Finally, with W10, Microsoft’s device strategy makes sense Microsoft stubbornly refuses to let go of making hardware, but now the reasons why CEO Satya Nadella has not followed his clear instinct to ditch devices (except Xbox) are becoming clearer. We have analysed many times why Microsoft should not make smartphones and tablets, mainly because of conflicts of interest with the OEM …
Why do you need anything more than a non-connected microcontroller in a refrigerator?
Actually, why do you even need a microcontroller in a refrigerator?
Really, thermostatic controllers, simple circuits, should be fine.
Manual adjustment of the setting on my old one seems to do alright, too, except on overnight violent changes in temperature, which sometimes ruins green vegetables by freezing them.
Actually, why do you even need a microcontroller in a refrigerator? Really, thermostatic controllers, simple circuits, should be fine.
That's ridiculous, we know what you really want. You want the dream kitchen from Terry Gilliam's hit film, Brazil. It's being installed at your house right now. You're welcome.
We're also taking the opportunity to replace all of those old, out-dated controls on your vehicle's dashboard with a new touch screen. Our conveniently nested menus will replace those cumbersome radio knobs and buttons, temperature and fan control, seat settings, window control, wind shield wiper control and steering wheel.
Again, you're welcome.
"Why not? It's been working well with Linux for years."
The interfaces differ and that's the layer which needs to respond to form factor. My laptop runs KDE4 with keyboard & mouse. My MythTV box interface is menu based with a remote control. My router has a web interface or alternatively a command line for better customisation.
But they have a prioritized plan to give you everything FIRST.
Cloud FIRST
Mobile FIRST
Crystal Clear Strategy FIRST
Unified User Interface for Nursery Schools FIRST
Unified Code Base For All Processors FIRST
Unified Application Code Base for Nursery School Coders FIRST
Software As A Service For Sadists FIRST
Walled Garden For Weeds FIRST
Security Holes On Subscription FIRST
User Support On Hold or Gone Lunch FIRST
Unknown Updates On A Random Basis FIRST
Unwanted Stealth Downgrades FIRST
Borking Platforms FIRST
Buying Burning Platforms FIRST
Building Burning Platforms FIRST
Dumping Burning Platforms FIRST
Dumping Employees FIRST
Dumping On Customers FIRST
Share Buybacks FIRST
As Paper clip Bob first said: What could possibly go wrong?
same bleedingly obvious points in a post a few weeks ago, and far more concisely than this article, also with a little history, and a couple of comments about the possible scope and results, a little deeper than those in the article.
Does not mean that I will be buying integrated MS technosystem, but as I said in the earlier post, kudos to them for really trying.
The Reg has also reported on Macs, Chromebooks ( and has done so in this very article, FFS!) and today has reported on a possible Linux laptop from Xiaomi.
The nicest thing that this article said about the Surface Book was that "The Surface Book has a decent chance of becoming a successful device in its own right", which is not an unreasonable assessment.
If other laptop vendors follow MS's example - which is the gist of the article - we consumers will have a greater selection to choose from. As it is, most of them only offer 16:9 screens, whereas the Surface Book has 3:2.
You might prefer 16:19, you might prefer 3:2 or 16:10, whatever; choice is good.
Honorable downvoter (s),
Please extract your thumb from wherever you're keeping it, cut it off and have it express delivered to Microsoft. I've got nothing to do with this business whatsoever and have no influence over the goings-on. I am simply reporting, somewhat topic related.
I didn't downvote you, though your news doesn't exactly excite me. But I was wondering if you have a helpful link to something that elaborates on your statement? It sounds like Microsoft have finally realised that in-place upgrades is perhaps not the best way to shift their product.
Maybe. It's a risky strategy though given that any pincer movement is only possible if each side is big enough to surround the enemy and is strong enough to avoid a break out.
I'm not yet convinced that Windows 10 is going to do it. I'm not saying that it can't - it's still relatively new and can change - but the various criticisms made of it so far will make it difficult to justify going down that route on all platforms, not to mention that some form factors will be difficult at best to overcome.
As far as the smartphone market is concerned, the only way that Microsoft's laughable market share can improve is at the cost of one of the competitors but I suspect that Apple may be more vulnerable given the sheer number of companies using Android on their devices. To look at Android purely from the Nexus point of view isn't really a realistic way to do it, especially given the increasing effect of Chinese and Indian involvement in the market. The thing is that the brand loyalty of Apple and the size and variety of devices across the price ranges of Android will continue to make heavy going for Microsoft.
