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To Ballmer, Grabbing iPad's Market Is 'Job One Urgency'
Barence writes "Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has vented his frustration at the success of the iPad and said developing a Windows alternative is 'job one urgency.' 'Apple has done an interesting job of putting together a synthesis and putting a product out, and in which they've... they sold certainly more than I'd like them to sell, let me just be clear about that,' Ballmer told analysts. The Microsoft boss said the company plans to deliver a range of tablet formats in the next year, some based on Intel's next-gen Oak Trail processor. 'It is job one urgency around here. Nobody is sleeping at the switch. And so we are working with those partners, not just to deliver something, but to deliver products that people really want to go buy.'" In Microsoft's vision, slates will run a derivative of Windows 7.
Shocking news. Microsoft exec upset by the success of a member of the competition.
This is not the penguin you're looking for.
Microsoft, why don't you just write some QUALITY software for the iPad instead of trying to go head on in competition? That way, the more iPads Apple sells, the more software you sell. It's win-win.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Once again, Microsoft is late to the party and Ballmer's pissed. Hey, Steve, your company has never been a trendsetter! Deal with it.
I'm no Apple fan, but a company that can create markets out of thin air for products everyone else assumed would fail has to be doing something right.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
The last thing Ballmer needs is a rushed, maligned and badly engineered Zunepad initial product release.
Apple's designs set the trend for knock-off electronics for years. How many phones since the iPhone have been made to "look like the iPhone?" How many MP3 players since the iPod? Now the tablet computer. Apple has a lot of weight on its shoulders because there's a giant knock-off industry just waiting to see what they'll do next.
The iPad is old news. Wired reported on the existence of the iPad way back in 1999. Why wasn't Microsoft working on their iPad-competior way back then? More importantly, why are they trying to play catch up now? Should they not be working on the next big thing?
Did you see their crappy looking Windows tablet mock-up? That's pretty much everything right there. Microsoft has no idea how to make a stable, secure, easy-to-use, attractive product. If it runs standard Windows apps it's just a tiny hard to use PC. If it doesn't then you may as well go with the better made iPad with it's huge lead in apps or even an Android based device. Their only hope is to offer a cheap device for people to dumb to know the difference - it works on the PC.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I don't want a "range", developed with "partners". MS has repeated that mistake so often now, expecting different results every time. isn't there a witty saying that defines insanity this way?
Fleur de Sel
...oops. Cancelled.
I'd like to squirt Ballmer a picture of millions of Apple customers not giving a damn about any potential Windows slate device.
They killed the genuinely interesting-looking Courier before it ever got anywhere near production.
Can't think why the vultures are circling over Ballmer, can you?
This seems to be another "Johny come lately" attempt by Microsoft to catch up to Apple and Google. "Innovation" may be a big catchword these days by the large companies, but by making a competing project "job one urgency", it just underscore the fact that Microsoft is just trying to play a me-too game.
I don't mind if Microsoft does well or not, but why do they actively choose not to actually innovate? Do they not understand that the success of search engines, phones, tablets, and everything else that they've been late to the market on is because...well, because they're late to the market.
I simply don't understand why Microsoft doesn't get it. Innovating requires *new* ideas. Otherwise, they might as well be another Chinese second rate copy.
Ballmer needs to get new balls. MS has not recently issued an new product. It's always me too.
Ballmer doesn't know that MS has some really good hardware labs. He should use them to create something original, not another ipod copycat, iphone copycat, ipad copycat.
(perhaps not a hardware version of clippy though)
I own an iPad. It's nice for what it is, a media consumption device.
What amazes me though is the time it's taking for viable alternatives. It wasn't in any way a surprise that Apple launched this. It wasn't a surprise that this would be a new market segment - netbooks had already shown demand for lower cost highly portable computing devices.
I purchased the iPad for a specific function and it does its job well. However, I can see plenty of areas it could be improved. We're still waiting on multi-tasking. It has no camera a gaping hole in what would otherwise be a great device for grandparents to use for web/email and skype). No flash does limit some sites, and Safari is just okay, certainly not a great browser - you have to pay to get a browser that supports tabs!
The email client seems cumbersome, and from a business user perspective, Microsoft could really make a killing from a similar form factor but with outlook. Outlook is, after all, still king in the corporate world.
The competition needs to get in gear before the iPad becomes as entrenched as the iPod.
Microsoft has been asleep at the switch for a long long time.
They chase every new product Apple comes out with, instead of actually innovating and putting a product out there that customers want. Sure, they do quite well in the operating system and Microsoft Office world, but outside that they do very little of any worth. The Xbox is only now profitable, and will probably never recoup the original costs.
Ballmer wants to chase the sexy gadgets that Apple is putting out, but Microsoft's operating system is not sexy.
Granted, there is a serious threat here, Microsoft has almost completely missed he mobile market both with phones and tablets. The irony being that Microsoft has already come out with a tablet operating system that has barely seen adoption, and the mobile OS market will only continue to grow.
So, will Microsoft come out with a tablet that "people will really want to go and buy"? Maybe - if they licence the iPad 2.0
Microsoft has become too bulky for meaningful development. Infighting between departments is crippling the ability for Microsoft to actually innovate. They will be relevant in the OS and Office Space for some time to come, but so far, Ballmer has not carved out that "third" tier of highly profitable business that he promised he would when he took the position.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Bill was into tablets for years
http://www.google.com/images?q=Bill+Gates+tablet
The biggest news here is that the head of the Microsoft empire is, apparently, an incoherent raving loon. RTFA. Wow. Just wow.
Stop copying and innovate.
In Microsoft's vision, slates will run a derivative of Windows 7.
Apple just put out something that is so well integrated and Microsoft decides to start with a derivative? OMG! Calculus MS101 fighting Calculus MS102! Is it normal or am I talking at a tangent here?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
http://pixelatedgeek.com/2009/09/steve-ballmer-as-dk/
I really want someone to make a Donkey Kong rom hack with chairs instead of barrels and Ballmer instead of DK.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
"Job one urgency?" Are we playing madlibs?
Coming up with a serious iPad competitor should be job two ennui, at least.
>they sold certainly more than I'd like them to sell
Not "we'd like to sell more", not "we'd like to supply their software and participate in their success like we did with AppleSoft Basic and Mac Office".
This is competitiveness in its pathological form, where the point isn't to win but instead to make sure others lose.
it's fine with me. Let them buy the stuff. The iphone made way for android phones, hopefully soon we will see lightweight, powerful, [soemwhat] open sourced tablets coming out.
Oh and...sent from my iPhone (go ahead and fire me)
I have never seen a research division that is so awesome and also, at the same time, seemingly at odds with their market strategies which are unimaginative and trivial sounding. I sincerely hope the rumors about Ballmer being on the way out, have some truth to them. At the same time, I also hope that the rumors about Ozzie leaving have no truth to them whatsoever.
Select SigText from Signatures where Len(SigText) > 120 Order By Len(SigText) desc
I think that if Microsoft got a good touch interface version of win 7 things could go very well. There are a lot of individuals that just hate the entire apple software ecosystem and prefer having more control of the computer. If it is good at what windows is already good at, has a decent touch interface, and isn't crazy expensive it should do really well.
^^^This, pretty much. I know a couple of people who buy and use Apple products as if they were any other brand ("I like the interface", "I've had good luck with their products", that sort of thing), but most of the time Apple users are straight up zealots...in their mind if it isn't an Apple product, it's crap.
To be fair, other hobbies have similar "exuberances"...gaming fanboys, car fanboys, etc. Apple fanboys are, to me, a lot like Fox News Republicans*: no matter what evidence or logic you present them with to counter their claims, you're always wrong.
*Note that a Fox News Republican is not the same thing as a Republican.
Living With a Nerd
HP Slate had generated a lots of buzz when he showed it in the beginning of this year. I dont think Windows 7 makes a great sense for the the kind of device iPad is. I think MS just thinks people wants to use the same application that they use on PC on Slate or tablet devices. It may not be the case. .
I think Apple caught MS with its pants down like it is said on this ZDNet blog
MS just handed over a big chuck of their market share to Apple. It started with iPhone, now iPad and next people will think about buying Mac instead of PC. Seriously, MS needs to wake up and do a major make over if it needs to start selling to masses instead of just enterprises.
