Slashdot Mirror
Acer Pulls Back From Windows To Focus On Android and Chromebook
SmartAboutThings writes "More bad news for Microsoft: Acer is apparently rethinking their Windows strategy, planning to offer fewer Microsoft products and focus more on products delivered by Redmond's rival Google, in the form of Chromebooks and Android devices. This comes after Acer's second-quarter earnings call, where the Taiwanese company posted a surprise second-quarter loss, having unexpected lower sales and rising expenses. Acer's change of plans comes not long after Asus' CEO announced that the company would no longer make Windows RT products until Microsoft proves there's real demand."
One of Microsoft's biggest fears from the late 90s was that the web browser would become more important than Windows and instead of just being an application, it would become the platform. If only Microsoft had been nimble enough to change their strategy in the past 15 to 20 years...
Most people don't need fully kitted out laptops any more than you need an amphibious tank, or your own private GPS satellite network..
which is totally what she said
Isn't it slightly breathtaking how Microsoft has put more than a decade into CLR/CIL and all the .NET framework stuff, theoretically putting themselves in a surprisingly good position for multi-architecture support (given a software ecosystem dominated by proprietary applications from loads of independent vendors and substantial demand for legacy support: Linux and BSD do multi-architecture better; but only for situations where 'just ship the source, stupid' is considered viable, and Apple's 'if it were legal, we'd personally execute anybody who produces software compatible with OS versions older than the one we currently ship' approach allows them to bludgeon the ecosystem into compliance; but isn't a matter of technical sophistication), and then utterly fucked up their foray into ARM?
I predict a new version of RT will soon be shipping which will deal with problems the initial tablet encountered.
From what I understand, the problems associated with Windows RT cannot really be fixed via a new version.
Marketing this product as "Windows", which confused the market place. A true lack of applications. A completely locked-down hardware device. Being extremely late to an already saturated market. These are all reasons that RT failed to gain much traction.
In fact, from what I understand, the hardware itself is not terrible though WinRT is a love or hate thing.
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
Carewolf: "The Chromebook is a failure!"
Tupe: "No, the Chromebook sells quite well"
You: "No, they're not buing a Chromebook, they're buying 'that $199 laptop'"
Which would be the Chromebook right? So they're buying the Chromebook, which means that someone is selling it, right? Which means it's selling, right?
So what, exactly is the point of a tone that indicates that Tupe was wrong?
Or is your complaing "They are buying it wrong!!!!"?
They could fix this so easy and fast, but they don't because they are bull-headed and know what their customer wants (or, at least, think they do.)
If there is a mouse / keyboard, use the Win7 UI.
If there is a touchscreen and no mouse, use the tiles.
Regardless of the above, put a radio button in the control panel to easily switch between the two.
I just fixed Windows 8.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Yeah, when you go from 0.1% to 0.3% of market share, that's 300% growth, which far outstrips everyone else. Ask Microsoft how they feel about being the "fastest growing part" of the smartphone business since Windows Phone 8 also shares that particular title.
Note: I am not disparaging ChromeOS or Chromebook with this post, I'm only pointing out how useless the term "fastest growing" is when applied to a platform that has been on the market for like 18 days (sarcasm).
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.