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Microsoft's Approach To Battling the iPad In the Workplace
An anonymous reader writes "Even though Microsoft's public stance, when asked about the impact of Apple's slate is 'iPad? What iPad?', the Redmondians are preparing the company's partners for battle in 2011. Microsoft is making available to its reseller partners marketing collateral to help them defend against the iPad's encroachment into the enterprise market. I had a chance to check out a PowerPoint dated December 2010 on 'Microsoft Commercial Slate PCs' that the company is offering to its partners to help them explain Microsoft's slate strategy to business users." Besides the iPad, there are also the raft of tablets (available and upcoming) running Android, and Blackberry's QNX tablet that Microsoft will have to sell past.
Interesting that a post like this goes without comments for a few minutes... Slashdotters must be watching the Status of the Union Adresss...
MS stock has been flatlining the past decade. Ballmer is a dog, chasing another car/successful_product instead of innovating on their own.
Nothing to see here, move along.
they need to have a slate strategy before they can explain it.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Easy: just expect your employees to access the Silverlight content or Flash on the Web so that they can actually work!
It may not be the best OS of the bunch, but the fact of the matter is that it will run on a whole host of hardware. Apple and RIM have lost in this respect, because there will be very little choice. Microsoft seems to be in bed with HP. WebOS and Android will take the market because soon enough someone will be running it on a toaster.
The pathos coming out of Redmond these days is just overwhelming. It's going to suck for everybody when the financials finally start to follow the company's present direction down the drain. For example, you can expect Microsoft to become the world's biggest patent troll, as it thrashes in the tarpits trying to remain relevant.
What kind of commercial uses does the iPad have? TFA doesn't really mention. I imagine it's pretty good for showing designs to clients - slicker than a laptop, in a situation where impressions matter, even if it would be performing the same function - but I can't think of that many other corporate functions that it fulfils better than the existing tech.
the majority of Android tablets are GPL violating, making it seriously risky for E.U. and U.S.A. companies to import them. GPL compliance, which is important for the Linux Kernel portion (which everyone forgets about, including google), is running at about 2%, and those are usually the ones designed in the E.U. or the U.S.A, which end up being more expensive and so less attractive.
I know you employ some brilliant, passionate, rock star developers. You could probably crush your competitors, if only you didn't move so conservatively at a slug's pace. Trim some of that management, get rid of the red tape, and use your devs!
Microsoft for their honesty in marketing
PREDICTABLE ENTERPRISE SECURITY UPDATE PROCESS - security patches released 2nd Tuesday of each month
(at the last slide of the presentation: http://i.zdnet.com/gallery/6188791-672-464.jpg)
Drop a $7K coffee table on it.
Sorry, someone had to say it.
MeeGo tablets are what, chopped liver?
Besides "Rich". A "Rich user interface" with a "Rich filesystem" and "Rich applications". To me "Rich" means bloated, fat and slow. Even in regular conversation it has negative connotations, e.g. "This food is too rich for me" or "Oh, that's Rich!". For Microsoft to constantly use it is insane.
It may not be the best OS of the bunch, but the fact of the matter is that it will run on a whole host of hardware.
Which means very little by itself. Linux runs on lots of hardware but isn't remotely dominating the operating system market. There is more to it than that. It needs to run on the hardware people want and run the software people want and have a critical mass of users of those devices. Pulling all that off is no mean feat. Possible you will be right but you shouldn't be so certain.
Apple and RIM have lost in this respect, because there will be very little choice.
You are presuming two things. One, that people will care about choice in hardware. The iPod is a great example of a device that has dominated its market despite a multitude of alternative hardware choices available. Choice in hardware might not matter much at all. Two, that Apple & RIM need a monopoly to be successful. The iPhone is wildly profitable and popular and Apple is making a fortune even though there are plenty of other choices out there. The iPhone does not dominate the market the way the iPod does but you'd have a hard time arguing it isn't a successful product. Apple's strategy is a bit of a high wire act and they could easily screw it up but they've shown every reason to think they might succeed.
WebOS and Android will take the market because soon enough someone will be running it on a toaster.
My wife was just telling me the other day, "Why isn't our toaster web enabled? Isn't it about time someone did that?" [/sarcasm]
I don't understand why MS would have to sell a competitor in a "corporate" environment to the iPad. The iPad has almost nothing to offer.
None of the selling points for corporate IT are hit by the iPad. TCO? Management? Administration? Application control? AD integration? The iPad simply has none of these. Let me know when the iPad is able to be controlled by the same mechanisms WinMo phones and Windows desktops are (as well as Linux desktops and to a (very) small degree, Android phones) and we'll talk.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
If Microsoft is Scylla, Apple is Charybdis. Any battle they have against each other is good for us all. In this particular case however, the iPad is a toy. Nothing more. It has no use in the workplace. Before any of you start spouting off how you used them in meetings at work to show power point presentations and junk, know that after you left the meeting the rest of us were laughing at you and started using the white board like normal people.
