Tough Times for Win 8 and MS

On top of fines and taxes, Microsoft got bad news on Windows RT, Windows 8, and Office 2013

...Demand for Windows 8 is also failing to meet expectations...

Microsoft...is looking like "a tired technology corporation scrambling to protect its cash cows on the legacy PC desktop and failing to gain traction in the new markets of note...

Microsoft vs. the world: The punches keep coming | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld


Let's hope they get it right with Blue and it turns around for them.

 

[chrisa]

Everybody knows the RT isn't selling and why(wrong form factor).

Are you sure that is why.

Yup.. it'll become more apparent as the year goes on. The 10" iPad is allready getting eaten alive from just Apple's own iPad Mini. 7" will be the de facto standard for pure tablets. You won't be able to buy one at 10" in a year or two.

And the cheap versions of the Surface Pro with the name SAMSUNG

Did you epect them to try and put one out at $2000, or did you expect them to go head on with MS?
If they are going to bring one out a lower price point - no surprise it isn't the same quality - there is also the little matter of the license fees hampering what they can spend on it.

*shrug*.. they just look cheap to me. Even the ones that compete at the same price point. Like a typical Samsung knockoff where they just 'get it to work'(or in the case of Apple just simply copying the design of the iPhone wholesale). On this part, Microsoft was probably very astute in actually designing one of their own. OEM's are not known for their design, only their speed of delivery, and if Apple has shown anything... the prospects of mobile products are enhanced greatly by good design.

 

[labeeman]

Yup.. it'll become more apparent as the year goes on. The 10" iPad is allready getting eaten alive from just Apple's own iPad Mini. 7" will be the de facto standard for pure tablets. You won't be able to buy one at 10" in a year or two.

That will apply to the Surface PRO also. You may not see one of those in a year or two.

 

[SIW2]

I wouldn't disagree 7 in appears to be getting more popular.

I don't think that is why it failed. It is far too expensive. Apple can get premium prices - that is what they are good at.

Is there anything with 8 on it out there at $200-300 ?

The 10" iPad is allready getting eaten alive from just Apple's own iPad Mini

It's not just the size - there is quite a difference in price between those two.

Even with the 7 in, Apple can get a premium.

 

[labeeman]

I wouldn't disagree 7 in appears to be getting more popular.

I don't think that is why it failed. It is far too expensive. Apple can get premium prices - that is what they are good at.

Is there anything with 8 on it out there at $200-300 ?

The only thing I can find is a Windows 8 phone but that is with a 2 year contract.

 

[SIW2]

Exactly.

Long while back I did a Poll here.

Win 8 adorers were convinced the world would fall over itself to pay 500 bucks for one of those things.

I pointed out then - $200-300 is going to be hot - at that time it didn't look like MS would be there.

So it turned out..

 

[Lee]

Excuse me there guys, but is Ray8 gone. Haven't seen his patented dislike for anything windows 8 in the past couple of days. I really did like reading his. . .whatever you might call it. . .fun to read. . .

 

[SIW2]

@ Lee,

Yeah, me too.

I might be mistaken , but I thought I saw he was reading one of these threads earlier.

 

[BillWindows]

Excuse me there guys, but is Ray8 gone. Haven't seen his patented dislike for anything windows 8 in the past couple of days. I really did like reading his. . .whatever you might call it. . .fun to read. . .

Who's Ray8, never heard of him.

 

[chrisa]

Yup.. it'll become more apparent as the year goes on. The 10" iPad is allready getting eaten alive from just Apple's own iPad Mini. 7" will be the de facto standard for pure tablets. You won't be able to buy one at 10" in a year or two.

That will apply to the Surface PRO also. You may not see one of those in a year or two.

We'll see. I think you're wrong primarily because it hits a brand new market that they have no real competition in. The iPad and iPad Mini are entirely different device lines and starting to coalesce around the 7" form factor and price, and the design of the Pro is lightyears beyond anything out of the OEM's. Lets put it this way, had I not explicitly looked up Samsung and Lenovo Tablet PC's for comparisons sake.. there is a good chance i wouldn't even know they exist. Most people i've talked to about the Pro know what it is at least by 'oh.. thats the thing in the commercials right?'

But make no mistake, the market won't support two different form factors of the same iPad, and with mobile smaller and cheaper(while providing the same functionality) tends to always be better.

