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Microsoft: Surface Tablet May Alienate OEM Partners

Posted by Soulskill on from the damn-the-torpedoes dept.

HangingChad sends this excerpt from PCMag: "Microsoft this week admitted that its upcoming Surface tablet might hurt its relationships with PC maker partners. As first noted by the New York Times, Redmond said in a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that 'our Surface devices will compete with products made by our OEM partners, which may affect their commitment to our platform.'" The filing also made note of the difficulties in building up another app marketplace: "In order to compete, we must successfully enlist developers to write applications for our marketplace and ensure that these applications have high quality, customer appeal and value. Efforts to compete with these application marketplaces may increase our cost of revenue and lower our operating margins."

12 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by RudyHartmann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not only the Surface, but the Xbox can be a full blown PC with an interface just like Win8. What about the Microsoft Store? Sounds like the Apple store doesn't it? Just wait till Microsoft comes out with their own phone. This is another reason OEM's and deveopers are giving Linux another serious look. There is no viable alternative for them.

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    1. Re:They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by jhoegl · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Your logic is pretty flawed on the matter.
      What is at issue is the hardware, not the OS.
      Microsoft wants to develop their own hardware, that is fine. But who controls the UEFI restrictions? What club do hardware and OEM manufacturers have to belong to now to conform?
      With Windows 8's added requirement to conform to this standard, hardware will have to go through testing with MS, which historically has not been that great.
      Well now, MS holds the reigns on competitor hardware as well as its own. So... where does that lead the industry?
      They can either conform and deal with what is dealt, or find alternatives.
      We already see that Apples Developers are leaving due to this "controlled" approach, so what will happen to hardware?
      Personally, i think the next 10 years of computing will be very interesting or very depressing.

    2. Re:They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by masternerdguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Linux has already won. It has won the server and the mobile market.

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    3. Re:They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Informative

      Consumers can run Linux and not even be aware of it.

      It's step onto this side of the 90s timewarp you appear to be posting from.

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      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    4. Re:They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Linux has already won. It has won the server and the mobile market.

      I agree with you in a way. But a full blown win will be when you can ask any guy on the street what Linux is and get an answer..

      You can't ask any guy on the street what electricity is and get an answer.

    5. Re:They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by RudyHartmann · · Score: 4, Informative

      I just read this article on Forbes. It looks like they've come to the same conclusion I have.

      http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/06/21/microsoft-first-branded-tablets-next-their-own-cell-phone/

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      Oh, yeah! Wise guy, huh? Woob woob woob woob! Nyuk! Nyuk!
    6. Re:They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by aztektum · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just wait till Microsoft comes out with their own phone.

      They pretty much are. They've effectively turned Nokia into their "Windows Phone division".

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    7. Re:They're Concluding Microsoft Wants to Be Apple by datavirtue · · Score: 4, Funny

      Man, I ask people what browser they are using and I get panicked, confused looks.

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  2. Really? by geoffrobinson · · Score: 4, Informative

    You have to mention everything that could be a potential threat to your business in SEC filings. Not particularly interesting since this is "may do this, may do that."

    --
    Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
  3. OEMs key to Microsoft success story by aNonnyMouseCowered · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Failed? OEMs were the key to Microsoft's success! Much more than developers, developers, developers. That's why Microsoft was a bigger company than Apple for most of its history. For OEMs Microsoft was a benevolent dictator. Now Microsoft is a desperate despot willing to sacrifice its allies just to maintain its position as an influential tech company.

  4. Bears by Lord_of_the_nerf · · Score: 4, Funny

    As first noted by the NYT, they shit in the woods.

  5. doing what MS does best by pbjones · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It'll be second rate and fail. It's not because MS is bad at this sort of thing, it's because it can't concentrate of the user, and UI consistency, it doesn't need to be distracted by hardware design. There are still stupid differences in the way the parts of the Office suit work, and the UI should work the same way. An MS made tablet will be second rate because it isn't new, it isn't wanted. Just supply the software and let people who know how to build hardware do their job, MS has been doing it this way from the beginning, why change now?

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