Uh...it's been 2.0-y for a while. While I dislike new interfaces in general, this one has already earned better marks than the previous for simply being more useful and less buggy than the previous.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Windows Phone 7 (not "the Windows 7 Phone") is doing just fine. It hasn't been a runaway success, but its done reasonably well on all carriers its been released on and is coming to both Verizon and Sprint soon.
Don't let me get in the way of your trolling, or wishful thinking, or whatever it is though.
It's basically completely broken for me now. I can see some of the top level comments, but none of the replies show up when I click on them. This is using firefox 3.5.mumble.
It was working, umm, earlier today I think.
If it doesn't start working, I'll just have to take slashdot off my list of sites to visit I guess? I can't see the majority of the comments any more. All other sites I visit are working fine.
You realize HP makes WebOS, right? And that so far it only runs on Palm/HP hardware? And that HP has basically totally killed off its plans for Windows tablet hardware in favor of WebOS? Your comment makes no sense...
Safari works like a charm. Version? It's an appliance, does it have a version?
Apple handed Microsoft a huge weapon to which fight this battle, the sudden cancellation of the Xserve with no real replacement. Now whenever Apple goes after the enterprise market Microsoft can point to this and say, "Do you really want to risk introducing a device into your enterprise that Apple can discontinue on a whim leaving you with no easy upgrade/replacement options? Apple has done this in the past and will do it again"
Monstar L
It has a presence, yes... but doing "just fine"? The iPhone and Androids each have more units in the channel than WP7 has in-channel and activated *combined*. This is in spite of the fact that WinMo (in various incarnations) have been for sale for (almost) a decade.
I don't know about you, but if I had a product that was universally panned for nearly a decade, and my latest, greatest attempt at rectifying that issue was met with a universal "meh"? I wouldn't exactly call it "doing just fine".
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
MS stock has been flatlining the past decade. Ballmer is a dog, chasing another car/successful_product instead of innovating on their own.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Ah yes, MSFT's stock has been flatlining the last decade. Seems to be pretty steady actually for the last 20 years and all time shows it's build up from the 80s.
Maybe if you weren't so busy bashing Microsoft's you might actually do some fact-finding. You know like what journalists are supposed to do.
You're not ready for release. If I increase text size, words disappear. (Words on the left-hand side of the paragraph are pushed further to the left and become invisible. Words on the right-hand side of a paragraph increase in font size and remain visible.)
I read slashdot on a monitor across the room, so I *always* increase text size. You really have to fix this.
Ballmer = Bye Bye
I've actually found a business segment where the iPad has made a near perfect replacement for the traditional laptop. I don't see MS catching up anytime soon. I just finished up a 4 month project to get one my clients moved to iPad's for courtroom usage. I was approached by the Sr Partner in the firm to come up with a way for him to use his new toy back in August. I was then given an iPad and list of "requirements". It needed to be able to send and receive email, edit word and pdf's, sync with the firms docket calendar, record dictation in a standard format that would be emailable and would be foot pedal compatible and access documents back in the office. After evaluating a ton of products I chose Pages, Evernote, Drop Box and Dictate on Demand with Team Viewer as an option for the more advanced. It worked so well that the Sr Partner decided everyone needed one.
Now everything they did on a notebook and a digital recorder requiring over $800 in software (MS Office, Gear Player, Adobe Acrobat, etc) has been replaced with a $800 worth of hardware and apps. So far its worked great the most expensive part aside from the iPad itself was the Dictation program which apparently they are quite proud of (it was $99). I had to wait a while for things to get out of beta, but when they say there is an app for that, they aren't kidding. Paired with a bluetooth keyboard (we picked up leather cases from Think Geek that have a keyboard built into the lid) they have all the capability they had with 4x the battery life, better connectivity and all the functionality the needed for a fraction of the price. For me its been great..no mid day treks to the courthouse or off hour support calls because the laptop crashed, got infected or randomly glitched. So far none have had any real issues at all that weren't simply lack of familiarity with the applications. It's going to take an awful lot for MS to be able to compete, windows 7 and its core applications simply aren't designed for finger input, instant on isnt going to happen unless its imbedded and then there is the issue of getting developers on board...based on their tack record with Windows Mobile I don't see it happening any time soon. I really think the biggest rival is going to Google assuming Honeycomb is as good as I hope it will be.
IBM once tied to sell a mainframe as a "personal computing system." Live by the sword, die by the sword.
The practice of chasing the innovators worked for them for a couple of decades and did so because they could always leverage their channel partners and distribution mechanisms to make sure the Microsoft product was there on the PC before the initial innovator. They also used marketing funds to make sure those who shipped Microsoft products did well while they were putting the initial innovator out of business. But you can see from how that does not work for things like the iPod which they really can't leverage Windows so much. Look at all the Windows CE based MP3 players before the iPod, Plays-4-Sure,etc and then Zune worked out. Same for the iPhone and how Windows Mobile and Windows Phone are fairing.
