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Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

nytimes.com

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Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#31

Post by brudgers »

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…

Because Gates managed to more or less bootstrap Microsoft, he and Ballmer have maintained a significant degree of control. This allows them to orient the company toward the long term, rather than chasing this quarter's advice from Wall Street analysts.

Microsoft has always approached relationships with a B2B strategy - the mea culpa following the red ring of death shows the way in which that culture extends into the consumer side of the equation. Management's job is to make sure that there are dividends going to all those pension funds which own their stock, not to entertain bloggers.

If Microsoft is actually releasing their own tablet hardware as a long term strategy for extending an existing franchise (such as Xbox), it's probably because their is little interest in Windows Tablets from existing hardware manufacturers. Releasing their own hardware also brings the Windows RT restrictions regarding BIOS into a sensible light - not that dearth of consumer interest in Linux tablets made all the whining sensible.

I suspect that Microsoft has looked at the existing tablet landscape and sized it up pretty accurately as people want eReaders and iPads, and believe that the best way to expand the market is to get telemetry on how tablets are actually used.

Unlike your local paving company, Microsoft is gambling their own money, not driving up profits by looking for change orders.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#32

Post by Someone »

mtgx wrote: post #23
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.

If all they do is wipe out all their partners' tablet business, I would not call it a success. How much money would that make them?

I would call it a success if they carved out a new, larger (in dollars) market elsewhere, ideally, but not necessarily, without standing on the toes of their hardware partners.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#33

Post by Splines »

davidacoder wrote: post #14

I bet this is the mysterious project Dave Cutler has been working on lately! http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-confirms-dave-...

Speaking of Cutler, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend the book "Show Stopper!", which describes the early days of Windows NT.

http://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Micr...

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#34

Post by wittjeff »

brudgers wrote: post #31
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…

Because Gates managed to more or less bootstrap Microsoft, he and Ballmer have maintained a significant degree of control. This allows them to orient the company toward the long term, rather than chasing this quarter's advice from Wall Street analysts. Microsoft has always approached relationships with a B2B strategy - the mea culpa following the red ring of death shows the way in which that culture extends into the…

> If Microsoft is actually releasing their own tablet hardware as a long term strategy for extending an existing franchise (such as Xbox), it's probably because their is little interest in Windows Tablets from existing hardware manufacturers.

Current Windows tablet makers may infer that investing money on Windows 8 tablets is as likely to pay off as the last round. The story there is similar to the iPod natural monopoly -- no one made any money on any of those cheaper-but-not-cheap-enough hard-drive-based portable music players. What is needed is an optimal hardware+software combo, plus a different business model. Following Amazon's lead, it might make sense to sell a Win8 tablet at cost and make the profit on cloud-based subscription services.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#35

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

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…

Not to mention cancelling the Courier research, for what looked like a very interesting device.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#36

Post by brudgers »

wittjeff wrote: post #34
brudgers wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Gates managed to more or less bootstrap Microsoft, he and Ballmer have maintained a significant degree of control. This allows them to orient the company toward the long term, rather than chasing this quarter's advice from Wall Street analysts. Microsoft has always approached relationships with a B2B strategy - the mea culpa following the red ring of death shows the way in which that culture extends into the…

> If Microsoft is actually releasing their own tablet hardware as a long term strategy for extending an existing franchise (such as Xbox), it's probably because their is little interest in Windows Tablets from existing hardware manufacturers. Current Windows tablet makers may infer that investing money on Windows 8 tablets is as likely to pay off as the last round. The story there is similar to the iPod natural monop…

Who is in a position to follow Amazon's lead? The list of hardware manufacturer's is pretty short: Sony. Given the existence of a Games Hub focused on Xbox Live, even that seems somewhat problematic.

The second thing I see is that the idea of a media consumption device is somewhat antithetical to Microsoft's culture of treating computing devices as computing devices. Going to the roots of the Courier concept, it was about productivity not entertainment and Microsoft traditionally pushed productivity applications down onto mobile devices as a matter of course - I wouldn't be surprised to see Office on any tablet they provide.

Finally, one of the Metro red threads is that devices are occasionally connected, not permanently connected to the cloud like Chromium.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#38

Post by wonderzombie »

novalis wrote: post #30
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…

I'm glad it works for you, as I remember back when I felt that way, but at this point I am done with building my own machines.

As a counterpoint, I'm always wondering which part on my self-built machine is going to fail or is failing, and whether I can do anything about it aside from junk the part in question. (I imagine the weird care guarantees for individual parts are weirder still than such as a 1 yr mfg warranty.)

Meanwhile, as a concrete example, neither of the Win7 machines I've built will sleep properly, and troubleshooting PC hardware issues is near the bottom on the list of ways I want to spend my free time.

I sort of miss having the time do to do that stuff. I have respect for those people that enjoy it. But it's so not for me anymore.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#39

Post by gfosco »

cryptoz wrote: post #20
gfosco wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dominating feature of a tablet is the screen. It's the largest component of the design, and has the most impact on the experience. If there was a single point of failure, that's the one to bet on. Android, likewise, has not been able to compete in the tablet market... even less so after the Retina iPad. Apple has, unfortunately, set a very high mark for competition. I had just purchased an Asus eeePad Transformer…

> The dominating feature of a tablet is the screen. It's the largest component of the design, and has the most impact on the experience. If there was a single point of failure, that's the one to bet on. I disagree with all my heart, soul, brain and everything in the universe. The dominating feature of a tablet is the software. > Android, likewise, has not been able to compete in the tablet market.. [citation needed].…

When your phone has 1280x720 native resolution, it's a little hard to accept the same resolution on a tablet.

Re: Microsoft Expected to Introduce Tablet

#40

Post by astrodust »

axefrog wrote: post #19
astrodust wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Disagree. The hardware manufacturers aren't exactly rolling in high quality operating systems to choose from. What are their other choices? Linux. Many will of course argue that Linux is great and is an obvious choice, which would be a fair enough argument, but for the larger majority of the population who know Windows and don't want to learn something new, the manufacturers will need to stick with Windows or risk al…

Microsoft's strength in the tablet space is anything but assured. People don't use proprietary Windows applications on them. They're not expecting to run high-end accounting packages or SQL Server or do .NET development.

It's not even clear what Microsoft's value proposition is in this new space.

If you look at applications on the iPad and Android, only a small portion of them are what you might term conventional by desktop standards.

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