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Microsoft's Killer Tablet Opportunity
snydeq writes "Advice Line's Bob Lewis sees ripe opportunity for Microsoft in the tablet market: Forget about outdoing Apple's iPad and give us the features that finally improve the way we work. 'The game isn't beating Apple at its own game. The magic buzzword is to "differentiate" and show what your technology will do that Apple won't even care about, let alone beat you at. One possible answer: Help individual employees be more effective at their jobs,' Lewis writes, outlining four business features to target, not the least of which would be to provide UI variance, enabling serious tablet users to expose the OS complexity necessary to do real work."
Help individual employees be more effective at their jobs,'
Really? Gosh, Apple would never think of that! How many other vague, handwaving ideas like that can they come up with?
Didn't Microsoft spend about a decade failing to get any traction with their windows tablet PCs before Apple came along and showed them how to do it right?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
All of my corporate clients have iPads, yet even the least informed immediately realize the limitations of not being able to run any real desktop or access the company files.. While consumers could care less, businesses will adapt anything that improves productivity while conforming to security's infrastructure.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
On the other hand, with a move to more web based applications you can now easily access your data from a device like an ipad...
Plus since the ipad doesn't store any data locally, it's less dangerous should it go missing.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Reading the article I get the impression that this guy would like emacs org mode. Very similar ideas. The added bit is that he wants to embed other files in the document. And to top it all off instead of using a file as an outline, he wants to use a file system. That way you don't have to embed anything. It's just a normal file.
In spite of myself, I think it's a brilliant idea. I'm not sure why he thinks Microsoft will understand it. This is a Un*x idea through and through. Use the file as the lowest level metaphor in the system. Build tools that allow you to operate efficiently on files. I don't think it would be very difficult to implement. And I don't think it has anything to do with tablets. It's just a good idea period.
enabling serious tablet users to expose the OS complexity necessary to do real work.
Isn't the "real work" stuff like the "true Scotman" ?
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
I wholeheartedly agree. I believe the merits of these new table devices are their simplicity and, well, lack of thunder underneath their case. That's not to say they are inferior; they are well capable to fulfill their users' needs. But they probably pale if I compare their hardware to my full-featured convertible I bought four or five years ago. I should point out that it was heavy as hell, and its batteries barely survived the three hours mark.
I've also skimmed through what the article proposes. Well, actually, it doesn't propose that much. It's rather vague and I think, the author is oversimplifying many aspects. The devil in the detail might come to bite the author's ass if he ever tried to build such a system. For instance, what's up with the Triple UI approach he described? I don't know how he envisioned the details here, he's a bit light on that, but if it's anywhere near where I suspect he's trying to go (and I'm really guessing here): It may sound good on paper to empower the user with everything, but overconfidence may lead to people breaking stuff.
You could say the same thing about their handset opportunity, or their MP3 player opportunity, or before that their PDA opportunity.
They have no special advantage here, they're late to market, they have a sort of half baked touch / non touch solution coming out, their software is generally badly regarded, their prices too high, second class maps, second class webmail, second class search.
Anyone of those could be a disadvantage, but to have them all in one package.
Put it this way, I wanted to track my stocks, I am normally a Visual C++ programmer, but I decided to write it in Java for android. It's just easier runs more stable for longer and the interface is better with touch. I would previously have written that for Windows, but there's too much C#, Silverlight, god knows what garbage on Windows. So Microsoft will go away soon enough.
But not yet, because it was still Eclipse on Windows that I wrote the app in, there isn't a good Android PC yet, big screen keyboard, port of eclipse. All of these would be trivial to do, but they haven't happened yet. So the end result is inevitable, it will just take time.
Advice Line's Bob Lewis needs to learn about computers. There has been windows tablets available for over 20 years. he has been able to go out and buy a Windows Tablet for years.
Hell right now even the new Fujitsu Stylistics are nearly the same price as ipads.
So what is this guy whining about? the fact he has not even bothered to look?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Amen. Plus I know a few business people who bring iPads to meetings, scroll up and and scroll down a few times and then take it back. They do nothing. If you really want a tablet for professionals and business people, make one with a responsive enough stylus with no parallax error.
"Real work" is not helped by "exposing the OS complexity."
Apple makes gorgeous meticulously designed products that make people's lives easier.
To combat this, apparently Microsoft needs to produce something that will make employees more effective at their jobs.
No. You're making the same mistake that Steve Ballmer often seems to make. This isn't about "combating" Apple. It's about market opportunities for Microsoft. Following Apple into the consumer market probably isn't a good move for Microsoft. Producing something targeted at business needs probably is. That isn't because targeting business needs will lead to them reducing Apple's sales, or even to them outselling Apple, it's because it is likely to lead to more sales and profits for Microsoft than they would otherwise have.Talking about "combating" someone else's success is hideously stupid.
unless it has automated access to every single aspect of your life.
Like every iPad I have used...
-- no sig today