Tablets might be a flash in the pan: Microsoft global chief strategy officer

Tablets will eclipse laptops and desktops for the same reason people eat dinner in kitchen/breakfast nook instead of the dining room. They are lazy and will make do with what is in front of their face.

The iPad, because of its form factor, follows you around the house. It's sitting on the kitchen counter. It's on the arm of your deck chair. It's portable in a way that not even laptops are.

It's the book you read because it happened to be on the shelf at your parent's house. It's dish you order at your husband's favorite restaurant. It's not the most powerful computing device ever to grace this planet, but it's there. It's immediate.

And maybe for the few of us who have a compelling need that forces us onto the laptop (development, design, typing, etc) maybe this is less true. Because once you're on the laptop, the immediacy of the iPad is sot of cancelled out. But for the vast majority where the iPad offers an OK version of everything they need, it will take over.

Ok but wait there are two points to consider here.

First off, Mundie said that he wasn't sure whether the big screen (12"+) tablet market would remain successful. That's a fair question as we're seeing a lot of other companies put their resources in the smaller 7"-9" screen market (Kindle, being the most popular if you consider it a tablet). Not sure I buy it, but with that statement he's not saying all tablets.

Secondly, I'm minded that everyone in the mainstream world thought that the NetBook was the next big thing - and that market has practically evaporated (in the Western World, at least). Same could happen to tablets, especially like NetBooks they don't actually replace an existing machine but instead try to create a new tier of need.

For Microsoft their biggest market is still enterprise and I'm yet to be convinced tablets have a massive value there given that we're seeing tablet usage orientate around content + information consumption not productivity.

Ultimately, however, I do think this is a foolish decision if it represents Microsoft's official position - they just cannot afford not to hedge their bets and have something in the tablet market even if they think the future is ultimately gloomy.

Paul Thurrott said it best. It was a verbal comment on Windows Weekly so I don't have an exact quote, but it was something like:

"If you're a senior exec at Apple, and you're looking at these bumbling boobs that are your competitors, you've got to be the happiest guy in the world."

I look forward to the Microsoft Computer Room

> "instead of seeing a screen it can beam individual rays of light into your eyes right on your retina ... [so] you can look at your phone and see HDTV"

I'd would love to see that in action, assuming safety is not a problem, of course. Making a "large screen" on something so small has a lot of applications, and is just plain cool.

A nice, concise explanation on why MS keeps missing revolution after revolution.

One thing to consider is whether the tablets will quickly become commoditized to the point where it doesn't really matter which one you buy. Unless the app market really takes off the tablet could become a pure consumer device like a TV - most people don't really care whether it's a Sony or Samsung. I often can't even remember which one I have since I just click the button and watch. In that sense it might not end up a big market for MS.

Interestingly, in the poll at the bottom of the article, 40% of 3800 people said they don't think tablets are here to stay. A lot higher than you would expect.

Personally I think they are here to stay, although I think their value is a bit exagerated. I used an iPad for a few weeks and I really liked it, but I didn't do anything I don't usually do on my smartphone. Doesn't mean I wouldn't buy one though...

He's just trolling, right?

I mean, this – there's absolutely no way in hell that this is something he truly entertains as possible.

I cannot fully wrap my head around the sort of mental structure that would allow someone to watch 2010 happen and then make these remarks. Of course, when you don't actually have any sort of credible plan in place to deal with a new, hot market, this sort of thing takes on the flavor of wishful thinking.

"Oh, no. The market realities haven't changed. We still get to keep making money by doing the exact same things we have always done."

Sounds like Intel.

"I believe the successor to the desktop is the room, that instead of thinking that the computer is just something on the desk that you go and sit in front of, [in the] future basically the whole room is the computer and you go in it."

Think he meant bathroom

Given the Xbox I'd say that Microsoft should own a large chunk of the tablet market — it would be sad if they just gave that up to Apple and Google.