Microsoft reveals $900M write-down on Surface RT tablet
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And as such, current Office is never really meant for Touch. So, I am guessing they were forced to bundle a pseudo-desktop along with RT to support Office which is also a cash cow. Would they have loved to remove Desktop completely? I would bet so.
Maybe Microsoft foresaw that x86 prices would fall, power would increase and battery life would increase etc., but they had to continue down this road and take a hit because they needed metro apps. My bet is that they were willing to take the hit. I don't think anyone in Microsoft had the impression that RT would come save the day. It is a necessity because of their new direction. If RT designs in app interest being generated, I would say that it did it's job to some extent. Of course, I don't know how this will play out but according to me, these are some very daring decisions being played out at MSFT and I would say better than Google.
I wouldn't be surprised if windows 9 or 10 perhaps would have you writing code once and deploy them to your new xbox, new PC, new surface, new Lumia and new smartwatch and who knows maybe even some sort of kinectified glass you wear all the time, Imagine the big win for hitting so many screen sizes with one codebase.
That's why you look for a CEO that isn't most people. The CEO isn't a service award you hand out to the general who won the most battles 30 years ago.
Please allow me to correct myself - Most people wouldn't have taken the bet nor have the insight to do so. Steve Ballmer or maybe Steve Sinofsky or someone did. And they are not most people.
It's a billion dollar strategy. Not easy to make.
Well, since it was lost, it was quite easy.
And it's not their first billion dollar down the drain strategy.
Microsoft has been chasing Apple since they released the Zune with some vague hope of success. The sad thing is there are a number of exceedingly talented individuals working at the company, it just sounds like innovation was strangled by corporate culture years ago (if it ever existed there).
They've been copying "things that work" for so long, and up until a few years ago, it just worked. And now that it doesn't, it seems that they have no idea what to do.
In that regard I think that the XBox team is probably the only well-ran unit in the firm.
The first XBox was basically a PC with an exact spec. The 360 was plagued by RRODs. I know 5 people who own XBox 360, and every single one of them was either on the 2nd or 3rd console due to malfunction.
The Kinect was not developed at Microsoft - the camera and original skeletal modeling is from PrimeSense (although later MS took over the software part, at least). It was a marketing response to the Wii, true - but it's a third party product they bought.
"Only limited to academic level research"? I had a chance to play with the commercial ZCam almost two years before the Kinect came out; And ZCam wasn't the first product.
> In that regard I think that the XBox team is probably the only well-ran unit in the firm.
Have they turned a profit yet? I suppose they have by now, but they went through at least 4BN in funding before they did (if they have indeed). It might be well-run, but without real evidence I can't assume that.
First WP 7 doesn't get upgraded to WP 8. Then you get a third OS for tablets. Then all they can come up with as a value proposition over iOS/Googdroid/AmazonDroid is Excel and a keyboard that makes a satisfying click.
MS certainly wasn't in the best position but they have many thigns they could take advantage of: huge cash stream, relationships with developers, relationships with OEMs, relationships in retail, relationships with corporate buyers, X-box live, Skype, Bing, etc. Despite all that they've managed to have little in the way of apps, installed base, mindshare, etc to show for the last 5 years in mobile. If this was all part of their master plan they need to be taken out back and shot in the dead of night.
I agree with the other comment: Ballmer isn't paid nine gazillion bucks to do what "everybody else" would do in his place.
I don't understand why HN Users need to single out MSFT/Steve Ballmer as making mistakes all the time. They have made mistakes but my point is - RT wasn't one of them. It's cool to analyze strategies without associated fanboyisms/ individual hatred.
Would you have said all of this about Apple around the time of the iPhone launch?
Figures on boxes will never match your actual usage so are meaningless.
What you said is true for almost all products - however, figures on Apple's boxes actually tend to match common usage, and have since at least 2007 when I started paying attention.
Had they been daring, the desktop would have been removed. Instead, Metro feels like a reincarnation of Apple's At Ease.
RT could have had a chance, but beyond the crayon colors, I believe the root cause was the bland, simple Metro interface. The textures, shadows and other elements of iOS 1 - 6 are engaging in a way that the flat interface is not. Side-by-side I'm always more compelled to pick up my iOS 6 phone over the iOS 7 phone. Or the flat-before-it-was-cool Blackberry.
When I visit a museum, people spend less time at simple modern art pieces. When I turn on pop radio, heavy layered beats dominate.
I might have bought an RT tablet if didn't feel like the Ikea of tablets.
So instead of having to make a single adjustment for applications(larger screen) microsoft built an entirely new interface and APIs to support that interface. New applications built for that interface are designed to replace traditional desktop applications and work well a variety of screensizes and both with and without touch input. The motivation behind this decision was to leverage windows' market penetration to build momentum for their mobile strategy. This isn't so much a strategy as an overwhelming desire to always leverage windows when entering a new market segment. It is a crutch that makes true innovation impossible.
