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Comment by johnohara | Hacker News Reader

I read the blog.

The author's biggest miss seems to be the realization that the range of computational devices and their application is growing exponentially and that Microsoft doesn't necessarily need to be in every game.

The iPhone and iPad are examples of computational expansion not necessarily a complete paradigm shift.

Besides, some of the stuff MS has shipped in the past few years (Win7, Office20##, WinPhone, etc.) seems to run pretty well. They might not be quite so bleeding edge anymore but it sure looks like a bunch of people are working hard on their products.

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Hrm.

I think that the author's point is that they would be in a much better position if they were in every game. I agree.

Microsoft's biggest win is making people think they need them, and every platform they are not on is another chance for a customer to see that they don't need them to do their work. This is not the case with all of their customers, but I can't argue that it seems like a valid point.

Do they "need" to be on every platform? Not in the sense that they would fail as a company if they don't. Would it benefit them, their image, and their message? Without question.

Actually, it's a complete paradigm shift.

http://gigaom.com/mobile/uh-oh-pc-half-of-computing-device-s...

Somewhat wrong, there exists right a segment of folks whose only computer is either a smartphone or tablet.

By 2015 that will be bigger than the total world-wide amount of PCs..its a market MS needs to be in PERIOD!

Biggest miss would be having SB as CEO..

>Somewhat wrong, there exists right a segment of folks whose only computer is either a smartphone or tablet

Who are these people? And no, tweens and non working folks don't count, they wouldn't buy Office apps for their iPad or iPhone anyway.

> Who are these people?

The vast majority of the developing world. Many countries have never had wired internet but have 3G popping up everywhere. Hundreds of millions of people that have never owned and never will own a "desktop computer" are going to get smartphones by 2015.

Try to remember that the USA is less than 5% of the world's population. Most people don't have a desktop computer and never will. They're starting on smartphones now and as tablets become cheaper they will get those too.

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