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.
So if you remove loans you simply are left with all the people who don't need them. Costs don't go down the number of colleges needed to support that shrinking population does.
Similarly if you eliminate health insurance you don't decrease the cost you simply wind up having to close most of the hospitals.
MSFT at best makes a mediocre hardware product indistinguishable from 25 other also ran products in any given category. The one's that don't cost much, like mice and keyboards are around forever but no one can explain why or how since they're always nearly the most expensive models in a cheap hardware niche. But fair enough. For their other products like Zune and phones and now apparently tablets they'll make also-also-rans and a few people buy them until MS kills off the whole line. The only reason MS would have any reason to continue e.g. Xbox, which looses billions of dollars a year, is to keep their footprint in a market segment they think is important. This is the main reason, by the way, why MS tolerates horrendous engineering and manufacturing problems with Xbox that result in astonishing field failure rates - because they don't care and they don't worry. They're not trying to make money anyway.
So for tablets the question you need to ask is not how does this help MS but instead who else does this hurt. Which other companies could stand to lose money by people following MS down their rat hole? MS is always willing to pay to destroy part of any market because they have the money to do it. It's cheaper to do that than it is to develop viable alternatives.
They give you tiny increments of performance for massive price increases and they keep you locked in with poor one-off form factors. Whereas if they just abandoned spinning disk drives and built only SSDs for laptops and desktops they could make them absurdly cheap and fast in a very short time. But of course no one's going to do that because then consumers would actually be happy for a change.
A device which combines BOTH features of two standalone devices is doing WORSE than the combination of those standalone devices even though its cheaper and has the same performance. That's great.
The audio processing subsystem on the iPhone 4S used for Siri is quite sophisticated and while not on par with the state of the art out there, is a tremendous value. Perhaps we need to back to the 1960's when Grandpa 'wore' his hearing aid in his shirt pocket. I would think that a combination of the iPhone and the best earbuds you could buy would give most hearing aids a run for their money, albeit it would be ugly, heavy and cumbersome.
Seriously. Hasn't everyone already been 'empowered' to fix everything on their own? Help desks haven't been anything more that ticket cutting password resetters for years and years. Oh you have a problem? Yeah let me kick that up to level 2 and maybe they'll get back to you in a week or two.
The one where they build it w/o any customer feedback and stuff it full of things that no one wants and no one can easily work or use. Then publish no recognizable upgrade plan or strategy to move forward. Last but not least don't have any customer service or tech support apart from simply telling callers that it's not their problem but, for a small annual subscription they'd be happy to add your name to the email list of sales initiatives.
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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.
I am dubious of his conclusion though I am willing to hear his summation on this point.
The good old timey feeling of the late Renaissance
About sharing and self esteem as they all failed. School hasn't been about thinking or ability for decades. It's about feeling good about mediocrity.
So if you remove loans you simply are left with all the people who don't need them. Costs don't go down the number of colleges needed to support that shrinking population does.
Similarly if you eliminate health insurance you don't decrease the cost you simply wind up having to close most of the hospitals.
Think of it - massively parallel virtual Bonnaroo.
MSFT at best makes a mediocre hardware product indistinguishable from 25 other also ran products in any given category. The one's that don't cost much, like mice and keyboards are around forever but no one can explain why or how since they're always nearly the most expensive models in a cheap hardware niche. But fair enough. For their other products like Zune and phones and now apparently tablets they'll make also-also-rans and a few people buy them until MS kills off the whole line. The only reason MS would have any reason to continue e.g. Xbox, which looses billions of dollars a year, is to keep their footprint in a market segment they think is important. This is the main reason, by the way, why MS tolerates horrendous engineering and manufacturing problems with Xbox that result in astonishing field failure rates - because they don't care and they don't worry. They're not trying to make money anyway.
So for tablets the question you need to ask is not how does this help MS but instead who else does this hurt. Which other companies could stand to lose money by people following MS down their rat hole? MS is always willing to pay to destroy part of any market because they have the money to do it. It's cheaper to do that than it is to develop viable alternatives.
To bring to its homeworld.
Let's revisit that. In fact let's investigate this whole witchcraft thing. I don't think that's been settled yet.
Your medical information is protected, even from, especially from YOU by the idiot on the other end of the phone muttering "HIPAA"
They give you tiny increments of performance for massive price increases and they keep you locked in with poor one-off form factors. Whereas if they just abandoned spinning disk drives and built only SSDs for laptops and desktops they could make them absurdly cheap and fast in a very short time. But of course no one's going to do that because then consumers would actually be happy for a change.
A device which combines BOTH features of two standalone devices is doing WORSE than the combination of those standalone devices even though its cheaper and has the same performance. That's great.
Such as the Coast Guard, the Weather Service, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior.
So yeah please freak the fuck out and get your OCCUPY anarchist t-shirt in the gift shop as you exit.
And then screw it up unto death, like everything else.
The audio processing subsystem on the iPhone 4S used for Siri is quite sophisticated and while not on par with the state of the art out there, is a tremendous value. Perhaps we need to back to the 1960's when Grandpa 'wore' his hearing aid in his shirt pocket. I would think that a combination of the iPhone and the best earbuds you could buy would give most hearing aids a run for their money, albeit it would be ugly, heavy and cumbersome.
Insurance rarely if ever pays for good hearing aids. The most expensive ones are not covered.
The same way that the guy who discovered the disease gets to name it but the guy who cures it never does.
Is Bloggers!!!!!!
We be smarterest!
It's a real difference. An honest to god actual measurable performance difference.
Less buffering, more buffering? Will the Wii app still suck? Will their website still suck? Will all Android Netflix apps still app still suck?
Of course
Will wind up being a documentary for this generation.
Seriously. Hasn't everyone already been 'empowered' to fix everything on their own? Help desks haven't been anything more that ticket cutting password resetters for years and years. Oh you have a problem? Yeah let me kick that up to level 2 and maybe they'll get back to you in a week or two.
The one where they build it w/o any customer feedback and stuff it full of things that no one wants and no one can easily work or use. Then publish no recognizable upgrade plan or strategy to move forward. Last but not least don't have any customer service or tech support apart from simply telling callers that it's not their problem but, for a small annual subscription they'd be happy to add your name to the email list of sales initiatives.