As far as gaming goes, I doubt that gamers are as interested in the system that is being used to run the system as they are in what the system is being used for. Microsoft needs to be very careful about what they do here as they have already had one disaster with the XBone which left a degree of mistrust in the gaming community. Forcing a cross-platform infrastructure on them that might cause a similar backlash could kill the XBone and any successor.
But then we get back to this whole business about the convertible laptop/tablet system such as the Surface and others and what will become of the traditional desktop and laptop. As ever, we are being nagged at that the traditional PC is on its way out. For years the press and manufacturers have been going on and on about replacing the desktop PC with mobile devices including the laptop, the netbook, the ultrabook, the smartphone, the tablet and whatever comes up next. Yet the PC is still here.
There's reasons for that. Yes, all of the other devices have their uses but they fail because the PC has a number of advantages that these mobile devices don't have. At the very base, the PC is a general purpose device that can be used to do many different things. It's only disadvantage, when compared to these other devices, is that it is not portable. Because of this, however, there are plenty of jobs that the traditional PC does that people will continue to do for some time yet with a PC. Windows 10 is a better fit for PC use than Windows 8.x was but it still insists on pushing users towards a mobile platform in some places, hence why some Windows 7 users are reluctant to shift (I'll say nothing here about the other reasons; that's been hammered into the ground!)
So Microsoft's strategy makes sense only in that it is trying to bind users to one system which means money for Microsoft. If it works, then I'll say no more, but it makes too many assumptions and could mean that this strategy could be a much bigger failure than Windows 8, the XBone, Vista, the original Longhorn, Me, Zune or Microsoft Bob.
It will work to some extent. Even if only from the spillover of retired legacy systems and blind customer loyalty. MS have a huge share in the desktop market from which we seem to be rapidly transitioning.
Perhaps Win 10 is 2-4 years too late?
"""As ever, we are being nagged at that the traditional PC is on its way out. For years the press and manufacturers have been going on and on about replacing the desktop PC with mobile devices including the laptop, the netbook, the ultrabook, the smartphone, the tablet and whatever comes up next. Yet the PC is still here."""
This is because it is easier to say; "look!, something else shiny, buy!" than making a better version of a product people want to buy.
Add to it the fact that MS for decades has dictated to the industry what was acceptable and what was not, nothing escaped their iron grip, back in the day if they announced they were coming into your market segment, all you could do was either escape, prepare to get eviscerated or sell your business.
Eventually the chickens are coming back to roast.
The IT industry needs to accept the fact that it is more or less like any other industry, mature and boring, they have to recognize once and for all that people will use their computers like any other device, it will be used while it lasts and provides good service, like your dishwasher or your car.
Have an upvote.
My home and work setups include large-screen and multiple monitors. Not portable in the least. So I might as well use a desktop box, with its easy-to-swap hardware, longterm reliability, etc. For this use case -- a very common one, methinks -- tablets, laptops, and laplets are irrelevant.
How much user-monitoring telemetry is baked into Windows Phone? Anyone know?
> How much user-monitoring telemetry is baked into Windows Phone? Anyone know?
Nobody knows with regard to WM10 because it's not released yet.
WP8.1 is actually pretty clean unless you go mad with Cortana. Considerably cleaner than a Nexus in terms of packets sent home. Switch on Google Now and the Cortana exception goes away, as you'd expect.
I expect WM10 will have more telemetry than WP8.1 because that's the way it seems to be going.
If it does, I'm buying a Blackphone.
Never had the bad luck to own an Amstrad, but Acer produces pretty awful laptops. Acer Veriton mini-towers are pretty nice. Then Acer has the stupidity to continue to sell its boxes under the more poorly regarded eMachines, showing its total lapse of good judgement. If anything, eMachines ranks down there with Amstrad, the U.S. Packard-Bell, and numerous other brands now out of existence.
And someone has the lack of common sense to identify Acer as an important Windows OEM? Holy crap!
"Packard Bell was always a Hong Kong company, and for the last ten years has been part of Acer
Its name was a rip-off of HP - in reality there was no relationship."
Aside from the Acer connection, almost none of that is true.
Packard Bell was founded in LA in 1933, 2 years before HP was founded. It's not Hong-Kong based and it's name has nothing to do with HP and a lot to do with the founders being called Mr Bell and Mr Packard.
thanks for the correction.....its what happens if you believe Acer salesmen. I should have checked.
