Microsoft remains shackled to strategy after $900M loss

Computerworld - Microsoft's massive $900 million Surface RT gaffe may have been, as one analyst put it, "an absolute abomination" in operations, but the company will not -- cannot -- give up on the ARM-based platform, experts contended today.
"They haven't given up, not yet," said Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester Research. "Maybe in a year or two if, in fact, they're still struggling, but this is a determined company with a lot of cash and a large market presence."
Yesterday, Microsoft took a $900 million charge against earnings to account for a drop in the value of its remaining Surface RT inventory. As explained by Amy Hood, the company's new CFO, in a call with Wall Street Thursday, the charge accounts for a 25% to 30% discounting of the tablet as well as a write-off of an unspecified quantity of components and accessories, likely including some already-purchased parts that have not yet been used to assemble more devices.
But the company, which has repeatedly confirmed that it will remain in the hardware business, gave no hint that it would either dump the Surface RT specifically or scale back its plans to become a devices-and-services vendor.
Likewise, Microsoft will keep working the Windows RT side of the street because ARM, whose processors power virtually every smartphone, is critical to the company's phone strategy. With Microsoft bullish on its ability to merge the code bases of Windows Phone and Windows on the desktop, it would be idiotic to walk away from Windows RT.
Microsoft remains shackled to strategy after $900M 'absolute abomination' of a blunder - Computerworld

If M$ switches to ARM we can say good buy to all legacy desktop programs.
 
and if they do that,, they are only going to make way for Linux to succeed.
 

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and if they do that,, they are only going to make way for Linux to succeed.

If M$ succeeds there will be no X86 hardware to run your legacy programs when your hardware goes south so do your legacy programs it will be tough to find non ARM hardware. It did not take long for IDE hds to fade out.
 

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ARM devices won't replace x86 on the desktop anytime soon, nor will it replace workstation laptops, or high end servers. What it will do is replace low-end tablet, netbook and power conscious server platforms. ARM just doesn't have enough power to do things like run virtual machines, for instance. And it may never. ARM is what it is because it's low power. You start adding all those features, and it won't be low power anymore.

The whole point of this is to get rid of platform dependency. It won't matter what CPU it's running.
 

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Nah, I doubt that, if MS ends up locking down all systems and going the route of Apple
Trust me, 2 things will happen..... Android will step in for some things and Linux will fill the gap on Desktops
You will definitely see a huge increase in Linux Consumer products.
Now that Steam is on Linux, it would be a no brainier, and Linux would get a lot more dev support on 3rd party apps.

The only things holding Linux back from full consumer use and support is the Linux community itself and developers.
 

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The only thing that is holding Linux back that I see is developers. Developers are what is holding back RT at this time if M$ can turn that around look out. Walled gardens with no end in sight.
 

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The only things holding Linux back from full consumer use and support is the Linux community itself and developers.

Agreed - The Linux community is too diverse to be effective IMHO
 

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The only things holding Linux back from full consumer use and support is the Linux community itself and developers.

Agreed - The Linux community is too diverse to be effective IMHO

That diversity can make Linux more appealing because no one has complete control over the OS as M$ does.
 

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More appealing to whom? The paranoid and schizophrenic? Commercial software developers want a strong entity to stand behind the OS, and say this is what it is. They don't want to have 25 versions to support from 25 different entities, each with various configurations and environments.

On top of that, nobody wants to base their companies future on an OS in which half of it's user base is actively trying to destroy the other half. And by that, I am referring to the Open source versus Free Software camps. Every so often RMS cries wolf about some new critical threat to the freedom of the universe and sends out his legions of followers to demand everyone stop using whatever it is that has finally started gain some successful traction in business, and risks open source actually making some inroads.

Linux will never take over the market because it can never take over the LINUX market...
 

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Never say never. Looks like China Unicom is interested in being a launch partner for ubuntu phone next year. If that happens, it could be interesting.
 

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Never say never. Looks like China Unicom is interested in being a launch partner for ubuntu phone next year. If that happens, it could be interesting.

Who? Suppose it will be as interesting as Psion or Maemo.
 

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The only things holding Linux back from full consumer use and support is the Linux community itself and developers.

Agreed - The Linux community is too diverse to be effective IMHO

That diversity can make Linux more appealing because no one has complete control over the OS as M$ does.

And this is a very bad thing, because no one really controls linux, its quality is like students homework... Steam for linux doesnt mean almost anything also, because there still is almost no games, and the ones which are, quality and performance is not even close to their windows versions, baby :)
 

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China Unicom have 300m subscribers. Not exactly small fry.