It sounds like Ballmer is trying to use the same practice for the light weight tablet device and try to tie it to Windows. That's a tough sell since they will continue to have a tough time technically putting Windows on such low power, low battery drain devices and coming up with a way to forcefully tie it to desktop Windows PCs or servers. Some corporations will buy it but lots of them already have iPads and are working on getting that tied into their systems. Microsoft will have to get those companies to wait another couple of years before they even have something comparable and waiting to "be Microsoft cool" is not something IT managers do very well when they are looking for ways to "be cool" now and show they are doing something valuable on the corporate networks.
It's a new game and so far it looks like Steve is playing it the old way. But they still have lots and lots of money to throw at their partners and stop the Androids from coming. Unfortunately, they have little to no control over Apple's iPad vendors and they would probably give Steve the eye if he asked or threatened them regarding no selling iPads. We are not talking about paying $1 for every copy of MS Internet Explorer shipped like they did to destroy Netscape Navigator. We are talking hardware and somewhat expensive hardware.
So play ball Steve! Just try to show up at the correct field because it's not the one you're used to playing on. IMO
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
They are missing the boat. They should take a page from Apple and push the idea that a tablet supplements a desktop, and tailor solutions to the market. Plenty of room to improve over what is available today.
My laptop made it's last business trip today... Too much to lug for too little benefit.
BTW, I'm really going to be pissed if I actually do get run over by a bus... Let me live in suspense!
You're misinterpreting the term flatlining. It's a flat line, smooth and slopeless. You're thinking it means dead, which coincides with an EEG flatlining on TV.
If it has been steady for 20 years then it's flatlined. That said, it doesn't look very steady for 20 years -- it looks like considerable growth right up until the .com bust, then steady up to now with the exception of a dip at the beginning of the recession.
No flash, though.
that they can't recompile the Linux kernel while watching flash videos?
Ballmer, you should have never have canceled The Courier. Oh how stupid you look now!
Crap. I'm the AC who posted something like "it's completely broken". Strangly, I can't even see my own response. All i get is one line with the digit "2" on it.
Maybe it only works for people who register now?
MS stock has been flatlining the past decade.
MS is not a growth company, and hasn't been for years now. That's why that stock pays dividends.
What uhhhh - what about the Kinect? Granted Ballmer is a saleschmuck running a massive tech. co. but come on man - Minority Report on an XBox!? That's just groovy.
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
Windows Mobile 6.5 is outselling Windows Phone 7. That is all you need to know. Total failure.
Their big selling point has always been Outlook/Exchange compatibility. Actually, that might well be the only real selling point they've ever had. The latest incarnation is an attempt to make their products "cool" so they would appeal to people who don't care about Outlook (read: people who purchase phones for themselves rather than receive them from their employer), and to catch up a bit on some of the corner business uses they didn't think of but could implement easily (including some which don't need implementing, as they can be done from anything with an Internet connection)
Anyway, I suspect that the enterprise slate market is Microsoft's for the taking once they deliver a working product. They're the only ones who can really do Outlook/Exchange integration, not to mention the rest of Office. I don't pretend to understand why so many people have such tremendous hard-ons for MS Office (I think that there are perfectly functional free and Free alternatives which are just as good at anything that isn't best done on far more intensive software anyway...), but the fact remains that few corporations are willing or able to just ditch it altogether, and unless your product is compatible it's unlikely to make much headway.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
Have you ever USED one?
They're not as appallingly bad as previous incarnations, but they're not interesting either. The interface doesn't actually do anything different or better, it's all just looks.
WP7 doesn't bring anything new to the market,and the interface won't scale to tablets. That's why MS is thrashing around trying to persuade partners to shoehorn an OS designed around desktop mouse/keyboard interaction onto them.
It'll be horrible, it'll be clunky, but they're right. The corporates will buy them because they're just as locked into proprietary formats and protocols as they were a decade ago. It's sad how much innovation is being strangled by this monopoly.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
MS is a mess imo. I'll admit to ADORING some of their products for business (excel, one note), but they just released one note for the ipad/iphone and you can't even VIEW the notes with their proprietary formatting; you can't add voice notes; and worst of all, you can't even SEARCH your notes (the formatting made notes easier to find, but without that, and without search, you're looking at useless jumbled text in large notebooks). WhyTH have a mobile app for a mobile product that completely undermines the software which SHOULD be a perfect mobile app?!
And the (?) user-friendly ribbons and bows and other useless crap they've added to their bloatware in the last ten years has a steep learning curve, and [to me] make no sense. I loaded up a DOS version of word just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind, and except for Excel and One Note (and that "Live" movie app doesn't suck), I am using other options for MS business products (even Google Docs if the info isn't sensitive); like Impress vs PP.
If MS can't get their own perfect (imo) 'mobile app' to work on mobile platforms, I don't know how they expect to compete w/ other tablets. Esp when it's safe to assume you'll have to put up with BSODs on their tablets.