Microsoft wanted to own this space, made investments. But the price of UMPC was just too high. Seriously, if Microsoft was insistent on a $500 price for a workable tablet 4 years ago, it may have totally shut the door on iPad. Many people waited for the UMPC, but when they came out, and the price was closer to $1000 for a usable configuration, the end was clear. If Microsoft would have borrowed from their XBox playbook, and subsidized every UMPC to grow the market, it may have been a different story.
Are Apple breeding sheep? They've outpaced the PC industry in growth for the last 17 quarters. Hardly just selling to the faithful...
Kinda like
Apple's
New
Technology
This is pretty much it for Steve Ballmer. They are playing a catch-up game with Apple (and others). They have had so many things just fizzle while he's been at the helm. Vista, Zune, Mobile, "Slates". It's obvious he's a business guy and not the forward thinking visionary the company needs. There's been a lot of Wallstreet chatter that Steve Ballmer's time to turn things around is very short.
Translation: "Stop buying iPads until we come out with something, or at least until we can get enough press saying that they're not cool any more."
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I seem to recall a device that Microsoft had announced that acted as a sort of courier between the user and the internet by couriering data back and forth. You could even send courrier electronique ... sorry, what's the English for that? Ah, yes, e-mail. Say you worked for a package company and you had to act as a courier for packages, well then this device might have helped you. But I'll guess we'll never be able to gauge the couriering possibilities of said device.
I just wish I could remember what that hyped device that never saw the light of day was called. I think it was called "The Tablet That Couldn't Slow Down."
Ah, now those were the days when Microsoft's future was a bright and promising vista.
My work here is dung.
So, why hasn't the board ousted Ballmer yet?
as (almost) always.
Or they make the product themselves, like xBox, which might work, but then we are dealing with an operating system that may be tuned for MS corporate needs rather than user needs.
MS is not able to compete at equal price point. A MS tablet will have to run under $300, which will mean much less hardware, or MS not charging $50-$100 for the OS.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
When will people finally realize that Apple doesn't have huge sales thanks to any miraculous quality or innovation, but thanks to sheep-like following and buy-everything-they-make attitude of their fans?
You misspelled "Microsoft". How's you Zune, btw? Did you squirt anything good lately?
You can't take the sky from me...
The last thing Ballmer needs is for Apple to define another market that Microsoft doesn't control.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I know it's become a cliche joke over the years but I find it amusing when a company will casually and regularly throw around the term "innovation" when they rarely are anything approaching innovative. Microsoft has become the poster-child of this movement. When was the last time that Microsoft lead the way into a new market segment? When was the last time that Microsoft truly innovated rather than following someone else's lead? I realize they've watched Apple leap into the tablet market with huge success only to recognize "I want me some of that!" but, seriously, could they have not done it themselves, years ago? They have the money to invest in R they have the brainpower to put together good stuff. But, their corporate culture (which has been discussed, ad naseum, here) absolutely stifles innovation. They have become a corporation that follows rather than leads. They have two markets (desktop OS and office suite software) where they established a lead and are going to be very slow to relinquish their leadership position but, in virtually every other market, they seem intent on watching what others do and follow the successful ones, after the fact.
It really is a shame because I'm sure, if their braintrust was let loose to create without the petty corporate politics getting in the way, they could probably make some really cool shit but, until their corporate culture is slaughtered and replaced with a new one (in other words, Ballmer is replaced...), they seem intent on remaining a me-too company.
Way way too late Ballmer... Hint: for Microsoft to succeed in the new iPad space the wow factor needs to be so much higher to make an impact on the already infatuated crowd. Any investor and board member should just kick him out. Ballmer is not on top of things and will NEVER... I repeat NEVER be on top of things. Even Gates wasn't fully on top of things BUT he was at least in the same ballpark.
This is the problem with MS. They see another company become successful and decide to copy them, and they do it in a rush so it is never as good as the competing product. That's like a standup comic following another comic's routine by doing the same routine. They need to instead do something innovative that meets a yet to be met need.
if you'd stop trying to re-invent the wheel you'd see there's plenty of upcoming windows 7 tablets on their way
such as this splendid exo pc tablet
http://www.exopc.com/en/index.php
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
I don’t see much of a “Microsoft gadget fanboi” market. People buy Microsoft because of a combination of (a) they don’t know better (b) it’s cheaper than Apple (c) it’s easier than the cheaper but less-supported alternatives. They won’t drop $hundreds on a shiny gadget that duplicates the functionality of their existing computers.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Plenty.
How many were usable? Zero. None. Nada. Zilch.
Today only Android's come close, it's almost as good but last time I tried the iPhone still had an edge.
Now if you don't see how that made a difference, well, ...
"Don't worry, we will copy Apple like we always have."
Apple products sell because they are Magical. Quit trying to analyze the magic with your logic.
In fairness, Microsoft has been pushing "slate" and "touchscreen" products for many years, and (with their hardware partners) delivered somewhat similar products that were available long before the iPad was. Windows has been touchscreen enabled for ages, and there were/are plenty of convertible laptop/touchscreen devices with Windows on them. They went by the name "Tablet PC" and we were told since before 2000 that they were the wave of the future.
The problem is, these products were expensive and they sucked. The iPad is only one of those ;-)
What should really be bothering Ballmer about the iPad isn't that they haven't been working on something similar, but that Microsoft has been working on similar things for sooooo long, and yet Apple still did a better job of it with the first product. Some of this can be ascribed to substantial hardware improvements in the interim, which aren't Microsoft's issue. The rest of it can be attributed to Microsoft's perennial problem of trying to make user interfaces too much like the "MS Windows you already know" rather than something new (the same problem with Windows Mobile). Rather than "sleeping at the switch" they've been throwing the switch over and over again, but Nothing Happens. I'd be rather annoyed too.
Now if only they hadn't killed off the one product I was actually looking forward to as a viable alternative to my iPad.
I don't use any proprietary software ... Except the iPad. I really didn't want to buy one. But. I tried one. It fucking rocks.
10h use time on battery. Nothing beats that.
Nice, solid design. No dodgy plastic.
Display quality is amazing. Photos look better than in print.
Touch screen works amazingly well.
$500. Competitors you can't even buy yet are the same price or more expensive. Which brings me to my last point ...
There is no competition at this time. There is nothing you can buy right now that does the same things I can do with this.
Written from my ipad while waiting for a plane at the airport. And let me add that I fucking hate the apple app store / itunes bullshit.
Good grief, when will Microsoft learn that fragmenting your own market is NOT a good thing. How many flavors of windows-based OS do we have floating out there now? Yes, by all means, let's introduce yet ANOTHER crippled variation to piss off and confuse our customers.
Hey Balmer, you want to know Apple's secret? Simple. No, that's it. They keep their product line simple enough that you can grasp it intuitively at a single glance. Basically they have OSX and iOS, and lots of fun, productive, well designed gizmos to run them.
Ballmer seems incapable of directing his company to do anything innovative. It's like he only sees a product category as valid when it's already been defined by someone else.
Apple defined a new category of tablet device with the iPad. Now Ballmer has MS chasing after it madly. But meanwhile, he's killed innovative new products like Courier. Apparently what he wants is to create something that's essentially a clone of whatever Apple's come up with, rather than a genuinely new kind of product.
This has been the Microsoft curse for decades, going back to the creation of Windows as a Macintosh knockoff. Yes, I know Apple didn't invent the GUI concepts used in Macintosh -- but they were the first to successfully make them into a commercial product. And MS wasn't interested until they saw that Apple was doing it.
when Balmer took the helm. Imagine having billions at your disposal, having several chances, and still not being able to come up with a viable business. If the culture at MS could be changed, there are more than enough bright people there to turn their ship around. I wouldn't mind seeing the ship turn around, as long as the execs had to walk the plank.
"r. 'It is job one urgency around here. Nobody is sleeping at the switch. And so we are working with those partners, not just to deliver something, but to deliver products that people really want to go buy.'"
If nobody were sleeping at the switch, MS would have had its answer out before or at the same time as the iPad. The fact that they have to scurry to catch up indicates strongly that they were completely blindsided.
for all it's short comings iOS is less than 1GB in size. i think 4 is around 500MB or so on my iPhone 3GS. Windows 7 is 20GB or so on my desktops and laptops but most of that is drivers. even if MS shrinks it to 4GB, that's still a huge footprint for a 32GB device. i bet a lot of people will be angry buying a Win7 tablet only to find out that 10% of their storage is taken up by the OS.