For those of who who think the world begins and ends at the US borders, Verizon are talking to Ubuntu now.


Never say never. Looks like China Unicom is interested in being a launch partner for ubuntu phone next year. If that happens, it could be interesting.

Who? Suppose it will be as interesting as Psion or Maemo.
 

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China Unicom have 300m subscribers. Not exactly small fry.


Never say never. Looks like China Unicom is interested in being a launch partner for ubuntu phone next year. If that happens, it could be interesting.

Who? Suppose it will be as interesting as Psion or Maemo.


Ubuntu was interesting for a minute. Unfortunately, their progress and development is even further behind MS at this point to even care. I'm betting MS gets the common app store done before Ubuntu sells 1 phone.
 

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Hard to tell how it will go. Ubuntu offer a full os on a phone - a long way ahead of MS.. It is also open source. Much depends on whether the carriers think it will appeal to the public. They are showing plenty of interest right now. It is not planned to be released till next year anyhow. No sense in rushing something out before it is ready. I have no idea if the public want all that functionality. They seem to only want android/ios capability. We won't know until/unless they get the chance to buy it.
 

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China Unicom have 300m subscribers. Not exactly small fry.

For those of who who think the world begins and ends at the US borders, Verizon are talking to Ubuntu now.

I was being sarcastic.

Verizon at one point or another has "talked to" everyone. There have been a dozen different Linux based phone OS's in the past.. It's unlikely this one will gain any more traction than the last. Even so, Verizon has been selling Windows phones for a decade.. so what?
 

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There is a possibilty of Ubuntu emerging into the market place. No idea how it will go . We will see. It is in a different league from previous Linux efforts. It is a different market. I wouldn't write it off just yet, there is a lot more going for it than earlier attempts.

I don't know if it will happen, but it could. The conditions are more favourable than ever.

It would be good if Ubuntu could gain a decent share. The more players, the better for competition and for consumers.

FF os is interesting. Not a full size os, but there is a huge potential market for that.
 

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More appealing to whom? The paranoid and schizophrenic? Commercial software developers want a strong entity to stand behind the OS, and say this is what it is. They don't want to have 25 versions to support from 25 different entities, each with various configurations and environments.

On top of that, nobody wants to base their companies future on an OS in which half of it's user base is actively trying to destroy the other half. And by that, I am referring to the Open source versus Free Software camps. Every so often RMS cries wolf about some new critical threat to the freedom of the universe and sends out his legions of followers to demand everyone stop using whatever it is that has finally started gain some successful traction in business, and risks open source actually making some inroads.

Linux will never take over the market because it can never take over the LINUX market...

Agreed - The Linux community is too diverse to be effective IMHO

That diversity can make Linux more appealing because no one has complete control over the OS as M$ does.

And this is a very bad thing, because no one really controls linux, its quality is like students homework... Steam for linux doesnt mean almost anything also, because there still is almost no games, and the ones which are, quality and performance is not even close to their windows versions, baby :)



Thank you, you both made my point very clear.

But, Linux community and Dev's don't have to support 25 flavors or even 2, get behind one good one.
The community and devs, and the consumer will ultimately decide that. That is how the free market is supposed to work.

Yes Yes, don't cry me rivers of MS did this and that, so did Apple, so has Google.

These are the supposed 3 evil companies and MS is the most Evil, even though, Apple is far more locked done and anti competitive than MS.

Besides,, people b1tch and moan about how they can't do whatever on Windows and getting dismayed by all the things MS are doing now. This is Linux community time to jump and act, but they will remain isolated cause they have no head.
 

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Doesn't matter. If the Ubuntu thing happens, other distros etc are not relevant. The public will not be aware of them. Only Ubuntu will be on offer to them.

FF os got off the ground. The carriers don't seem to think it will confuse the public. They are delighted to offer a platform that is different.

It is clear what the market for FF is. It is unknown what the market for Ubuntu will be - nobody yet knows if the public want a full scale os on a phone. We don't yet know how Mark Shuttleworth's idea of one os for all devices will play out. He is sensble enough to make the UI similar, but not identical across all devices. Maybe the public will love it - maybe not.

It is all about the marketing.
 

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Linux is Medusa, all the little snakes biting at each other thinking they can do it better rather than synching their resources into one system and sticking with it.

This confuses the consumer and creates chaos that they are going to have a hard time recovering from till they get their act together.

They have a golden opportunity here and they (Linux community) will squander it.
 

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