The problem is that this 'strategy' is impossible. There is no such thing as a magical toolkit that can do what Microsoft wants. Instead, you have massive consumer confusion and applications that don't work well on non-touchscreen devices. Now Microsoft has to support new 'Modern/Metro' applications going forward on Windows for the foreseeable future. It takes resources away from the traditional desktop experience.
Imagine if Microsoft had simply taken Windows Phone and adapted it to a larger screen size. It would have used the same API and provided a considerably better experience for consumers(without any confusion) at virtually new development cost or adoption of a new toolkit/application experience for the desktop. The only thing microsoft would have lost was the ability to run mobile applications on the desktop. A dubious benefit to say the least.
RT was an interesting strategy and most people in Steve Ballmer's shoes would have taken the same bet. I strongly disagree as I know many other people did as well.
Intel has done everything they can to "prove" that their chips are ready, but they've done the same thing before. They partnered with Nokia and rebuilt their system for internet tablets into a general purpose system for mobile devices (including netbooks), then automotive systems. They released a chip for smart TVs and set-top boxes, then abandoned the entire line, leaving devices without firmware updates in certain devices (like Boxee). They've gone to great lengths to target smartphones and smaller tablets where the larger footprint would be a serious downside.
I will admit that intel has finally delivered a chip that is competitive with ARM on smartphones and smaller tablets.
I will agree with another commenter (either here or on the other story) that it is too early for the RT to be introduced as a product category. But I also believe that Microsoft has to succeed in getting a Windows product on ARM based on the NT kernel if they want to maintain their long-term dominance in personal computing, particularly for businesses.
They may have the wrong idea with trying to build a media consumption tablet built around applications in the same device as they have with Windows RT. I would suggest they take the opportunity with the 8.1 upgrade to support arbitrary compiled Windows applications, starting with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. (Both would likely be ported if that was possible.) That they embrace developers using Visual Studio 2012 to build applications on the device, not just for the device. I would suggest that they use Microsoft Installer (MSI) to hide the fact that the applications are compiled for ARM, call them "Universal Windows Applications" if they must.
I considered the Surface RT before getting my Samsung Chromebook (ARM) and went for the latter of both price and lack of support for Windows (Win32) applications on the RT.
Me, I didn't think it was that bad. Though I, too, wondered "why wouldn't I just buy and iPad?" Seems that's a question everyone else asked themselves.
I can't think of a single person I've talked to about purchasing a tablet that considers specs except for myself so that's hardly the motivator some would make it out to be.
There's exactly one answer to that question: office. 9 hours of office in a device the size of a pad of paper.
But the problem is, the exact people who would buy RT for that reason cannot use it or would not want it for a range of other factors (for example, it cannot join a domain).
And now with the new Intel chips there is no reason at all, because you can get 9 hours of office from a full Win8 tablet.
In other words, it isn't.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/why-bo...
Also, at least at my college, effectively no one takes notes with their laptops or iPads anyway. If they're out in class, it's for Facebook or something else totally unrelated to the class itself. Notes are still written down on good ol' paper.
i personally rather write in vim and output to latex... but to each it's own. I would have got a modern netbook with an extended battery and have 12hours of battery for writting on a decent keyboard.
My Macbook died a few months back, I tried the Surface RT a few days as a replacement. At first, it was strange, and my work flow suffered. But, alas, after a week, I was back to normal productivity.
It has been several months now, of treating the Surface RT as my main machine. I mostly work out of the desktop IE. Sometimes I will snap Netflix or Hulu on the side. I take the device to work, and not need to charge it (awesome). If I need to show the team something, I snap of the keyboard, and pass it around. Microsoft Office is great on the tablet. Since, it is my lady's, skydrive is not useful for me. But, it is for her. Her phone uploads everything to skydrive, and she can access the skydrive files, on the Surface. The Surface treats skydrive, like a normal drive. So, if she wants to upload a picture on Facebook (in the browser). She can select any file on the Surface or the skydrive.
Most recently, I updated it to the 8.1 Preview. Now that I have outlook, its been even better! The Surface has had constant updates from Microsoft. The first month we had the tablet, it was sluggish and IE, was not ideal. But, it did act as a full fledge browser.
This might sound like a glowing review, and it is, but the device is definitely first gen. Besides a few hiccups here and there I am still amazed at how much the RT can handle. At home, I hook it up to a monitor and work of both screens. The type keyboard is great. And, my lady and I will often watch a movie in bed or play some Wordament.
Microsoft did a terrible job of communicating what the Surface tablets do.
This is coming from a person who grew up using Mac OS. I only used PC's in my last few years of high school, then went back to Macs.
Except that I hate using Office, and my job doesn't require it.
Probably price is the only thing that matters here. Price and exposure. You can't compete with name brand -- no matter the merit -- if you can't beat them in price.
i'm shocked. really. i'm not trolling, belive it or not, but i fell like in a straight jacket using any iOS device.
Because they are expensive and completely locked down?
Never heard of such a problem on an iPad.
The Windows division might think it knows how to deliver a tablet-friendly OS, but really, it doesn't. It's clownville; they don't understand how to do box-level security (as on consoles) and they don't know how to do stability at the level required by a "mom" consumer product. (The Xbox group took Win8 and had to do extensive modifications in order to make it play well -- the original mandate from the execs were "run Win8 without any changes" and /that/ would have been a fucking disaster).