Apple knows the market for all their products. few years ago there was a story how Ballmer was pissed off that most of the Wall Street analysts at some investment conference he was speaking at had MacBook Pro's. these are the same people that spend 10 hours on a plane to China for investment research. this is why Apple is so fanatical about battery life.
MS had potential with WIndows CE and Pocket PC but they didn't concentrate on usability and let the platform stagnate and their partners cheapen the brand by releasing crappy hardware
The iPad is fantastic for couch surfing. Watching TV, "Who's that actor?", grab the iPad, turn it on, hit the web browser, type the name--instant gratification. I can just see how well this is going to work with Windows 7...turn it on, wait, wait, MSpad wants to download update KB8675390, wait, reboot, wait, wait, dismiss the notification about unused desktop items, let the virus checker load an update, wait wait, wait, dismiss notification about network drives that couldn't be reconnected, wait, start web browser, wait, wait, wait....
Yeah, I really want the overhead of a major OS like Windows on my pad. Tards.
There are already many tablets out there.. a few successes and many failures.
Tablets come between smartphones and laptops. So we have our phones which have the apps and webbrowsing/email/texting/navigation so we dont need a tablet for that. And we have our laptops for working/gaming.
What would I need a tablet for? Games? Have those on my Android phone and my laptop. Reading books? Sorry not sold on holding a heavier tablet for that purpose. If I want to read books electronically I would buy the new cheap kindle that just came out that is easy on the eyes and lasts for a month on its battery.
Apple used their fan following and marketing muscle to convince people they need another device around. They did it right and saturated the market.
If Microsoft thinks this means that everyone wants tablets now and are focusing their time and money on developing one, then they are very misguided.
But that's what Microsoft doesn't want. The thought process hangs up there.
Have you ever had much interaction with two-year-olds?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Yeah, because millions of people lined up to buy the Kin last month because they were such big Microsoft fans. Or the Zune, since you mention it. ... no. Sorry, your statement makes absolutely no sense. No sober person could manage a rational defense of it.
I mean honestly isn't this a little sad? OTOH maybe he is just trying to placate shareholders. MS is ubiquitous in the workplace and I'm sure that represents a fair amount of money. Once you've achieved world domination, what more is there?
I say, let the yuppies play with this little do-dad over the weekend. You know Monday morning they're coming back home to momma.
Seems like the same old story to me: Apple is a music store and Microsoft sells hardware.
As we discussed earlier this week, it's time for Ballmer to move aside and let some new eyes bring some perspective to MS.
Reply to That ||
Urgency is not going to produce a quality product. According to Jobs the iPad was in development before the iPhone, they have been waiting for technology to catch up the the design. They have spent serious time and money on both hardware and software design.
You don't turn around and make a high quality product in 6 months, sure you might already have the core of the OS ready to go, but to develop the UI and the applications and come up with a consistent user experience takes time and effort, lots of it. If MS rushes to release a tablet in 6 months it will not be good. It will not likely even be good enough. Sure the people who want to be different might buy it, much like they bought the zune, but making a quality, easy to use product does not happen overnight.
My professional career has been spent creating high end, end user software with a specialization in user interface design and development. Most developers consider this to be something that gets tacked on at the end but it is not and the iPad (and any competitor to the iPad) is more about the UI than anything else and trust me, the UI matters more to most users than just about anything else.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
This is similar to what Apple did with the GUI when they did the Mac. They saw it required a very different design approach from what most developers were used to with character mode UI's and they adapted to it. They are not afraid to leave what was comfortable and familiar and embrace a new paradigm.
Contrast that approach to things with Microsoft's. They think they can do Windows on Pads and phones and keep everything similar to what they are comfortable with. When someone in Microsoft does try a new way, they don't seem to get very far. It's as if the entropy of the entire corporation drags them down. Until Microsoft is willing to leave Windows where it is and embrace something completely different, they won't be successful in new markets.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Shocking news: Microsoft working on a project very similar to one developed by Apple a few years ago and which will already be several generations ahead of MSFT's poor facsimile by the time it hits the market.
Keyboards, Mice and XBox aside, Microsoft should stay the hell out of the hardware business and focus on shoring up it's core apps as well as bringing those apps online to compete with Google.
Actually... on second thought anything that aids or abets the demise of Microsoft is a good thing... RELEASE THE KINZABLET!
Is it just me, or does Ballmer sound lame, cliched, mealy-mouthed, and unprepared? I've heard more original and substantive comments in post-game locker room interviews of sports figures. Ballmer seems to be trying hard to convince HIMSELF, (never mind his audience), of Microsoft's continued relevance. If this is the best effort he can muster, then he needs to step down, for the good of the company. On the other hand, maybe he should stay. Right now, Ballmer could be the best friend that FOSS has!
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Apple fanboys seem to be more of an invention of the haters than something that actually exists, at least here on /.. The only ones I've seen going on and on about the (lack of) merits of Apple are the haters using fictitious fanboys as a mouthpiece or strawman.
"no matter what evidence or logic you present them with to counter their claims, you're always wrong." Hmm, seems to fit the Haters as well.
"In Microsoft's vision, slates will run a derivative of Windows 7."
and therein lies the problem.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
What a marvelous way to run the company into the ground.
*External Success A*
MUST FOLLOW! MUST FOLLOW! MUST FOLLOW!
*External Success B*
Abandon plan A! MUST FOLLOW! MUST FOLLOW! MUST FOLLOW!
*External Success C*
Abandon plan B! MUST FOLLOW!...
You get the idea.
So Microsoft becomes the a dog with it's nose permanently shoved up other people's asses.
Great!
Microsoft wasn't all that innovative before. But this is points out that the company has come to a dead stop on the innovation front.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Given that I've never seen this attitude expressed anywhere but on slashdot, I'd have to say you're a lying, jealous piece of shit. Really. The vast majority of Apple customers just like stuff that works. They don't want to play with their hardware or replace their OS kernel. Apple has better brand loyalty than others in their markets because they have good integration and a good track record. Good products that work together. Bottom line.
There was a time when Microsoft had a vision for where they were going. They knew what they wanted to accomplish, they wanted to bring computing to the masses and by and large they did. The problem with Microsoft at large and with Ballmer specifically is that they have no vision anymore. Ballmer is a "make stuff cheaper and sell more of it" guy not a visionary. He doesn't know or care about what comes next. That's why they keep following, not leading.
"found a formulae that works" is incorrect.
It should either be "found a formula that works" or "found formulae that work".
Yeah, because millions of people lined up to buy the Kin last month because they were such big Microsoft fans. Or the Zune, since you mention it. ... no. Sorry, your statement makes absolutely no sense. No sober person could manage a rational defense of it.
It's sad that you were born without the ability to understand sarcasm.
You can't take the sky from me...
Windows is so last century... MS should, if they wan't to gain the market, create a new OS for mobile devices. Windows on mobile devices is a freaking joke.
In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.
I've used several Windows "tablets" over the years. Nothing says great product like using the same OS and removing the keyboard and mouse. If you don't think MS is going to do this again, you don't know MS. As a shareholder, it makes me sad. I think they need to stop trying to fight battles they are too ignorant to win.
Isn't it funny how so many people hate on Apple and claim their products suck, meanwhile the companies they profess are so much greater are explicitly chasing Apple's tail and aping its products?
I'm all for cheap knock-offs, and agree they can even be an improvement over the market leader. But the flagrant animosity for the exact same product just because it has an Apple logo while praising the knockoff? C'mon guys, your bias is a little too obvious.
Microsoft can't compete. The iPad is a toy that you play with, and enjoy using. You don't buy one to be productive or get stuff done, you buy them cos they're awesome and fun to use. MS will never be able to match that...
Easier said than done. I don't think Microsoft has successfully followed Apples lead in years. The best they have done is making mediocre second place stuff that has only done modestly well. I think Apple found a way to escape the MS Borg tactic of embrace and extend by being innovative with hardware.
I thought there had been several Microsoft tablets in the past. None of them ever sold. Just like there were Windows "smart" phones in the past that didn't generate a whole lot of interest. Microsoft continues to try and continues to fail whenever they go head-to-head against Apple. If Microsoft didn't already enjoy such a huge monopoly with Windows and control so much of the market, the Mac would probably take that from them as well. Actually if Macs were a lot more affordable I think Apple would sell a lot more of them. The last time I bought a laptop I really wanted a Macbook but the price was prohibitive. I bought a decent Windows laptop for less than half what I would spend on an entry-level Macbook. Granted that has been a few years but the price difference hasn't changed. I'm still looking at a Mac Mini but haven't justified it yet.