Wrong place for saything something that isn't negative about Microsoft and their products.
I agree to an extent on the tablet front, except for one small bit:
HP currently offers Slate 500's with Windows 7 on it, and has been doing so since October. The specs are roughly that of an HP Mini netbook in a tablet form factor. Mind you, it costs $800 a pop, and has a smaller screen. OTOH, it has everything that folks assert businesses are gagging for, since it has Windows 7 on it. Given that Microsoft hasn't exactly been bragging on it, I'm thinking it probably isn't selling all too well.
Meanwhile, stories abound of companies buying up iPads like the product was made of solidified cocaine. (mind you, they were quoting Apple as one of their sources, but when they're naming names, and those names are those of some pretty big corporations...)
In the face of that, I'm not so sure that Outlook (especially now that competitors like iOS and Android can connect to it too) is the biggie anymore. iOS has Office-like apps that are apparently more than sufficient for the platform - after all, it's not like you're going to type a novel on a tablet...)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Microsoft's Problem is that it has become a "me too, but with Windows(tm)" company. It is a "Windows(tm)" company, and almost everything it does revolves around "Windows(tm)".
In the mean time, Linux is storming the "everywhere windows can't go" places. Windows Tablets have tried to exist for at least 7 years, maybe longer. Windows will not ever be a "Tablet" OS. This is why Apple and Android* are killing it in the Phone/Tablet marketplace right now. Both are designed for that platform with industrial size OS underneath that doesn't feel bloated.
*Droid X owner. Looked at iPhone (AT&T Sucks), Palm, Windows, and had a Blackberry before the DX. The Windows phone I saw feels like toys, and acted like a brat. My Droid feels industrial, and acts like work phone and toy. I'm still looking for the killer app** for it, but otherwise am very happy.
** Killer App = something I didn't know I needed, but can't live without.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Quote
it has everything that folks assert businesses are gagging for
Ha-ha.
Don't make me laugh.
They are NOT repeat not gagging for Windows 7.
Most corporate builds are not W7 yet. We tried at my place. But the main sales (Custom built in C/C++ with a bit of Java) app keep bombing out on W7 yet on Vista & XP and even Server 2008 it works fine. MS Support don't have a clue.
I commute an hour on the train into work. I've yet to see more than a handful of laptops with W7. Vista? lots. even some really horrendously locked down XP builds. The majority of laptops are Mac's.
As for tablets. Then it is all iPad. No wait. There was one Android nasty just after Christmas. You know the el cheapo chinese crop that runs android 1.6 and has a resistive screen ($99 in walmart type of thing). The guy had it for a christmas present. He soon swapped it for an iPad.
Hereabouts, the GalaxyTab is MORE expensive than the iPad so no one is buying them. most people I know are waiting until Android 3 is available
Windows Tablets? Yeah I know someone who has a pair of Lenovo X60/X61's. He loves it. Mainly due to the handwriting apps. If there were decent ones for the iPad then he'd change in an instant. The reason is battery life.
Yeah, I expect that somewhere in Corporate land Windows 7 Tablets are all the rage and there might be some people gagging for them. IMHO, they are probably gagging on them.
Like Apple of not the iPad had thrown a mighty big wrench into the market. MS is playing third fiddle here. They have a big chance to miss out completely unless they change themselves radically.
By what metric do you claim that Windows Phone 7 is "doing just fine"? How do you know it's "done reasonably well on all carriers it's been released on"? Where are your numbers and how do you define it as doing well against the competing platforms? If you have some evidence, I would be very interested. I just haven't seen anything to support what you're saying -- and I've yet to see a single person with a Windows Phone in real life. I've yet to even hear anyone in real life even TALK about its existence. So what's your evidence?
If you're going to make a claim that a product is doing well -- when almost everyone believes differently -- it's useful to bring evidence. The poster didn't give evidence for his claim. I think that's why people are questioning his assertion, not just because it's a Microsoft product.
after all, it's not like you're going to type a novel on a tablet...
Actually, I know a guy who had his laptop stolen, so he has switched to writing his book on his iPad. He says it's actually a better device for the job--once you add a Bluetooth keyboard, of course.
Corporate buyers get the cheapest stuff that will work, which usually means MS products instead of Apple, and every computer supplier that wants an MS license to sell Windows has to pay about $30 for every box, regardless of what goes on it.
Your comment, it's just not true. (not my chart, btw). The integrated Facebook app is a good indicator of a mobile platform's market performance. Facebook users are common enough that they make a significant and representative statistical sample.
WP7 peaked below 1.5% market share on release, and is declining. It's now seeing about 4,300 new adopters each day worldwide, which is pathetic even for Windows Mobile. There is no way this can be described as "doing just fine." Its user base will never hit the 1.5 million units Microsoft claims are already delivered on its current trend, so somebody's about to get stuck with some dead inventory.
