Microsoft admits it's '18 months behind' with Windows 8 slabs Microsoft's touchy Surface tablet and the wider family of the Windows 8 and 8.1 OEM "ecosystem" are 18 months behind where it "wants them to be", but they will soon start to put the clamps on the iPad, a Microsoft UK director is claiming. There are now plenty of touch-enabled slabbies in the UK supply chain, something that …
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The real problem is that no one wants what Microsoft is selling. Windows 8 in all of its incarnations is a horrendous abomination.
The Post-PC era is upon us, and Windows is OVER. The desktop-with-windows-and-office will continue to exist for some time yet, but it's no longer driving the technology world.
Microsoft has had to wait on Intel in order to build a tablet that represents the Microsoft vision. An iPad is like a moped while a proper Windows 8 tablet can be like a high-performance Sport Bike. In 18 months Windows 8 tablets will be cheap, with good battery life and can run Windows programs and Xbox games. Who will want an iPad when that comes to pass?
MS vision is hosing consumers, snuff oem, take over software market, break compatibility with win32 to force RT sales, spit on the face of pro and corporate users, sell your privacy to Bing advertisers and your freedom to NSA. So sure people are waiting for Ms to be able to enforce ita vision? Market data shows hemorrage instead, people does no longer wants monopoly and is running away in flocks.
An unified market is better if the monopolit allows anyone to live their lives and do business (oem, indie devs, corporate users) as in win32 era, but if the vision is take the cash and insult your customers just because you can (as Ballmer's business pla), anyone prefers a fragmented market.
Fragmented, only if Ballmerclown will be smart enough to survive Google and Apple's assault...
They just have to be able to write software that doesn't suck. Then a lean mean Windows would take hardly any space at all, give a fantastic experience, and totally fly on low-end low power Atom, ARM, MIPS or anything else you want to run it on. It would not require so much RAM and storage. You know, like how Linux works but with the Windows trademark UI. The proof that it is possible cannot be denied because it is presently shaming them in Android and iOS. They are just not able. Their programmers are just not that good. The fact is, they never were.
Pretty soon it adds up to "real money" (Long live Everett Dirksen!). The problem with time is it keeps slipping away. Eighteen months behind takes a bunch to catch up. In the meantime others have 18 months to get further ahead. All in all it is a losing proposition unless you can leapfrog to the next solution. Clearly Microsoft is trying with fancy dancers and magnetic keyboards, but splashy advertisers will only get you so far before you crash and burn. So, the big question is if Microsoft can thwart "the mythical man-month" problem. Personally, I have doubts.
He's right. Eventually the iPad will be marginalised.
Something else will be the next big thing and by then Microsoft might have a competitive tablet OS and no one will care.
If Microsoft wants to survive they need to work out what the next big market will be and start working towards that. They also need to shake the belief that the answer to everything is Windows. It may be that no one will want to buy Windows for Underpants.
The iPad really is crap in an enterprise environment and there may be a few bucks to be made building something better for that market. Unfortunately there wont be big money in it, just a few crumbs for the companies still hanging around in that space.
Even with their current message, MS don't seem to know what their current market is. They seem to be pitching The One Surface. But they are pitching it to consumers and enterprise, without tailoring the message for the markets.
Consumers consume stuff; they watch videos, email, browse the web and play games. All of which the iPad and Galaxy Tab do very well. In order to get a piece of this action, Surface will have to do these better, as Jobs predicted when he launched the iPad. That's a hard task, as iOS and Android are pretty good at what they do.
For Enterprise, it's going to have to do content creation better than a laptop. Another very hard task, as RT & 8 haven't exactly covered themselves with glory thus far. And do MS want to sell a Surface, or an OS license?
Surface is going to be joining the othe MS hobo, Zune.
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