If Microsoft is serious about putting a real "tabletized" version of Win8 in consumer hands, they need to do a bunch of housecleaning and internal education. It's a mess.
My iPad has now reached the point where, if I don't carefully set it into Airplane mode, Battery drains in 24 hours, even when asleep. I don't know if it's my mail client, or a background task being woke up by a geofence, or one of the GPS/WiFi radios - but I can't reliably leave it sitting around for several days anymore.
So, now I get into the game of "Disable Location Services for All applications, Disable Notification Services for All Applications, Turn off all Radios - NOW, turn on a small handful of services, and observe for a week - if everything looks good, turn on some more - keep doing so until the battery starts draining in 24 hours, and then try and identify the errant applications"
My #1 gripe about the iPad continues to be battery draining because of background tasks. If I could only "Force" the iPad into NO MULTITASKING, Single Damn Application at a time and NOTHING else mode, Don't Check Email, Don't Check GPS, Don't play music, Don't Download - I'd be happy. The only reliable way I've found of guranteeing this is to power it down - but it takes a long time (90+ seconds) to power it up each time I want to use it, which kind of detracts from the device...
So, no - iPad is not perfect. I would say 50% of my time this trip, when I went to use it, battery was completely dead so I ended up with my MacBook Air sitting on my chest to do reading.
I guess another way of double checking this, is just reinstalling the Operating System from scratch at the Genius Bar.
Clearly the poster has a faulty battery.
If anything is clear it's that he uses a setting that activates the radios too often or an app that spams notifications. Without knowing anything else about his setup I'd implicate a busy push email.
And by carefully disabling every background process - what exactly do you mean? Other than mail checking - what user controllable background processes are there?
(The exception is VOIP and GPS apps, but they are not likely to be enabled without the user either being on a call or geting directions to somewhere.)
I certain I'm not the only person who has felt their iPhone get hot, and shut down everything in the switcher to recover the and stop the battery from draining?
Likewise with the iPad, making sure every music, every voip, every downloading, every geo-fence, every GPS, every-single-app is shut down is the only way I can keep my iPad Battery from draining after running a good handful of apps.
That, or just powering it down - which, as I said earlier, kind of defeats the purpose....
if you run an app and switch out then it can perform a network operation or a few other very specific tasks but they're all killed after 10 minutes anyway.
The whole multitasking part of iOS is basically smoke and mirrors. Manually quitting tasks is pretty much voodoo at this point
For higher end tablets the iPad is the winner, for the lower end the Nexus 7. For open-source junkies the only real choice is Google, regular consumers can use either (based on the popularity of Android).
Where does MS fit in? From their lousy image, to their WTF? commercials, their archaic business model and poor services, no one wants an MS product.
Would also like to clarify that the Surface RT is as useless as the iPad, if not more because of the lack of apps. Having Office on it might make it worth it for some people though.
Peace!
Despite the above, the specs, design and portability of the surface pro were better than anything I found when buying it . I get a tablet while still being able to work, which for me requires access to MS software including office. It's comparable with ultrabooks but with the stylus support and detachable keyboard it's just about in a league of its own, though some products are close nothing seemed as well designed, featureful or portable at the price.
RT w/ keyboard for $110 (retailed at $699)
Pro for $399 (retails at $999).
I tried picking up a couple to resell for profit but there is zero demand. Nobody responded to my ads on Craigslist, Facebook or Twitter. Ended up selling them for cost.
The surface would no longer be something to work into a routine because it was a big expensive toy but rather a system that has a genuine use case.
Hell, if they could get the worst rt into the ~300$-~350$ range Microsoft could compare an rt to a nexus 7 and that would be their best bet to get the most sales.
I feel like this might be part of Microsoft's problem; I definitely do not want to buy anything from that angry guy in the photo, even though I consider myself something of an MS fanboy.
I think every company (like Microsoft, Apple, Google did) need to maintain software and hardware divisions, if only to get the feeling what are the software current needs in an evolving hardware profile.
The last error is a real clanger:
> Revenue grew 10 per cent to $19.90 billion, also below the $20.72 million expected.
Based on those figures revenue was in fact up by about 20,000 per cent.
http://www.seattlepi.com/technology/businessinsider/article/...
Letting them launch the first diminutive Surface tablet and allowing that thing past Microsoft QA is a huge mistake on the part of Microsoft. I can't believe they allow their hardware partners to screw them that badly when they have facilities in place to stop it
They can't do much about some terrible laptop that shouldn't exist, but the licensing for RT is far stricter. How about using that ability and keep crap like this off the market.
The OP and the article are talking about the Acer Iconia W3 that runs full Windows 8, not Windows RT.
they should lower the $1k pro so then ipad and air would have decent competition.
It's not a bad device, there's just no real reason to own one over the competition at that price.
If they'd thrown in the keyboard case AND Office for the price they launched at, I think they'd have got a lot of traction. Maybe also fixing VPN so it's useful for business users.