Maybe innovating would be a better idea.
This is totally insecure, but very convenient.
I'd have to say you're a lying, jealous piece of shit. Really.
So...I'm jealous of people using a product that I myself do not wish to use? Yeah. Because that makes sense.
I appreciate the judgement though, thanks for letting your true colors shine brightly.
Living With a Nerd
Once again MS goes after something simply because they can't stand someone else's success. The idea that they'll throw tons of money at something they'll fail miserably at does warm me up a little.
...might as well make it smell of poo while you're at it.
FTA: "Microsoft's partners would be focusing on delivering devices with detachable keyboards and stylus input."
We already know what Steve Jobs thinks of this:
""It's too slow. If you need a stylus you have already failed."
He notes that Microsoft's version of the Tablet PC had the battery life, weight, and expense of a PC. "But the minute you throw a stylus out, and you have the precision of a finger, you can't use a PC OS. You have to create it from scratch.""
It looks like Microsoft is starting to fall into its own trap: project the impression that anything "different" than Windows is "scary", "different", and of course "incompatible", so they want to trap people with complacency, after all, most people are really scared of learning anything new and different . Now with tablets, its a whole new way of computing. The traditional desktop metaphors don't work. So, when someone buys a tablet, chances are they are not looking for something that is exactly the same as their desktop.
By the time MS has a workable product, Apple would already have locked the market up.
From my observations, Apple product cycle goes something like this.
Part 1 -
*Hype new product as a premium product
*Launch limited amounts to reduce risk
*Sell at a high mark up to early-adopters/fanboys/people-with-top-much-money, to recoup R&D cost
If it does OK
Part 2-
*Aggressively tune manufacturing to bring cost down and increase production volume
*Sell to masses at an affordable price, helped by the hype and word of mouth from early-adopters/fanboys/people-with-too-much-money
To my knowledge, it would appear Apple in the old days failed to do part 2 quick enough, and the Mac got zerged by DOS/Windows.
Well Jobs has learned his lesson.
By the time MS's tablet is ready, part 2 would already have long passed.
Not to mention MS's old standby tactics of price undercutting and stuff doesn't seem to work very well any more, not against Apple's marketing machine.
For an example, we only have to look to the Zune.
The reason why is that Microsoft has had a taste of vertical integration and they like it. This is what Apple is doing and has perfected so it is no surprise Microsoft thinks they can as well. If Microsoft creates and controls a device, creates and controls a new hardware production, creates and controls the software platform, creates and controls technology specs, and creates and controls the only store users can buy apps then they can make so much more money than just selling software. Using simplified terms, if there is a $1 of profit for iPad, Microsoft only can take a crack at pennies from just selling just their own software apps. If this was MSPad then $1 of profit means Microsoft gets many more chances to take from the $1: $0.05 for licensing libraries, $0.05 for hosting the online store, $0.05 software validation, etc. In this situation Microsoft gets paid while others create.
Simply put Microsoft gets more chances at nickles with MSPad than if they write for the most popular portable pad platform. Its no surprise Ballmer says this is "job one" because it is so lucrative.
Bottom line Microsoft is a software company. Apple is a hardware and software company. This total design paradigm just sets them up to better execute a consumer product that involves a device. Not only because the hardware and software development teams can work together - but they have a whole concept of what they want to accomplish from the beginning. There are clear goals and a unified vision for what they want to achieve from a high level then filled out on down into detail. This is what helps them get the overall execution so right and at the end of the day capability is not much without execution (at least for general consumers).
I don't own an iPad and I don't automatically think any Apple product is the best must have solution to every problem, but you have to respect their abilities as real designers. From the human interface and cultural context for a product, to the look and feel, to how it should work internally - they think about what the best solution they can implement should be - not what have other people done that we want to copy only cheaper. Most of the on-paper functionalities of the iPad already existed before the iPad - but it was the execution and the overall design that made it a winner.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
BWAAAAAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!!!!!!
I've NEVER laughed so hard in my entire life. BALLMER SAID THIS????? You have got to be sh*tting me. This is the man who failed at everything he's ever touched (unless protected by Billy). Retire, Ballmer, your goose is cooked. You've completely lost touch with reality.
Essentially, the iPad is an extension of the iPod, and iPhone, where a market for apps that work across all of them is well established. What Microsoft could do is extend their own hardware platform, perhaps from the Xbox 360 to the Zune, where they take whatever success they have had there, and capture the same consumers with multiple gadgets, much like Apple has done.
Always remember the chickens that have gone before
Microsoft is so fucking pathetic. Everyone at microsoft should burn Balmer's office and kick him out.
Every thing anounced by Microsoft as of late, is a copy of Apple's success. We all know how well ZUNE did... (rolls eyes)
I'm just tired of Microsoft coming to the table late and when they finally do execute their copy, its a giant failure. Why?
You have to first microsoft. You cant be second. So my advice is give up. Give up on ipad, ipod, google, app store, itunes, apple store, iphone... give it all up. You failed, you cant come in and copy them, because you do not have the company image that inspires anyone giving a damn about your cheap knock offs.
Do you realize how boring and unineresting it is, for you (microsoft) to annouce that you're taking on the ipad? Big deal. The ipad exists already. The best you could even possibly do, is create a tablet that has touch input. Great. Big deal. You're LATE. You can not wow everyone by being second.
So give it all up. STOP.
Start over. Figure out new ideas, and end this pathetic knock off strategy. It just makes your company look like a company that makes really bad copies of popular products, and everyone knows exactly what you are, and that is why your pathetic attempts at copying other people, always fail.
Microsoft's model is to sell the software and have a ton of hardware makers make underwhelming, complicated, ugly, unreliable equipment that runs said software. The software will then make a run to the bottom, trying to work around the limitations of 50+ devices in the wild.
it worked for PCs. It really did. But that was the stone age of computing, where people were rushing to bring prices down to where people could buy the devices.
Right now, everybody recognizes the need for computers. People are willing to pay extra to get stuff that works, because even the "premium" stuff is rather affordable and people perceive investment on good computers to be worth it. We're plugged to these things all day. We need them for everything. Productivity gains beat raw price. And you can't do productivity right while trying to support 50+ bland, broken, bloated devices.
And that is why both Microsoft _AND_ Android will fail in the long run.
ftfy
I like microcars
Seriously, it's like kicking a hurt puppy or something.
"Be nice, veer left, and never stop thinking" Iain Banks - Walking On Glass
I really doubt you can find them because that's all complete bullshit.
MS bought a small (150M, I think) as part of a settlement deal, to prevent Apple cleaning their clock in court - MS had been caught ripping off Apple's code and selling it as their own. They later sold all those shares at a profit. From Apple's perspective, by far the larger concession they got from MS was a promise to keep making MS office for 5(?) years as well... They had $2B in the bank when MS bought those shares.
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
There are announcements of Windows Embedded Compact (AKD Win CE) 7 tablets:
http://wmpoweruser.com/asus-eee-pad-ep101tc-first-windows-ce-7-tablet-announced/
(yes I know there was announcement dumping WinCE for Android, but there was a counter saying it was still going ahead).
There exist Windows 7 tablets:
http://www.archos.com/products/nb/archos_9/design.html?country=us&lang=en
So is this yet another previously unknown flavor to further muddy the waters?
is actually a big "feature" for some corporate environments where NO cameras are allowed.
I like microcars
I work there and all we care about is our promotions. Why? Because if we do not follow our CSP (Career Stage Profiles) we get fired. It is MANDATORY that we get promoted following the expected CURVE.
You think we care about the company and its products and quality of those said products? Wise up. We are competing (read as destroying ourselves) internally. We work as seperate islands internally fighting for our own promotions.
Microsoft is made up of students and graduates and they do not really want to keep many experienced people, they prefer the younger grads in their employment model. Inexperienced. and by the time they have gotten experience, they want to leave. (usually 2 years later on average).
Most employees who hold voting capable stocks DO NOT VOTE on company issues as 1) they are ignorant 2) dont care 3) have no clue about what shareholders power is (because they are inexperienced and or dont care). 4) Sell their stock immediately on vesting as they want the cash and I dont blame them.