 

[MrShowdown]

This was typed on the Surface Pro.

th
yes it was. Not only that, I sm using the. Keyboard with all ten fingers. I'm not correctingna mistakes, I've closed the browser three times by hitting the windows key , brought up the weather app, the finance app accidentally . its probably tkane me about two minutes thus far t omake this fespons. Pretty swedte

I'm not real good on English, but I think I know the basics.

This is my interpretation.

You were trying to deride the Surface Pro by pointing out that it was next to useless when typing, hence the rubbish above.

Unfortunately it backfired on you by admitting that you can type 72wpm at 94% accuracy.

Please tell me where I've gone wrong.

Anyway this has nothing to do with the Surface Pro, there are women that can type twice as fast as you with their thumbs on a smartphone.

My interpretation is:

pparks is trying to show you that he and on-screen keyboard isn't matching with his typing style.

 

[SIW2]

LOL, we all know he is your online best buddy.

Excuse me there guys, but is Ray8 gone. Haven't seen his patented dislike for anything windows 8 in the past couple of days. I really did like reading his. . .whatever you might call it. . .fun to read. . .

Who's Ray8, never heard of him.

 

[MrShowdown]

LOL, we all know he is your online best buddy.

Excuse me there guys, but is Ray8 gone. Haven't seen his patented dislike for anything windows 8 in the past couple of days. I really did like reading his. . .whatever you might call it. . .fun to read. . .

Who's Ray8, never heard of him.

 

[BillWindows]

LOL, we all know he is your online best buddy.

Excuse me there guys, but is Ray8 gone. Haven't seen his patented dislike for anything windows 8 in the past couple of days. I really did like reading his. . .whatever you might call it. . .fun to read. . .

Who's Ray8, never heard of him.

Maybe he's fallen head over heels in love with Windows 8 and the PIM and now he doesn't know how to convey his feelings.

 

[SIW2]

They'll be on honeymoon.

 

[Lazure]

I'm still waiting for someone to edit a tablet and replace the UI with an LCARS style interface. That would be interesting.

For those unaware, LCARS is the name of the interface used throughout the Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as on their little tablets and tricorders.

 

[chrisa]

Apple reportedly slashes 9.7-inch iPad orders due to iPad mini cannibalization - Yahoo! News

iPad Mini to bury 9.7-inch iPad in 2013, says DisplaySearch | Apple - CNET News

 

[SIW2]

Yes, of course there will be canibalization. Perhaps more than Tim thought.

Lots of folk want an Apple - if you can get for $329 - hey. Damn sight easier to put in your pocket as well.

Surface RT at $299 - still won't be an easy sell, but less daft than trying 500 bucks.

 

[BillWindows]

Yes, of course there will be canibalization. Perhaps more than Tim thought.

Lots of folk want an Apple - if you can get for $329 - hey. Damn sight easier to put in your pocket as well.

Surface RT at $299 - still won't be an easy sell, but less daft than trying 500 bucks.

The day they start selling Surface RT at $299, I'll buy 2, maybe 3, one for a Photoframe.

Downward Spiral, and now Plastic Phones

 

[chrisa]

Yes, of course there will be canibalization. Perhaps more than Tim thought.

Lots of folk want an Apple - if you can get for $329 - hey. Damn sight easier to put in your pocket as well.

Surface RT at $299 - still won't be an easy sell, but less daft than trying 500 bucks.

Surface RT at any price won't sell. Its the wrong form factor. What you don't seem to realize is people are buying the most capability at a certain form factor. Its not about the op sys, its not about the company making it, people want the most bang for their buck at a certain form factor. If you can fit a laptop and a tablet in a 10" form factor, you trump a pure tablet at the same form factor. If you can fit a pure tablet in a 7" form factor, you trump a pure tablet at a 10" form factor.

In order for PC's to survive, they need to pack *a lot* more power into the same mini-tower form factor such that said devices do things you cannot do mobily. Like dropping a teraflop card on a PCI-e slot. PC's have to push the limitations of computing such that you get software and capability that you simply can't get mobily. Why would people buy a PC in the form factor of a tower if it runs what can run on a 10" model?

 

[SIW2]

Yes, it would be better at 7 in.

But the price is crucial. 500 bucks will not sell it - whatever size it is.

I have been questioning for a long time what MS is planning to do in the lower price ranges - lot of action there.