Its replacement Windows 8 has already been shown running at CES and the roadmap has a 1/7/2013 in-store availability scheduled. W8 being a full Windows rather than a mobile OS will of course not be compatible. Intel has committed that they will field phone platforms with it that run regular Windows applications on x86 phones. They're "all in".
So there's no reason to buy a WP7 phone. It failed to thrive, its execution date is set. There's no reason to develop apps for a phone with few users and no long-term prospects either.
Funny story: the KIN had about 8,000 sales and 300,000 Facebook likes. The integrated WP7 phone Facebook app has a little over 300,000 users now and less than 4,000 Facebook likes. It looks like buying Facebook likes has gone out of vogue with Microsoft's marketing department. But apparently hiring astroturfers to post on slashdot has not.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Here's a static image of the graph from last year, with AAPL added for contrast: 2010.
Here's the graph from 2002 to the end of last year: Dead money.
People don't buy stocks so they'll be as reliable as stuffing the money in a mattress. The point of investing capital is to participate in the growth that can be achieved with pooled capital. This ain't getting that done. A dollar invested in Microsoft these past eight years isn't working for you, it's vacationing in the Bahamas. That's not what you want to be happening with your earned money. With your earned money you want to put it to work, so it can pay for you to be vacationing in the Bahamas.
(Image credit: Google Finance screen scrape)
Help stamp out iliturcy.
2% dividends against a stock that decreases in value by 7%, both annual for last year, isn't exactly a great way to grow your retirement fund.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Is that really true? Right now, I mean. If so, can you point to some links?
This is old Microsoft tactics, if you dont have something worthwhile to show off then promise vaporware and spud fud. This worked really well in the 80s and 90s because they had a myriad of idiotic journalists at their side. I can remember an article in one of the biggest PC magazines pro Windows 3.0 and contra OS/2 which literally stated you dont need multitasking because you cannot do more than one thing yourself. Note this was not an official ad, but a serious article by one so called tech journalist. Add to that that everything Microsoft brought out back then had better implementations somewhere else, but people were not exposed to the alternatives so they bought the fud not knowing better. Now lets wheel forward, Microsoft still brings out half assed solutions 3 years late to the game but people are exposed to the alternatives by the millions and also the press now is on Apples and Androids side and Microsoft once the underdog compared to IBM now is IBM literally, accepted but not really liked and boring. So will those tactics work, no. Microsoft never was the inventor and has become less and less risky since Ballmer has taken over. But their fud tactics have not changed while the world around them has. One hint to Microsoft if you are unable to change and adapt you are bound to die or at least to shrink.
Declining market share is "doing just fine"?
Gotta love the blinkers...
Since when is the icon for a Microsoft story a boring business suit?
RTFM is not a radio station.
Really? I've been in more and more meetings recently where people have been using iPads, and without fail they're always surrounded by a bunch of people at the end, asking if they can have a go on it and how much does it cost and where can I get one. Our UI team uses them to build mock-ups really fucking quickly in front of clients while they meet with them. A few people in management use them for presentations and scribbling down notes and diagrams. As a consultant developer, I quite often take mine into meetings for similar reasons. Its not for everyone, and I can't imagine doing much 'real work' on it outside of meetings, but if you're seriously laughing at any of us for using it where its actually pretty usefil, it honestly just makes you look like one of those jealous/insecure folks who sees people driving flashy sports cars and insists it must be a penis extension.
Microsoft has had years of "experience" with tablet computers based on their "Windows - Tablet Edition" - and they've failed, time and time again. They've made two major mistakes: one is that a touch-operated OS must be completely operable by touch - not the "almost" touch operation that they've provided. And the other big problem is battery life. If your idea of a tablet is a notebook sans keyboard with the same performance / battery life characteristics then your product will fail. The real commercial and industrial applications need a machine that will run all day - not 2 or 3 hours.
Many offer their opinions about the iPad as fact - but what they don't seem to see is that the functions it provides are all easily operated by touch - and the battery lasts a whole work day and then some. These are basic things - and until Microsoft and its hardware "partners" can meet these goals they'll still be in a race for second place.
Dis the competitors, but its useful to have something to, errr, sell.
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
Given windows 8 beta was shown off at CES 2011 and nobody cared, I think the writting is on the wall. ... but all they got was a meh whatever
I mean normally it would be huge news, Windows 8 running on Arm which is about tablets pretty much
G
Fine as in a distant fifth in a five horse race. The only good news is that they are not sixth.
Looks pretty flat to me:
http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1296041214136&chddm=710470&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NASDAQ:GOOG;INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC;INDEXDJX:.DJI&cmptdms=0;0;0&q=NASDAQ:MSFT&ntsp=0finance
Heck, Microsoft is performing worse than NASDAQ
Will it run Angry Birds?
Slates? What slates? I'm bored of this category already!
Alex, I'd like "Things From Last Year's CES Show" for $400 please.