Every year I vote Balmer NOT INTO THE BOARD and for good reason and always try to remind employees that they should vote if they hold shares.
Balmer is a bitter, spiteful jealous person. He is not fit to run a company really.
Microsoft is losing, sure it has wads of cash, so what. They also have the biggest cost in development for their products and work on an old dying business model and desperately trying to immitate other successes Apple and Google etc.
and offer their iPad for free
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
It's obvious he's a business guy and not the forward thinking visionary
Lucky they hired that visionary dude Ozzie, then!
you had me at #!
Look at all their 'inspiration', ideas, or acquisitions for their products and where they came from:
DOS - Bought from Seattle Computer
Windows - 'Inspired' by the Mac (which was 'inspired' by Xerox Parc)
Xbox - Play Station
Zune - iPod
Windows CE - Palm Pilot
Office - Lotus, WordPerfect, dBase, Forethought
NT - Unix (Sun, SGI, HP, etc)
Etc, etc, on and on...
The point is it's not in Microsoft's dna to 'invent' anything. At best they'll continue to copy. The problem Ballmer's facing is Google and Apple are more the center of the tech universe now, not Microsoft or Windows. Microsoft is all about being reactionary now. And when they've finally released a product that another company gained notoriety with years before, the other company has already moved on. So the endless game of catchup continues and Microsoft falls further and further into irrelevance.
Sums things up perfectly...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k&search=ipod%20packaging
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
If I were a cynic, I'd wonder whether Ballmer just says what he thinks analysts want to hear.
Managing a corporation has become "managing the message". Ask BP...
you had me at #!
But we, the consumers would lose. Without a healthy competition, there is no pressure to lower prices. And, there is no pressure to innovate on the existing iPad for Apple.
I disagree there is no pressure - there are a slew on Android tablets on the way and arriving. There's also now the Blackpad from Blackberry (yes that's the real name).
So the question is, how many competitors does the consumer really need? I think even one good one is sufficient, look at Android vs. iPhone in the smartphone market.
So then if the consumer is taken care of, we can turn to what helps Microsoft the most - I think that's what the original poster was trying to do. Does shipping more Windows on Tablets really help Microsoft? It hasn't for a decade, it would seem to be a giant money sink. So as the poster noted, Microsoft might be better served revenue wise from developing great software for the iPad, heck it could even be a kind of R&D for what works for productivity software on a tablet for an eventual Windows Phone 7 tablet (slate).
Microsoft already writes software for the Mac. So it's not so unthinkable they might want to expand Word/Excel to the iPad too, and in doing so potentially they could even show superior design skills over Pages and Numbers. Come to think of it, as a consumer why is it also not better to wish for competition in software in addition to hardware? Microsoft can deliver that software competition, currently I just don't see how they can really be competitive in the hardware space and if they are not successful, they really aren't exerting any pressure on Apple to improve.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"deliver a _range_ of tablet formats", wtf!
how about "deliver one good product"?
...to be creating something that people really want to buy.
The only surprising thing about this is that Microsoft is ealizing that's the best strategy only now.
--
$tar -xvf
The iPhone/iPod/iPad disables many useful features of the underlying UNIX OS like true multi-tasking and hierarchial file systems. Each new version of iOS exposes more of these, but its not enough.
Microsoft seemingly doesn't recognize that as long as they don't make the hardware along with the software they cannot control the user experience. And they cannot alienate their customer base (not the users, of course, the computer makers) by competing with them. So they cannot do much. Except complaining of course, that is what Ballmer is doing.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Rather than being late, they were too early so that the tablets were too big and heavy. ...Also, they assumed that people wanted the full Windows interface, which doesn't lend itself to the less precise controls of pen and finger input. They made that same mistake with Windows Mobile too
So fast forward to today. They can deliver a Windows tablet that's relatively thin and light.
Do you honestly see it as succeeding? I don't, for the very reasons you laid out just after - the full Windows interface, without seriously taking into account finger input. As you said they made the same mistake in tablet and mobile space, and they are making it now with the current tablet push.
So in the end, it's not that they were too early. It's that they went down the wrong path in regards to UI, and for some reason refuse to correct that mistake for the tablet space even though they have changed course in mobile...
And that's the craziest thing. At great cost (both money and reputation) they have done the about-face they needed to in mobile - but they aren't going to leverage that for tablets! That seems insane. It's like Microsoft can't pick one direction (example: Kin). If Microsoft does not even really trust the new Windows Mobile 7 direction why should the market? Or hardware makers for that matter.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Microsoft has been putting resourced into touch screens and tablet research for years. It has been foiled by internal politics, hardware and being a huge company that's not designed to innovate. Apple spent more than a decade on the iPad. One theory I've heard had the iPhone was produced when they were trying to get the iPad and couldn't make it work. Microsoft, on the other hand, has sort of produced some videos sometimes on projects that later got cancelled because they didn't fit with the Windows Mobile strategy.
I will believe a Microsoft tablet device (and not just a computer with a touch screen) when I see it, just like I will believe a Linux tablet when I see it. They have been talking about these things for years and yet somehow they never happen.
Apple doesn't have to produce the best product, they just have to produce a usable product and they've beaten everyone else out there right now.
The whole industry had months (maybe years) of rumors about an iTablet from apple. They did nothing, even google, hp, palm, everyone knew apple had a tablet up its sleeve. Even with the runaway success of the iphone plus the advent of the droid, and the constant tablet rumors. They all still did nothing. apple drank their milkshakes fair and square.
It'll be Zune 2.0. Will it come in Brown?
It was all the features Apple had to add to make the iPhone usable that made their tablet work. These include (1) touch screen & guesture GUI (2) a small screen GUI without the clutter of desktop windows (3) wireless connectivity (4) single-click installation of music, later expanded into Apps. The MS tablets lackrd all these. They were essentually shrunken desktop computers. The Apple iPad is an enlarged smart phone with some phone things taken out. Bill and SteveB dont get it.
Yet again Microsoft see their salvation as just copying something that someone else has already marketed, instead of actually being innovative themselves and coming out with something new.
I wonder why Microsoft bothers to hire so many creative specialists if they are just going to copy other peoples products?.
Ballmer still fails recognise that (unlike Apple), Microsoft branding ins't 'cool' and isn't enough to make people want to buy something. Many corporate IT managers have been brainwashed to only buy Microsoft, but Ballmer fails to understand that consumers have been so screwed over for so long by Microsofts crappy products and support that branding something as Microsoft actually gives it a disadvantage in the consumer marketplace.
Yet again, Even though they'll make a blatant rip-off copy, Microsoft will fail to identify and copy the subtle design details that made the original desireable. They will actually make it worse by messing with it.
Yet again Microsoft's marketing department will focus on building in features that actually hurt the consumer rather than make the product useable. Stuff like DRM, the explicit lack of compatability with open standards (i.e. with any non-Microsoft products), and the inclusion of 'features' designed to extract residual payments from the consumer. Yet again Microsoft will be arrogant enough to incorrectly assume we are too stupid to notice what they are trying to hide in the product.
Yet again Ballmer will wonder why no-one is buying their great new product, and will then go and identify yet another product from another company that Microsoft can rip-off and sell, rather than innovate anything themselves.
Yet again no-one will fire Ballmer.
If Microsoft would have borrowed from their XBox playbook, and subsidized every UMPC to grow the market
I'm pretty sure they did. After all, they had to compact enough hardware to run a full PC OS into a small space a few years ago. I don't think that $1k price was even what it cost to make it... I'm pretty sure Microsoft did try to kickstart the market.
The problem they will always have on the present course is that to get a larger OS to run on a small device, will take more hardware and more battery and more everything. It will always have to be more expensive, or else much less powerful in some way. Unlike Netbooks where XP could move in and take over Linux by bulking up netbook specs (because hey, they're already a little bulky so just add a bit more) there's no way Microsoft can use Windows 7 to move in where Apple and Android (and now Blackberry) are going.
Well actually Windows Mobile 7 could do that. But they have to get that working for the phone market first before they can really finish a tablet at this point...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Blog entry about the lack of innovation at Microsoft and some perspective.
Beware: it's *cough* my blog, so this is a *cough* shameless plug *sneeze*.
