Cheap Solid State Computers Could Kill Microsoft

Eh-Wire writes "This is an interesting point made by a Clayton Hallmark on IndyMedia out of Argentina. He predicts that cheap Asian computing appliances with an Open Source Operating System on a chip will be the ultimate MS killer. References to the US$220 Mobilis out of India suggest the begining of newer, more powerful, and cheaper things to come. Mr. Hallmark also points to the success of the Wal-Mart cheap PC as proof the end is near for proprietory software. Overall an in interesting and thought provoking read."

Comments

Article Misses Point, Death by Thousand Cuts

[putko]

The author misses the point a bit. MicroSoft is getting into the embedded devices, as much as they can. Just check out this. MicroSoft can and is responding to the threat of cheap appliance hardware, by making sure their stuff winds up on those boxes. I'm horrified that so many phones/PDAs are running windows.

Microsoft made the jump from the 8-bit processors (don't even remember their numbers) to 64-bit processors. If they can move into embedded/Risc stuff, we're stuck with them for the next few decades.

That being said, the big threat to MicroSoft is from stuff like this and this -- these are threats that attack microsoft's franchise, but the only way they can compete is to play by the rules of the other guys: start giving away cheap computers that run Windows (and "just work" -- yeah, right, Billy! Hahahaha!), or start giving away web services that undercut their income-generating software. They have very low odds in these contests, considering that it does not fit with their "play to their strength" strategy to date (obligatory Borg reference).