And don't forget the upcoming windows 8. I think that they can recognize that Microsoft will finally offer something new. And maybe, the true rival for iOS and iPad format will come from Redmond, not from Mountain View.
I think it's a little early to say that Windows 8 will only make for an adequate tablet interface. Windows Phone shows they know what they're doing when they put their heart into it.
I don't think Apple wants to sell desktops at all. I think they'd like OS X gone in 5-10 years.
I suspect they're waiting for Windows 8 before making a big push. A unified desktop/tablet/phone platform is probably a lot more interesting, promotion-wise, than yet another smartphone.
MS isn't going after Apple. It probably can't, but it knows that if it delivers tablets and phones that can integrate with AD, Exchange, and other enterprise services and be a lot less locked down, they can steal Android's lunch and create a business friendly phone/tablet ecosystem.
If Joe and Jane Public buy those, that's great too. Oh, and they will because they'll feel comfortable with Windows, especially if they are told "Oh btw, you can have Windows on your phone and tablet as well as Office now, why bother with whatever Android is or that Apple stuff."
Its also a little silly to expect MS to not try to compete in these areas. Their Win8/Tablet strategy is big and risky and may or may not pay off, but conceding that realm to Apple and Google seems foolish. Personally, I like the idea of a "super tablet" that replaces my laptop entirely as opposed to this odd device that kinda sorta fits between my phone and my laptop.
That's like Microsoft saying that they did tablets well before Apple did iPad. Though true, the experience of thoese two devices is vastly different. Windows 8 looks very promising though...
Microsoft is the only company that can compete with Apple in the consumer software space. The difference between the iPad and the iPod is that a consumer tablet platform really plays into Microsoft's strengths as a platform company in a way the iPod and iTunes absolutely did not.
The traditional cell phone manufacturers will continue to use Android (or whatever) to sell mountains of cell phones like they have been doing for over a decade, but a tablet is a consumer software platform and after using Windows 8 it's painfully clear that only Microsoft and Apple really understand how to deliver such a platform.
It will be a two horse race.
The problem for Microsoft is that it will be Windows 8 v2 or v3 before is starts to match iOS feature for feature, and that's at least 2 years away. I may be on my 3rd iPad by then.
That wouldn’t be a new move for Microsoft. They have found some success with Surface and they’re expanding the line. However, they are making similar trade-offs to Apple where able. They may release a new, popular product, but it will just solidify the trends that people in this thread are complaining about.
This whole article got me excited! Maybe Windows 8/RT and Surface aren't a miserable failure. I'm hopefully because at the very least, this will force Apple to innovate harder.
Well they still have two OS versions (although Windows Phone 8 now shares the Win 8 kernel). The real question is if Microsoft's long bet on tablets and touchscreen PCs being the future of desktops is a good one. For once, I think Microsoft is aiming big with its OS, and that's something to be admired. It's going to piss of techies, but it has a real shot at making tablets and hybrid PCs more useful for everyone else.
Also, it seems pretty clear to me that Win 7 is going to stick around for a long time, perhaps even longer than XP. That'll likely be the go-to OS for techies and people building desktops down the line.
Weirdly this is exactly what Microsoft is doing with their tablets.
iOS is much more hampered in terms of doing 'real PC things' at this point so Microsoft has a good head start, even though Windows 8 isn't exactly the epitome of polish yet.
I'm in the minority who believes that Microsoft's tablet strategy is reasonable.
Their long-term goal is to provide tablets that look more or less like the incumbents (8-10 inch, light, 10 hour battery life, 9mm thin), but can also run any Windows app you want. But that's not possible for another 2 years or so of advancement by Intel and other hardware suppliers. So what do they do until then? Just wait? No, they release two devices: an ipad competitor that's not a hybrid, and an ultrabook competitor.
They may both have modest sales, but the Windows store will start getting populated with apps, and Windows 8 will become familiar, so that when they CAN actually build a 'perfect' hybrid, all the other pieces will be in place.
A year or two ago I would have sided with the dominance that the iPad exerts in the market and felt that Microsoft was doomed without a tablet available until Fall 2012, but honestly -- I'm about to switch from my iPhone to Android and purchase a Galaxy Note II as soon as I can get my hands on it and frankly I've got a Mac and several Windows PCs and I still prefer the clusterfuck that is Windows 8 over OS X. Interestingly I think Microsoft still has a chance.
The brilliance of the ipad isn't what it can do, it's what it doesn't do. E.g., Apple took away file management from the user, much like an automatic transmission takes away shifting gears from the driver. Consumers love it but enterprise IT is resisting for various reasons, so MS still has the advantage in the corporate world.
But I'm not convinced this 'all in one' strategy is the best way for Microsoft. If it's just Win7 with a fancy tiled interface, then it's really not that much different from their previous tablet efforts. It all hinges on getting good 3rd party app support. It'll probably sell higher volume because they are faster and more responsive than the last generation, but they'll be lucky to see half the sales of ipads in 5 years.
If you actually think about this for more than 5 seconds, you'd realise that they're releasing an OS that's both a successor to windows 7 and a tablet OS. It's like Apple merging iOS and OSX[1] and releasing it as OSX 10.8!
[1] yes, both have same core, but they have different set of functionalities. And they are gonna merge it somewhere down the road.
I agree with this. I am not sure if I see a compelling reason why Win8 on desktop should take off for businesses. It will be a transitionary version just like how Vista was.
Windows 8 tablets? Same story. Why would I as a consumer want to spend $600 to get a tablet with so many unknowns? What does it provide that the iPad currently does not provide? I keep wanting to find a good set of reasons but I can't. You just know what your $500-600 is getting you when you go to iPad and Android. Unless MS lowers the price point to $150-200 it will be a tough sell in my opinion.
The software side of things are very different though. Being a .NET developer for years (after coming from UNIX) I find myself using Java and open source languages more and more often.
If you are an ISV/entrepreneur I am just not sure if it is a good idea to bet the future of your organization on Microsoft's mercy. They keep changing languages/platforms like they change clothes lately.
Nonetheless, the next three-four years will be fun to watch.
I agree that Microsoft has several chances to get Windows 8 (I.e. the tablet plus computer OS) right, so this is just strike 1.
That said, Windows is already a minority computing platform (in terms of new devices sold) so perhaps it cannot be as complacent as it has been in the past. If Windows 8 flops monumentally, when Windows 9 ships in 2014 we may all be docking our pads or phones to a keyboard and/or 2160p wallscreen to use virtualized Windows (when we have to) running legacy software and ten year old microsoft licenses.
It'll be interesting to see if there is a convergence, though. As iPads get faster & Apple invests more in the iOS versions of their software, the iPad will naturally become a competitor to traditional laptops. The lack of a keyboard is a real drawback to that, though. The idea of Microsoft as the plucky upstart in that regard seems ridiculous enough to be plausible.
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