My karma ran over your dogma
Ballmer is going to go all ZUNE on Apple's ass. Let the clubbing of the seals begin.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Office: leveraged the Windows monopoly to break Lotus. Even if the "DOS ain't done till Lotus won't run" myth isn't true Lotus inevitably was late out of the gate for new versions of Windows, and the secret API accusation persists.
IE: leveraged Windows again. Microsoft won this battle by giving away the product free, and then perverting HTML and Java.
Outlook/Exchange server: free front end, proprietary back end... they're leveraging Windows again with great results.
Windows Mobile: The many versions over the years have had to stand on their own merits. The current situation is that market share is shrinking and reputation is poor. Microsoft are in full shameless post-ME, post-Vista advertising mode: the next one's gonna be great!
Zune: Without the Windows monopoly coming to the aid of another product Microsoft failed to catch up. The Plays for Sure DRM debacle didn't do their reputation with the music industry much good so the plan of domination through a proprietary format (WMA) failed to provide the anti-competitive leg-up on which Microsoft had previously relied.
Xbox: No Windows leverage possible with this stand alone product so Microsoft go for brute force to beat Sony. $10 billion dollars lost and a decade later some people consider that they have done a great job. Others wonder if a company that relies on squandering a sum the size of the GDP of oil rich Brunei should be allowed to exist to batter into submission more competent companies with fewer resources. Last quarter the Xbox made $165 million... so in about 15 years it should break even.
Ramming through a subsidised product with the result that profitability takes almost 3 decades isn't a business strategy, it's a pissing war. "My steam last longer than yours'. Microsoft's record developing products that cannot leverage Windows is pitiful.
Otherwise he would have gleaned first hand user insights from real world users and coders on Slashdot for over a decade.
Unfortunately hiring a marketing/sales guy as lead guru for corporate direction has turned out to be a failure for Microsoft.
Just look at the market cap over the last decade.
You need an "innovation director" with virtual dictator authority to execute on BETTER concepts once they are planned and demonstrated and knowing that the playing field is changing in hardware and software every 6-12 months.
But, ... that means Balmer would no longer be in control, so...
The need a cloud offering to go with it, maybe named me-too.com.
IPad form factor is nothing more then a short-lived fad that will eventually die out. Please remember we've had very capable tablets on the market for many years before the ipad and nobody cared. All apple did was crap out a mega-sized iphone.
Please don't react to apple and waste resources that could have been better used to make wm 6.5 really awesome once the MS iphone concept (wm7) flops or pulls resources away from improving your best products (Windows and SQL Server)
Nobody really thinks you can get any real productivity out of a screen with no keyboard... Its just a toy..a gadget for rich people and people with nothing better to buy and yes there are lots of them. Don't follow Apple - their appstore extreme lockin scheme makes Microsoft look like a bunch of fricking saints. Why slashdot is full of MS haters and Apple lovers is beyond anything I'm capable of comphrending.
It looks more and more like it will be "The Year of the Fag" before it will be "The Year of the Linux Desktop".
Here is what the traditional MS strategy in this situation would be:
1) Create product to connect to Outlook/Active Directory that requires .Net and Silverlight to work.
2) Sell to large companies and govt. agencies (traditional markets).
3) Rely on lazy person sales to carry products into homes (familiarity at work leads to home sales).
4) Squish competition.
5) Leave no alternatives in the marketplace available.
It's pretty amazing that a company that is making so much money seems to be playing catch up a lot, or perhaps it's that they want in when something catches fire (after at first dismissing it).
Whoever Has the Most Toys Wins!
http://gizmodo.com/5471559/notion-ink-adam-tablet-caught-on-video-specs-finalized
The Notion Ink Adam Table is going to be an Android-Based with a camera that rotates (for video conferencing or taking pictures), 3 USB ports, HDMI output, flash capability, a pixel qi screen, and a trackpad on the bottom. WAAAAAAY better than the iPad IMHO. Just keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't turn into vaporware. Also on the main company web page, it seems like there will also be an app store for it. The company (as of earlier this month) is still expecting it to release later this year November. We'll see!
Microsoft made a big attempt to make Go Computer, the first decent tablet machine, go away. Or run Windows. The Go was innovative, and the prototype version, which looked like a textbook with a rubber cover, was a nice machine. This was in 1989.
The Go Computer machine went into production, but as an AT&T product, from AT&T's short-lived venture into personal computers. AT&T wanted a fancier looking case, with curved sides, and the result was ugly and hard to hold. The simple prototype was a better machine.
The Go Computer line went down with AT&T's computer line. It was too early; think of a Palm Pilot the size of a textbook and you'll have the right picture.
Okay, so how does Apple get fans? Ten years ago, their only fans (according to the "buy-everything-they-make" definition) were the several million people with Macs. Since then, Mac market share has gone up in a slowly expanding market, and they've gotten new fans with iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
You can achieve stability in a market by having dedicated fans. You can't grow that way without attracting more fans, and you need to have something to attract those fans.
If you ever want to market something in competition to Apple, you need to understand what the "something" is, rather than losing quick in the marketplace and weakly complaining about fans or marketing or something else you refuse to understand.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
I predict the following:
www.wavefront-av.com
File at 11. And that you baboon butted, over paid buffoon is your problem. If it wasn't for the infrastructure Gates built for you wasn't there, you'd still be trying to manage your way out of a wet paper bag while standing on top of it.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
You know, if you're going to be a Grammar Nazi you might try thoroughly proofreading your *subject*. :-P
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
mCup. Apple's got the pads in place, so MicroSoft can handle the guys.
What a FOOL. Everyone knew for YEARS this product was coming out. MS are IDIOTS for not having a solution in place. Jeez, they dont even need to bundle all the bullshit DRM and apps like apple does, all they need to do is work with some hardware vendors and launch a touch friendly XP for tablets. They are pure IDIOTS for not already doing this, but I guess its no surprise to anyone with half a brain (ipod > iphone > ipad, they missed the boat on ALL of these )
Muphry's law strikes again :)
Microsoft have been chasing the big red ball for almost a decade now. Apple made the iPod, they came out with the Zune 4 years late, without the "must have" factor. Apple made the iPhone, Microsoft scrambled, stumbled, fell, and have basically given up. Apple made the iPad, now Balmer wants to chase the ball some more. Problem is, even if they catch the ball, Apple will have already cornered the market, and will have created the next "must have" item, which will likely replace the current one.
If Microsoft REALLY wanted to catch Apple at it's game, they should just bypass the whole Tablet thing, and look ahead at what the next big "must have" is. Apple's probably already working on it, and the only way Balmer will ever beat them to it is if they throw their resources and analysis at THAT. Let Apple take the tablet market, the way Apple is successfull is because they create their own markets. Microsoft should learn to do the same.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
In Microsoft's vision, slates will run a derivative of Windows 7.
Windows was created with Keyboard and Mouse in mind, yes you can jig things around and make it work on a tablet but you're killing the user experience.
Like so many people have already said, MS need to stop playing catchup. They've been working on touch for a decade and brought nothing worth buying to the market.
That is for me a hint of humility from Ballmer, which is a first... Look at all apple Apple product that failed in the past and the way they've turned it into a success today, ipad is just a Newton turned into what it is now. Somebody tells Microsoft to get their R&D to switch the R to Release, because they have a few winning products too.
Call it the 'Zupe' (short for ZZZZZZZZZZZZ and Dupe of course), we all know the brown halo effect of your awesome Zune will surely make it a winner!
Ballmer is socially backward. He has no interest in technology, and very little knowledge of technology. He likes being a billionaire. He's bored with running Microsoft, but likes being at the top of a social hierarchy, especially since no one would have any interest in him if he weren't at the top.
This is like democrats "fighting" republicans,
make it look to the idiot masses like there is some "competition".
Wake up people.
or grow up.
In related news, Steve Ballmer will wear blue jeans, brown sneakers and a black turtleneck in his next keynote speech (where he will announce WindOS-X)
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
I'm going into the chair-making business ASAP.
Microsoft, why don't you just write some QUALITY software for the iPad instead of trying to go head on in competition? That way, the more iPads Apple sells, the more software you sell. It's win-win.
But we, the consumers would lose. Without a healthy competition, there is no pressure to lower prices. And, there is no pressure to innovate on the existing iPad for Apple. So, yes, I would love to see many tablets - some with an Apple OS, some with Windows, and some with Android. What could be better than having the choice?