I think the biggest difference is that MSFT has transitioned from a Growth stock (where earnings are translated to increase in price over time) to a Value stock (where price is stable but earnings are returned as dividends). You can see the transition in 1999-2000 as the dot-com bust occurred. There is a strategy in targeting a lower price per share (of $25 it seems), as it enables smaller sized investors to acquire more shares, which gives MSFT a larger capital pool. Their dividend has grown over time (from $0.08 to $0.13) and increased in frequency, which translates that MSFT is still showing strong revenues and growth.
Windows Phone 7 (not "the Windows 7 Phone") is doing just fine. It hasn't been a runaway success, but its done reasonably well on all carriers its been released on and is coming to both Verizon and Sprint soon.
It will arrive on the Verizon network after the iPhone shows up. Hate or love Apple, the iPhone will prove one way or another who is to blame for all the AT&T call drops & quality issues. If it works well on Verizon I'd guess many potential WP7 purchasers will take a look at the iPhone. Keep in mind that at the moment, WP7 doesn't offer encrypted connections to Exchange (a pretty big requirement to most enterprise customers).
> Keep in mind that at the moment, WP7 doesn't offer encrypted connections to Exchange
Yeah, what's up with this? Seriously. I don't know about you, but this would be the first feature I'd put in a new phone, even if it's not from MS.
> It will arrive on the Verizon network after the iPhone shows up
And how did they manage THIS trick? Apple had lock-in with AT&T for three years, and they still couldn't beat them to Verizon? Geez!
> AT&T call drops & quality issues
Hey, speaking of, I just had my 3rd call drop on Rogers. I'm no longer in the "it's AT&Ts fault" camp. At least not completely.
Except MSFT won't modify Outlook, or Office to work on a touch screen. They have had 8 years and not done it once why would they bother now?
WP7's exchange support is also lacking behind android and the iPhone. try reading some of the business reviews on it. WP7 focuses on twitter and facebook more than Exchange.
People won't change what they know. it is why Office 2007 and 2010 have less users than Office 2003(which is what I have at work) Businesses don't want to spend $2000 for 10 people to get a new office suite every 3 years. not when that suite will work just fine in 10 years.
why is IE 6 still around? Because people coded for it and it alone and now they can't/won't change the applications they have.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
There's a slide in the show called "What enterprise customers are telling us..." The part after the ... is apparently "while buying products from other people".
Compare and contrast with SJ's "they don't know what they want" concepts.
> It has a presence, yes... but doing "just fine"? The iPhone and Androids each have more units in the channel than WP7 has in-channel and
> activated *combined*. This is in spite of the fact that WinMo (in various incarnations) have been for sale for (almost) a decade.
They don't exist on Sprint and Verizon, yet. In the United States, that makes them commercially irrelevant because T-Mobile is tiny, and NOBODY voluntarily uses AT&T unless they're shackled to a pre-Verizon iPhone.
Likewise, Microsoft's success or failure with Windows Mobile is largely irrelevant. I'm sure there are 3 or 4 Windows Mobile users left who haven't jumped to Android or IOS, but I don't know them personally. The fact that Windows Phone is metaphorically "Sidekick5dotnet" and doesn't run Windows Mobile software makes almost any link between them irrelevant as well.
Still, as others have noticed, Microsoft can afford to throw monkey wrenches into the plans of others for a really, really long time. In the long run, Microsoft probably WILL recover a chunk of its marketshare with specific respect to the enterprise market if they ever get their act together and make Windows Phone integrate *seamlessly* with Exchange Server and Microsoft's management infrastructure.
Perception means a lot in the tech world. Over the last few years, Microsoft really seems to have fallen from being the "leader" to being the "Me too!" kid. Others are pushing limits and innovating, MS comes in later with lesser offerings. And Windows seems to be the majority fault of this...in my perception at least. As I see it, Apple rewrote their OS entirely in creating OS X. This gave the new OS great flexibility. Microsoft keeps adding on to Windows and continuing to hold on to legacy code(to continue supporting old hardware, etc), causing Windows to bloat. When new hardware technologies come around, Apple can easily break down OS X into the needed components. Microsoft tries to shrink Windows but isn't successful due to things being so integrated. It's like they try to compress the full Windows so it'll fit on a phone or tablet so the user can have "full Windows functionality". But it just doesn't seem to work right and comes across even more as an "Us too" product. Of course, someone has to create decent hardware for the Microsoft OS to run on too. Not being a hardware company there's little Microsoft can do about cruddy hardware.
I love how they try to pigeonhole the iPad into a "consumption" role when there are thousands of examples of things created using the iPad.
Like anyone can even know that
You don't need to switch for HW reasons. However, you WILL have to switch for reasons of overweening control of Apple over the hardware and software.
The problem with relying on Outlook is that MS is still stuck on the model that the tablet is a shrunken PC with a touch screen, that enterprise users are waiting for a laptop in another form factor. That's the same tactic MS has been using for the last 10 years. All their previous incarnations of tablets have the Outlook integration that you mention and they didn't sell very well.
