile.…
XBox always ran Windows. Even the original XBox was running on a modified Windows 2000 base and kernel.
Re: Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?
#50If Nokia's going to continue to exist they need to sell phones. Windows phones aren't selling. An Android one might. They have to take the shot. Giving away Windows Phone/RT might encourage other hardware vendors to try it. Maybe they won't. But they definitely won't if Microsoft tries to charge them for it. Again, worth the shot when they have nothing to lose. It might be crazy if Windows Phone/RT were runaway succe…
> Microsoft nonetheless has to be happy that Nokia has blown past Motorola to become America’s No. 4 smartphone vendor. According to new data from Counterpoint Research, Nokia’s share of the American smartphone market has surged from a mere 1.4% in the second quarter of 2013 to 4.1% in the third quarter.