How will Microsoft pissing huge amounts of money into a huge open sewer make the market more competitive?
Android could potentially compete well with iPad/iOS, but Windows 7 won't. It wasn't designed for tablets and couldn't be adapted quickly enough. (Maybe, if they really work at it, Windows 8 or 9 could.)
Microsoft has gotten so used to owning the platform that it can't think about things any other way. The sad thing is, there are many parts of Microsoft that could be much more competitive if they were allowed to be. Since the iPad doesn't really have a filesystem, imagine how useful a native iPad (and Android, why not) for SharePoint would be. Imagine an iPad version of OneNote for meetings. Imagine a touchscreen version of Visio.
Microsoft would make money, and consumers would benefit from a choice besides just Windows everywhere.
I should say I am not a fan of the ipad. I think it's too expensive for what it does, and I make it a practice not to buy any computing device that doesn't have an external storage port (SD card in this case).
To me, the issue is not the hardware -- anyone can make an ipad-like devices -- it's the software, and Microsoft is not prepared to compete in this area, for several reasons.
Pad-like devices tend to be low power, relatively low performance devices. Microsoft had similar problems competing in the netbook arena, which they solved partially by giving XP more time to live and partially by redefining the netbook as a more powerful, more expensive device with corresponding less battery life, incidentally removing all the factors that made netbooks interesting, but that's another story. A winders pad would necessarily have to be a PC of at least low-end desktop CPU and memory resources with a touchscreen running an OS designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse. I'm thinking (a) it'll run hot, (b) for short periods of time, and (c) the most satisfying experience will be with it docked. It'll essentially be a rather expensive low end PC with some pad-like qualities.
Alternately, Microsoft could go with a pad-like device that's essentially a big smartphone without the phone guts, (which is essentially what the iPad is) but the only thing they have that plays in that space is Windows Mobile. Does anyone seriously think that Windows Mobile can go head-to-head with iOS?
What Microsoft really needs to do to compete in this arena is to design a new OS from the ground up that's specifically geared to this kind of device. Very specifically, Microsoft needs to realize that a Start button is not a good paradigm for any device that has a touch screen as it's primary interface.
But it looks like (a) Microsoft doesn't have any intention of doing anything other than reposition existing products, and (b) there's no evidence that Microsoft still has the wherewithal to write a new operating system.
The logical competition for the iPad will be devices running Android, for a couple reasons: First, Android plays better than anything from Microsoft on lower-performance hardware, second, Android is designed to have primarily a touchscreen interface, unlike anything Microsoft has, and third, the people at Google understands this space to an extent Ballmer never could.
Do I want to see Android beat out Apple? Of course not. I want them to run neck-and-neck, competing with each other on features, usability and price, with us consumers reaping the reward. Microsoft will be a poor third, competing by leveraging their business relations rather than, you know, producing a product people want to buy.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
You know things are in a sorry state when Slashdotters don't even RTFA in their own posts!
P.S. You use Gentoo. You're not the target market for an iPad. You're also one of these Apple-haters who obsesses over Steve Jobs and thinks he can hear you if you mention him by name.
In my opinion Microsoft should move forward with the Courier and not just blow it off like another invention that will fail. I think this would rake in a lot of money and be a huge competetor to Apples IPad. I for one would wait in long lines to recieve one of these. http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet
It seems to me that the reason why Microsoft won the desktop OS wars was that PCs were much cheaper than Macs.
The reason for that was that Microsoft had a huge armada of competing PC suppliers trying to figure out how to build DOS/Windows compatible hardware more cheaply; they went through a succession of business models doing so. Apple, by contrast had unique hardware built at a small scale in high-cost factories.
These days, Apple hardware (including the iphone and ipad) is basically the same as everyone else's, and it's made in the same contract manufacturers as everyone else. So they're no longer suffering a substantial cost disadvantage.
Hence, there's no reason to put up with a cheaper but inferior platform.
If your entire business model is based on cheaper but inferior platforms - and while I'll argue the toss on the desktop today, the iPhone OS and Android clearly crap all over Windows Mobile - you're going to be in trouble if you lose your cost advantage.
If Microsoft wants to expand into new consumer markets, it's going to have to change tack, stop being so focused on leveraging the Windows desktop onto those market, and build the best damn user experience it can for those markets.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Really, that is all I care about in this case- "iPad Urgency! iPad Urgnecy!"
This is standard MS- behind the iPod, behind the Playstation, now behind the iPad. I look forward to their name for their iPod clone- maybe Vavoom?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
-Remember Microsoft? ..Vistas was crap, but the lazer mosquito killer was awesome man.
-Microwhat?
-Yea that guys that made OSs before the pad...
-Oh yea, what was the OS name....doors or something
-Naa it was Vistas or maybe gates
-It was definitively Vistas man, Gates was the guy that invented the laser mosquito killer man.
-Yea,
-Yea man..., awesome., aah good old times....
-pass that joint will you...
I guess that means Windows Phone 7 isn't "Job One Urgency"
dudes. In all the years you've been around, your chasing everyone elses ideas haven't been doing you jack shit.
How about you get back to basics? Operating Systems (well, or you could start making Basic again). Why don't you stop trying to own everything, and start making the best fucking OS you can?
Of course, you aren't going to listen to me, which is cool, because what I really want, is to watch you fail.
Be seeing you...
A) The iPad is great for drawing, hands down (or up, since you use them). For finer work, you can use a stylus or simply zoom into a region.
B) Writing works pretty well - you can attach a bluetooth keyboard, but even without that I've been able to take a lot of notes on it.
C) (straying off the iPad for a second) iMovie on the iPhone works amazingly well at crafting HD movies.
Yes the kinks are getting worked out of touch only input, but already today there is a TON of content creation happening on iOS and claiming it's "Just for movies" is ignoring what is really happening and why it has been such a success. If it really were "just for movies" people would just have bought a portable DVD player...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Seriously, the fact that he thinks copying someone else's innovation is "job urgency 1" shows that he is not fit for his job. LEAD YOU MOFO! Find the interesting people in your organization that are trying cool things that other people are NOT doing and support them.
This is what it feels like to be someone who reallly wants a nice, tablet form-factor device without a sodding keyboard attached to it, and then find that the only one that is pretty much decent is locked down and made into a device for consuming games and media.
When was that?
Because Apple delivered the iPad, which as-is is not locked down to "consuming games and media". Heck, it shipped at the same time as Pages and Numbers and Keynote for the thing...
And you could write whatever you like for it for only $99.year.
But beyond all that, you could REALLY do anything you want with it if you simply jailbreak it.
Many come back from that with a response that "it should come that way". Fine, I can understand not buying it on philosophical grounds. But you are phrasing your objection on technical, not philosophical grounds - your argument as-is simply doesn't work as a result since there is no lock down when you can unlock it any time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You really do wonders for the research last week that characterised iPad owners as selfish affluent types.
How are the people (may not be you) wanting to hobble a device for everyone else just so the technical elite can have it work exactly the way they want not being selfish?
I determine what I want from a device, not you.
Only for yourself. But you don't speak for everyone else. You are not trying to; he is.
Your comment about a "cut-rate" device make no logical sense when I'm saying I want the device to have more features.
"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time" - the words of Blaise Pascal point out the fallacy of your statement. It's very easy to make something with a ton of features, far harder to remove a number of them but still leave something just as useful.
A cut rate device is in fact something which just throws in a ton of features and lets the user sort out what to do and how to glue them together to complete a task.
Your comments about business users being a "very small market populated by low-disposable-income types" make even less sense.
Now there I agree with you. That was kind of weird. The cut-rate part was kind of right, but certainly not the size part...
And the way you mock people when you suspect they might not have a lot of money doesn't suggest much nice about you.
Over time people develop a low tolerance for anyone who does not understand some things that seem very clear.
Relax a bit. There's room for more than one type of tablet in the world.
Many people on Slashdot certainly do not seem to think so. They want an iPad (or any tablet) to conform to THEIR idea of what the most technically useful tablet would be, and dismiss is as trash otherwise and the people who use them as garbage-scowl handlers.
Your statement would seem to imply that in fact it's perfectly OK for Apple to build the iPad the way they see fit. Yet there is much wringing of hands here on Slashdot over that very fact. I wouldn't say he's nearly so worked up as the hand-wringers are; you direct your message in the wrong direction.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They don't need to create a quality product.