Now look at why businesses are buying the iPad? They are not buying touchscreen laptops. It accomplishes some of the functionality of laptops: email, browsing, etc, but it's not constrained to Outlook in particular as a requirement. They are buying them because they are touchscreen appliances that have been optimized for touch. MS could have had this tablet market if they hadn't ignored touch as the real selling point. The put touch on their tablets but never really did anything with it.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Microsoft doesn't need to battle the iPad to keep it out of the workplace.
Apple will battle itself.
With the recent revelation that Apple will discontinue it's Xserve enterprise products, they are back on the road to undermining themselves. Again.
They were approaching a unified communication suite with OSX server on the backend serving the iPhone / iPads, etc... Lot's of potential here. Many enterprise class data centers have invested a significant amount of $$$ with that "promise".
But, as history has shown, Apple has done a wonderful job of disenfranchising their business/enterprise customers. Their marketing team can not differentiate between business customers / teenagers.
With the promise of, we'll discontinue our products with no notice (ok, maybe a month) or force you to upgrade your entire suite of hardware and software, I can not see how any sane IT department would continue to consider Apple in the enterprise.
Sad. What worse, they've fooled me twice with a considerable investment at question (after building a Apple based datacenter Xserves / Xsan). Shame on me.
That's the best summary of Ballmer's tenure I've read yet. He's not a techie, so he's always reacting to trends instead of taking a chance to set new ones. And those products which actually do push the envelope often get short shrift.
Contrast that with Steve Jobs who, whilst not a techie himself, is tech-savvy enough that he can dictate a major change in the computing landscape and stick with it.
Who is this delectable creature with an insatiable love of the dead?
Both the iPad and Chrome netbooks intentionally omitted a file system, yet the MS slides treat the omission as if it were a weakness. Having one creates all sorts of security, reliability, and administration problems. Old-world corporate MS is really getting bogged down in details and legacy (must support Silverlight, Sharepoint, etc.) and missing the vision.
Considering that you HAVE that sort of integration with Android and Blackberry machines (Heh... I've seen it in action at several businesses...) if that's their selling point...heh...
"Meh" doesn't begin to describe the reaction to things.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Dear Microsoft,
If (Cost_Of_Slate > Cost_Of_Ipad) and (Size_Of_Slate > Size_Of_Ipad) and (Battery_Life_Of_Slate < Battery_Life_Of_Ipad) then
fail
end
They're the only ones who can really do Outlook/Exchange integration, not to mention the rest of Office.
See, I think the way to capitalize on this is to make apps for Outlook and Office on every mobile platform. There are millions of people who would pay upwards of $20 to get Office on their iOS or Android device. Rumor has it that $20 is about what MS is licensing out WP7 for. Instead of putting all those resources into creating a new OS, and working with hardware, etc, they could just bring Office to everything else. They don't have to compete with Apple and Google, and no matter which of them wins, MS wins.
I just finished my first novel on a Sony Clie TG50. IMO it's much better for writing than an iPad (which I also happen to have) because it is very much more portable with a longer battery, and has a hardware keyboard built in. Add-on keyboards for mobile devices universally suck for real work. I've tried too many and I've given up on them as being too clumsy. Haven't bothered getting a hardware keyboard for the iPad for this reason. I'd rather use my kid's netbook if I want to use an iPad-sized portable gizmo for typing. No, I probably wouldn't bother, the Clie is just too damned convenient. FYI TejpWriter is the best writing app I've ever used on a Palm. I shouldn't have to say that the coolest hardware is crap if the software is crap - this has been the problem with everything I've ever tried with any "mobile" version of Windows. It's always been pure crap which is why I won't even bother looking at WinPhone7. Even if it's miraculously not pure crap like every previous version I've handled, I've already wasted too much of my life with WinMo to look at it again. I've long since given up on MicroSoft, and I suspect the growing hordes of people doing the same has them grasping at every successful thing they see around them and trying to imitate it - badly. Unless they can stop imitating and start really innovating, they are doomed to becoming a third-rate company. (They're already second-rate as far as I'm concerned.)
1.Netcraft confirms:In Soviet Russia all your base welcomes a beowolf cluster of CowboyNeal overlords. 2.? 3.Profit!!1!
Having a filesystem creates all sorts of security, reliability and administration problems? Really?
Wow... I guess you should tell the people with all the iPods, other MP3/WMA players, digital cameras, and similar that they've got all sorts of security and other problems.
The problems you mention do not come from having filesystems. More to the point, the iPad and Chrome have a filesystem- it's just not directly exposed to the user. All the problems you indicate stem from code execution- and ONLY that.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
that they can't do on an iOS platform. Now explain why that isn't stopping millions and millions of average users from buying iOS devices and being completely satisified with them (and replacing them with the next updated iOS device).