I think there may be a grain of truth there somewhere - I strongly suspect that when the Israeli company purchased the name from Teledyne to use on PCs it was with a view to create confusion with HP's products.
Whatever, the point remains their products were crap and they are now part of the Acer range of crud.
The "unified experience across all screens" seems to me to neglect the important part of all equipment design, that of matching the interface to the human form. For reading and writing documents, something around A4 size is near optimal for human eyes. Pen and paper and full-size keyboards suit adult hands reasonably well. For mumbling sweet nothings, "I'm on the train ... love you," and so forth, a tiny, lightweight box with a few buttons may be rather more appropriate.
Readers will doubtless think of other examples where the singular Windows I/O paradigm is not optimal. What the world really needs is a simple, consistent and reliable operating system onto which appropriate interfaces can be grafted to match our hands, eyes and ears to the various new devices that are supposed to enhance our lives.
""What the world really needs is a simple, consistent and reliable operating system onto which appropriate interfaces can be grafted to match our hands, eyes and ears to the various new devices that are supposed to enhance our lives.""
An OS is far from a simple thing.
I agree with you completely, you can build the best hammer in the world, but if the handle is too small is useless.
> The universal apps scale and adjust depending on device
I totally need unified versions of Photoshop, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Pro Tools, Media Composer, and Ableton Live on my phone - just as I need a 32" monitor to really enjoy Candy Crush or to send an SMS.
Here's an idea: perhaps the basic premise is stupid and wrong?
>Here's an idea: perhaps the basic premise is stupid and wrong?
Maybe. But maybe the truth lies in the middle?
Some of your productivity apps have a place on a tablet - especial things like Photoshop (stylus) for roving photographers, or a slider-heavy work space in Ableton (multi-touch). Indeed, maybe your workspace is spread across a PC monitor and a tablet, as Photoshop and DAW applications already support?
Interesting times.
It isn't just the screen which needs to scale.
I'd dread to think what a "unified app" version of outlook would do to your phone battery... unless the application runs in the cloud and "unified app" is just MS replacing HTML with a proprietary windows GUI.
Hmm, I think that might lend clarity to proceedings.
Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see a case for a remote gui which isn't based on hyper-text transfer protocol tech - but I don't want to see various sorts of CALs attached to it. It should be free, or people won't trust it and it should be portable cross-platform, not subject to a corporate whim.
>"What the world really needs is a simple, consistent and reliable operating system onto which appropriate interfaces can be grafted to match our hands, eyes and ears to the various new devices that are supposed to enhance our lives."
>>What? Like the Symbian OS?
That sounds like Linux plus your GUI-of-choice paradigm... dunno why you assumed Symbian.
What is harder is getting developers of applications (for Windows, or indeed Linux) to play ball. For example, it's 2015 and Photoshop still doesn't support ultra high resolution displays on Windows (Adobe blame MS, I wish I could knock their metaphoric heads together til they reach a solution).
Apple's history is a bit different - they have always published guidelines for 3rd party application UIs. Indeed, MS Office for OSX still has, gasp, real menus!
"What the world really needs is a simple, consistent and reliable operating system onto which appropriate interfaces can be grafted to match our hands, eyes and ears to the various new devices that are supposed to enhance our lives."
What? Like the Symbian OS? That went well. Shortly before that company disappeared up Nokia's backside, the "leaders" were talking about convergence. Even though Symbian had spent painful years making the core and UI systems work on diverse devices.
So Microsoft is demonstrating similar Schizophrenic thinking. Probably misplaced megalomania in the face a shrinking market share.
I wonder what windows 13 will be like?
"What ever Win13 will be it wont be called Win13 for the same reasons there is no Win9, possibly be called Win14?"
well actually.......Windows 9 was skipped to prevent versioning numbers problems with respect to Windows 95 / 98 / Me
but if you think out it, there has already also been Windows 1-3, with several subreleases, so by the same logic anything new named Windows 1x - 3x should also be blocked. I wonder if there are any programs left from Windows 1.0 which will run on Windows 10?
"It is imperative that W10 – Microsoft’s last chance to remain a company with its own OS rather than just a multi-platform service provider – succeeds.."
how? by forcing the OS to its user base? is that a sign of success?
since most people either don't bother or are not tech-savvy enough to know better, it may work.
but if M$ continue to ignore their users, more and more people are going to look elsewhere, as many comments of TheReg articles have shown ...
I don't envision any improvement in M$ business result, if they stubbornly continue in their current track. Though with their size, it will probably take some time before ill effects start being really noticeable.
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