They only need to commoditize the tablet market.
Like they commoditized PC's in the 80's.
They "only" need to commoditize the tablet market? With what? They have nothing to do that with. MAYBE Windows Mobile 7, but only if it really takes off on the phone.
The only one in a position to commoditize the tablet market is Google, yet they have seemed rather mud-footed around trying to do so. There need to be a few changes made in Android before it can really commoditize tablets. The Android tablet attempts seem really scattered and unfocused, like there is no guiding plan behind any of them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I have never seen a research division that is so awesome and also, at the same time, seemingly at odds with their market strategies which are unimaginative and trivial sounding.
That's because the real point of the Microsoft R&D department is not to produce great products for Microsoft; it's to keep smart people from working for other companies. It is very literally an ivory tower - but the lock is on the outside.
Just like Microsoft seeing an up and coming company would sometimes buy a great product out and then let it wither (iViewMedia Pro).
Google figured that out though and I don't think the technique really works anymore. If you were a brilliant researcher would you be more inclined to work for Google where you could use your 20% to deliver on your vision, or go to Microsoft where you could present brilliant ideas that would never be used in a product?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Usability" is a technidcal term. You can theoretically browse the web with wget -O -, but that is not "usable."
The browser is quite good, quite usable, though not quite as good as the iPhone.
I'm talking about the state of the art when the iPhone came out. At that time my brother had an E60 (Symbian based blackberry look alike), and it definitely sucked very hard.
Endless amusement.
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And his shitty company making shitty "stolen ideas" software.
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Fuck Microsoft and their fragmented product lines.
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And their fragmented and fucked up pricing structures.
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Fuck Microsoft - period.
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Ubuntu linux = all in, first go; and generally quite reliable.
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Voting up, Voting down - If I really gave a fuck about your approval or not, I'd come and ask you.
I wonder if it will have an image of Steve with a head that spins all the way around on power up?
Wait... I thought internet search was "job one urgency" ? Perhaps he's not asleep at the "switch" but perhaps he's having muscle spasms?
there was a recent story that the last microsoft attempt at launching a tablet pc got nowhere thanks to infighting at microsoft HQ.
basically, the exec managing ms office didnt share his boss's interest in alternate inputs, and so blocked every attempt at making ms office more friendly to such. End result, you could not write a formula directly into a excel cell, but needed to use a generic input dialog window that would then attempt to translate that into text that would go into the cell.
this compared to the transforming keyboard that apple showed of for the ipad (presenting calculator and formula entering options) and one see how bad it can get. I wonder if apple will scale up from their soho style offerings any time soon, perhaps with a xserve and iwork for windows combo. Still, i guess they need to maintain their underdog appearance to not get antitrust-stomped.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
The problem with the tablets that were investigated at the bank where I consulted was that they brought nothing worth bothering about. With MS security problems, they weren't interested. (They had many tens of thousands of PCs. Saving money would have interested them.)
Changing form factor just to run MS stuff on a portable, (stealable,) insecure, low-power platform just was not an appealing option to people who were quite content to have everything done much cheaper on their locked-down LANs and intranets.
Microsoft has to fight their own existing customer base and that is NOT happening. The "palace eunuchs", the accountants, won't let it. In fact they're legally obliged NOT TO.
Microsoft has always made their money from selling their stuff to people who didn't have to use it.
Ergo, the Zune and the other flops. (The X-Box is the ONLY qualified success.)
While Balmer embarrasses himself doing the "developers dance" with a complete lack of style, poise or acumen, Microsoft still collects its "Microsoft Tax" from the locked-in and probably resentful buyers of PCs (who try NOT to make any changes but the planned obsolescence of the PC industry means that its cheaper to to buy new hardware than to take it in to be repaired [specially with the development of NAS with hot-swappable drives reaching even the smallest businesses.])
As long as Microsoft is making money, lets pray they don't get rid of "Ol' Clueless."
Microsoft's biggest handicap is the "fool on the hill."
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Ballmer is dog barking at every truck that rolls by. He has no clue about the truck. He hears noise. He barks.
You have to stop with your 'Winner take all" mentality.
Apple is quite happy NOT making cars, GPS systems, kitchen cabinets or of being the sole provisioner of everything to everybody. (There is something very "Soviet Union" in that attitude.)
Apple makes cool products. Sometime those products USE computers to make them cool.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
any app from anybody can get onto the iTunes store.
But it better not endanger the hardware "USER Experience."
That invalidates the statement about making "an app that makes that kind of money you can bet your ass Apple will kill it by copying it, extending it and including it in their base app set for the ipad."
However, Apple has some features that it wants to keep for itself, to create FaceTime for instance. That will sell a whole lot of iPhones to people with, uh, dirty minds. (DIY p0rn starring YOU! :-)
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
FUGGEDABOUDIT!
The iPad will never, NEVER, be powerful enough to run Office apps well.
Apple is now developing chip designs to get QuickTime run in hardware.
You're pushing a "general CPU" approach while Apple is going entirely in the other direction.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Apple versus San Francisco Canyon
You're flat-out wrong. Whoever modded you up is equally idiotic.
Next.
Hey, troll who uses random bold formatting for attention:
Apple v. San Francisco Canyon
Which is to say, if AND happens, it's compatible with my prediction, but I'm not going to expect AND.
And Apple is making GPS systems, actually. At least, the in-car standalone GPS has been absolutely murdered by the iPhone and Android phones recently.
else why condemn the people that do
But he is not condemning people who want something other than an iPad. He is condemning people who want to make the iPad something other than what it is.
Whereas what we are actually doing is comparing the iPad with what will come next. And what will come next is a whole slew of other tablets, android based, windows based, palm based, and these tablets will have just the same screen, battery, processor and storage technology that the iPad has been able to take advantage of.
And this is key. Because it does mean something like an Android or Palm tablet has a chance, and means that a Windows 7 tablet will always come off poor in comparison - because in running side by side it will always seem slower, or the hardware will be much larger. It will always have a large glaring flaw next to these other devices. What hardware maker would ship that after years of promises from Microsoft with no delivery of customers? HP saw that same issue, and that's why they pulled the ripcord and bought Palm.
It sounds like HP may still deliver a Windows 7 tablet "for enterprise use" in the fall. But I'll bet the form factor (and battery life) is not that close to the iPad. Or even the price... probably around $1k. If I were a company I'd be way more interested in customizing a lot more cheap iPads rather than hope HP doesn't drop out of the Windows 7 Tablet market again...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
" Whoever modded you up is equally idiotic."
and you're an idiot for trusting a fake wiki like "wikia.com"
wikipedia.org:
"Because much of the court's ruling was based on the original licensing agreement between Apple and Microsoft for Windows 1.0, it made the case more of a contractual matter than of copyright law, to the chagrin of Apple. This also meant that the court avoided a more far-reaching "look and feel copyright" precedent ruling. However, the case did establish that the analytic dissection (rather than the general "look and feel") of a user interface is vital to any copyright decision on such matters. In 1997, five years after the lawsuit was decided, all lingering infringement questions against Microsoft regarding the Lisa and Macintosh GUI as well as Apple's "QuickTime piracy" lawsuit against Microsoft were settled in direct negotiations. Apple agreed to make Internet Explorer their default browser, to the detriment of Netscape. Microsoft agreed to continue developing Microsoft Office and other software for the Mac over the next five years. Microsoft also purchased $150 million of non-voting Apple stock, helping Apple in its financial struggles at the time. Both parties entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement."
See the "Microsoft also purchased"? Wasn't really part of the lawsuit, it just "also" happened in 1997 "helping Apple in its financial struggles at the time". Apple was a sinking ship and Microsoft rescued them.
What's wrong with Microsoft helping Apple? Why can't anyone just admit what really happened? The news confirms it.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
What the hell? Nothing in your post refuted what I posted. You're a terrible troll.
You claimed that there was no stolen Quicktime code leading to the settlement, yet the very block of text you quote mentions the "Quicktime piracy" lawsuit! Might want to read what you're pasting next time.
Absolutely nobody questions that it was help for Apple to have Microsoft buy non-voting stocks, but you claimed they were directly responsible for things like the iPhone, which is retarded. What saved Apple was the iMac and, three years later, the iPod..
Your argument was destroyed, and you were properly downvoted for it. Next.