Why Microsoft's Surface RT Failed | Hacker News Reader

Why Microsoft's Surface RT Failed

mashable.com

6 pointsrbanffy5 comments

A: It's too early to tell if it failed. B: If it were to fail it would be exactly why every other Microsoft failure has ever failed. It is simply ahead-of-its time. We all know that Microsoft had smartphones and tablets years (not decades, but close) before anyone else. The only reason that they failed is that they offered too much - consumers were simply not ready for those capabilities and those capabilities scared them. The iPhone 1 was stupid enough (sorry, it's true, my HP IPAQ or HTC TyTN II could do more than the iPhone 1 could ever do) to not scare the market.

A confusing name: Is "RT" all that hard, or if it really does confuse someone "that Microsoft tablet" would work just as well. Where are the apps: true. A better alternative exists: no. A simpler alternative exists. The market isn't ready, let's not confuse consumer perception with complexity.

Mark my words, in 6 years time Apple will come up with exactly the same thing and everyone will lose their minds over how innovative and truely revolutionary it is: simply because the market is ready for a product such as that.

Let the Surface RT (and WinMO) be a lesson - you might have a game-changer of an idea, but it is worthless until the majority of the market able to comprehend what you have to offer.

A: No, it's not too early. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6067152 Microsoft have taken a $900 million write down for it. That's not something you do for a success or success-in-the-making.

B: All of Microsoft's failed products (of which there are many) are ahead of their time? Or maybe most were just not properly executed? Occam's razor and my own experience with Microsoft's products both vote for the latter explanation.

> Let the Surface RT (and WinMO) be a lesson - you might have a game-changer of an idea

I think the lesson would be: "Listen to the market; it won't blindly eat everything you serve the way it does on the desktop, just because you are microsoft". WinMO had a good market position for a long time, indicating that the market did comprehend. It just didn't keep up with the times.

They launched Windows RT and regular Windows 8 the wrong way around. In 2-3 years time, when the Windows app store is more mature, Windows RT will make more sense so that people don't need desktop mode as a crutch.

At that point they should try again, but with a fully Metro UI, i.e. ditch desktop mode (including a Metro version of Office). Also needs a different name, maybe SurfaceOS, it's too confusing for users with a name that includes "Windows", and has a desktop that kinda-sorta works like regular Windows.

Saying that, I think the Surface Pro and other Windows 8 tabs are going to get a lot better as x86 chips get better with power consumption, continuing from Haswell. Seems Windows 8.1 is solid step forward.

I actually own one - I was curious. It is shelfware next to my chumby.

They should just remove the artificial restriction that desktop apps aren't allowed, and I'd buy one immediately. (Windows RT is actually a complete port of Windows to ARM, it just refuses to run non-signed desktop apps.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com