Instead of putting all those resources into creating a new OS, and working with hardware, etc, they could just bring Office to everything else. They don't have to compete with Apple and Google, and no matter which of them wins, MS wins.
Bingo. If they ported Word and Excel to the iPad or even better got docs.com to work with it, they would preserve their Office domination. As it is, I can get Pages for $20 and save things to iWork (1 Gig free!)
Instead of going back and trying to fix their decision to abandon ARM processors, they should focus on being where folks need them to be.
The opposite of progress is congress
My impression is that you are pretty locked into a now-antiquated world where basic computing endpoint devices require an extreme amount of management and administration. Prepare to watch the world go wizzing past you.
When my company rolled out iPad/iPhone support, it looked like this:
1. Buy yourself an iPad (or heck, here's some money and go buy one yourself)
2. When you do, go download this free app (which runs on Android/iPhone/iPad/etc) that lets you easily access and check your work email (here's the security code to use)
3. You can also access this free Citrix portal app that lets you connect to the internal network (remote-desktop/vnc/etc/Outlook/etc. here's the security code to use)
Don't need 'anti-virus/anti-malware' crap because, well, it's an Apple product, and it accesses the corporate network via secure and well defined protocols. If the iPad is lost/stolen, they invalidate the codes those apps use to connect to the network. If they need to distribute a custom app (which generally they wouldn't because they could just make it a public app with a security-code), they can do so via an Enterprise license.
Done. Welcome to 2011.
I'll wait for you to reboot and apply patches before responding.
Why, may I ask, are Sprint and Verizon so big? (This is not trolling; I really don't know.)
I will never ever use Sprint or Verizon. This is not a matter of revenge or personal principle, but simply because I need to use a phone that takes SIM cards (I travel internationally, and need to be able to swap SIM cards). So my choices in the USA are AT&T or Tmobile.
So why are Sprint or Verizon so big? Is it just that they were big historically? Are there few enough global travellers in the USA that they don't mind using a phone with no SIM card? Do Sprint or Verizon have any particular advantage (for example, better customer service)? I wonder.
Of course, once Sprint or Verizon (are they the same company now?) allow me to use SIM cards, they would become a viable choice.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
MS stock has been flatlining the past decade. [snip]
Note that for the last three years most of the volatility is extremely correlated with the S&P 500 - i.e. they have flat-lined more than you might think.
They've been flogging tablets for 10 years. They keep doing the same stupid shit over and over again, which is trying to stuff desktop Windows into a smaller form factor for which it is too bloated and battery-hungry, with a UI for which it was not designed nor suited, and try to use "it's the Windows you already know!" bit as a selling point. Even if they do rework a version of the Windows UI to be more touch-friendly, the second you launch an app (which will most likely NOT be touch-friendly, because it was designed for "the [desktop] Windows you already know!") you're right back to hurting for a mouse/stylus and keyboard.
Seriously, what the hell has Microsoft been doing? It's been a year since the iPad was announced, and the best thing they have to battle it is still a PowerPoint deck of FUD? Yeah, good luck with that, Steve. By the time you have a horse to put in the race, the race will be over. iPads have been making their way into corporations and meeting with wide approval. Apps are being written for them. They are going to be nice and entrenched by the time any possibly-viable competing product comes off the assembly line, and then Microsoft will learn what it's like to be on the bad side of corporate technology inertia.
It has a presence, yes... but doing "just fine"? The iPhone and Androids each have more units in the channel than WP7 has in-channel and activated *combined*.
WP7's life is a matter of months, the other 2 have been around for years.
This is in spite of the fact that WinMo (in various incarnations) have been for sale for (almost) a decade.
WP7 and WinMo are completely different. WinMo was never an iOS/Android competitor.
Well that and the fact the Windows Phone 7 is pretty well useless for business. Unless your business is synching your music collection and keeping track of your social networking stuff that is. How do I know? I was dumb enough to get one thinking it had to be better than 6.5. It's not.
There was one Android nasty just after Christmas
A lot of the new tablet offerings are Android and they have very impressive specs. I suspect that by next Christmas you'll see a good mixture of IPad and Android systems. I was going to buy an IPad but, after looking at the Samsung Galaxy I decided that there may be good alternatives to the IPad.
Windows Phone 7 (not "the Windows 7 Phone") is doing just fine. It hasn't been a runaway success, but its done reasonably well on all carriers its been released on and is coming to both Verizon and Sprint soon.
I wouldn't call an OS doing "just fine" when it has been reported as having excessive data usage of "between 30 and 50MB of data" per day and 500MB being used up overnight in some cases. BGR Reports that MS has identified "a third-party solution commonly accessed from Windows Phones is configured in a manner that potentially cause larger than expected data downloads." The third party has not been identified and a timeline for a fix has not yet been given...
Caveat emptor!
Ceci n'est pas une
Except of course you can use any bluetooth keyboard with the iPad. Congrats on finishing your book!