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Microsoft To PC and Tablet Makers: You're Not Our Future
snydeq writes "Microsoft's plan to build its own Windows 8 tablets puts longtime allies in peril — and it may be the right thing to do. 'In announcing the Surface tablets, due to be released this fall, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cited Apple's advantage (without mentioning Apple) of integrated software and hardware. "Things work better when hardware and software are considered together," he said. "We control it all, we design it all, and we manufacture it all ourselves." ... Like Apple, Microsoft will hire a few PC makers to do the actual production work. But the need for 20 brands of me-too laptops, tablets, and convertibles is low. Manufacturing sophisticated electronics is a skill requiring manufacturing innovation. But all those branded-but-otherwise-undifferentiated PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones just aren't needed in the vision Ballmer sketched out yesterday.'"
This maybe the smartest move microsoft made in the last 15 years
That's good news for the customers, because in order to penetrate the market Microsoft will throw shitloads of money at the development of their new hardware toys and essentially give them away underpriced and possibly at a loss.
All we need to find out is a way to hack them and install Linux on them, and there it is, your super-cheap Linux tablet. :-)
So now all the PC manufacturers need a non-MS alternative... this could be the year... sounds good for EFI being able to boot linux after all!
blog.sam.liddicott.com
All of the recent commentary about MS rupturing their alliance with OEMs is overblown. Microsoft is stuck with OEMs because they don't have the resources to supply an entire computer market with their own hardware. OEMs are stuck with Microsoft because Apple won't license OS X and most consumers won't want linux for the foreseeable future.
MS will make a flagship tablet, which will showcase Windows 8 in the way that they want to show it (without manufacturer bloatware etc). The OEMs will rush in and undercut MS with a range of comparable but slightly cheaper options, and life will go on.
To be honest, I have 4 tablets in my house. One I use constantly for travel and three others for the wife/kids. Do they use them? sometimes but for me I have a Laptop, a Desktop and other systems to use. The tablet form factor is nice and it does provide a needed distraction from the obnoxious guy sitting behind me in 10A on the flights. I've also seen people now diligently taking their tablets everywhere, as if they're so much jewelry. Today I went to lunch and next to where I was, there was a young couple. Both with tablets, both watching stuff, exchanging e-mail and not really talking to each other. So why go to lunch together if you're not going to be part of the actual experience. Yes, it could be laptops, eepcs etc. but it's simply amazing the tools we now have that actually discourage face to face communications. Oh yeah, I can Skype too but that's beside the point.
Microsoft for jumping into this with a "Me Too" approach seems to be too little, too late. Much like their phones. Maybe they'll sell a few but right now I think the market is saturated by Apple and all of the Android based models out there. This move will also alienate them from a lot of their tried-and-true supporters, the Toshibas, the HPs and the ASUSs for example.
Well, let's wait and see in two years to see if it makes sense or if Ballmer will do his Monkey Boy Dance again!
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Perhaps MS are using Nokia as the OEM - stranger things have happened, but if they're not then Nokia are fucked. If they were intending to release a tablet of their own then good luck trying to sell it when Microsoft have sucked up all the oxygen out of the room.
I imagine Nokia own a fair few patents. Wouldn't surprise me if they hold stock in other businesses.
Sooner or later, the value of that will be far greater than the value of their shares - and when that happens, the asset strippers will move in.
MS is selling tablets in order to sell Win-8. That's it, that's the only reason. They're hedging their bets that Win-8 won't catch on so they're going to sell devices that have to run it. When after a few years they discover the error of their ways and realize that Win-8 is a niche product and that tablets haven't taken over the world, they'll drop Metro and they'll drop tablets.
Slashdot links are rel="nofollow", which means Google doesn't count them. So no.
Remember when Microsoft ruled the world because they left the dirty, competitive, low-profit-margin work of making actual hardware to other companies? Remember when "beleaguered Apple" was going broke because they still foolishly insisted on making computers instead of licensing their OS to cloners? Remember when mighty IBM fled from the PC business because they just couldn't make it pay?
I'm puzzled over how and why everything now tilts the other way. What changed in the world around us?
The smaller makers may have two choices, throw in the towel or embrace Linux. If Microsoft is throwing the hundreds of smaller makers under the bus then they have to focus another OS. They may unintentially create a third OS option for the average person.The software support has been slow in coming but more game engines like Unity are supporting it and all it would take is a truly user friendly version and maybe a portable version to support the indy tablet makers. Create a Linux app store that works like iTunes and provide a good retail option for movies and music and people could flock to it. Look at it this way, Apple can't hog the retina displays forever and what are the odds of Microsoft not shooting itself in the foot? Apple is closed source and Microsoft tends to be on the twitchy side when it comes to hardware and security. Linux could provide an open platform for development without all the jumping through hoops of Apple. I want something a little more like the early days where you could store any kind of files on portables. Also I want more storage which Apple has been loath to do. Imagine a 256 gig iPad that had a full desktop OS and allowed you to store and transport files and sold for $1,000 to $1,200. A bigger screen and 2560X1440 support would be ideal. The point is a desktop replacement that is completely portable and not in the way a notebook is but think, light and instant on. Something that you could walk out to the living room and stream a movie to the big screen or even stream a movie at a friends house to their TV. Bundle in a DVR so you can record your cable programs and have it completely portable. There's no technical reason you couldn't bundle in a TV tuner and an HDMI and tap into TV that way. Don't compete with the iPad make it something else that is more of a media and desktop Swiss Army Knife. Make a tablet that has everyone saying why doesn't iPad do all this and with the security and stability of Linux. Come up with an accessory Blu-ray player that was the size of a Walkman and I could get rid of more than half my electronics and replace them with something I could hold in one hand.
Dell Launches Laptops Pre-Loaded with Ubuntu Linux in 850 Stores Across India: http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Dell-to-bring-Ubuntu-laptops-to-850-retail-stores-in-India-1620657.html This was announced on the SAME day that Microsoft announced the Surface RT and Surface Pro. It seems that the OEM industry is secretly betting that Linux Desktop will overtake Windows in the huge Asian market. This is interesting considering that Valve is releasing Steam for Linux and that EA and other game companies are interested as well. They are predicting that Linux will be a big win and replacement for Windows in the long term. earlier... Dell Launches Laptops Pre-Loaded with Ubuntu Linux in China: http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Canonical-Dell-bring-Ubuntu-laptops-to-220-Chinese-retail-stores-1368347.html The OEM's are the BIGGEST CLOWNS for not jumping on Linux earlier to counter the Microsoft threat to their eco-system.
It's really too bad that Google Chrome (the OS) had to have this radical dependence on remote storage, because I image hardware manufacturers like HP and Dell would really buy into it now that they're competing with Microsoft on the hardware front and that means they're going to have to support Android. If they're going to support Linux they might as well go all in.
Really, companies like Canonical should be setting up meetings with hardware manufacturers pronto. Imagine "Ubuntu Dell Edition" -- a version that includes drivers that will support all Dell hardware configurations from 2012+ (but leaves out the unnecessary ones). Ubuntu HP Edition, etc. The biggest problem with Linux is the same problem Windows has - it has to support so much freaking hardware that support becomes a nightmare. The advantage Windows has is that most of this is setup for the user when they purchase the computer. All these hardware manufacturers will probably now realize that their dependence on Microsoft these past couple decades has put them in an extremely vulnerable position. They should have realized it when the XBox came out.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."