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Steve Ballmer - We are hardcore about tablets

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MICROSOFT will team up with nearly two dozen hardware makers to release Windows-based tablet computers, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said.

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I wonder if I will be able to load OSX on it???
 
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When are they gonna get it? Windows is not a touch based OS, I could see a Android tablet, windows tablets have been around for years, outside of the business world no one has cared for them.
 
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Maybe they are going to release yet ANOTHER incarnation of Windows geared for touch based devices?
 

cwa107


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When are they gonna get it? Windows is not a touch based OS, I could see a Android tablet, windows tablets have been around for years, outside of the business world no one has cared for them.

Exactly. I think the point has been lost on them. A device in a tablet form factor needs a GUI that has been designed from the ground up to be touch driven. You simply can't take a full desktop OS, designed around a mouse and manipulate it into a useful tablet OS. It's been tried many times now, it just doesn't work.

It's kludgy, inconsistent and not enjoyable to use. But by all means, MS - keep at it. At least it's fun to watch you trip all over yourselves.
 
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Windows 7 in a tablet? Muahahaha! How sad that Gates put the clown jester in charge of his empire while he ineptly manages his philanthropic foundation. The only tablets that might seriously compete with Apple will be those with the droid symbol with Android 2.2 or later.
 
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Ballmer really needs to start thinking about a different kind of tablet. Perhaps the type which curb one's delusional, psychotic and manic tendencies. And they usually come in pretty colors, too ! :p

Doug
 
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Ballmer really needs to start thinking about a different kind of tablet. Perhaps the type which curb one's delusional, psychotic and manic tendencies. And they usually come in pretty colors, too ! :p

Doug

I think they call that Ecstasy:)
 
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Ballmer really needs to start thinking about a different kind of tablet. Perhaps the type which curb one's delusional, psychotic and manic tendencies. And they usually come in pretty colors, too ! :p

Doug

OMGWTFBBQ!!! Too funny
 
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Hardcore at losing maybe
 

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Does anyone else find it stunning to see how badly Microsoft has stumbled over the past few years? It is absolutely amazing that the board hasn't thrown Ballmer out. Honestly, I think the last thing Microsoft needs to worry about is ancillary devices like tablets, media players, phones, etc. They need to focus on their core competencies, specifically Office, Windows and IT Enterprise.

Office, without a doubt is struggling. Competitors like OpenOffice.org offer a viable alternative free of charge. Since the advent of the much-maligned ribbon interface in Office 2007 and yet another change to file formats, many businesses have been reluctant to upgrade to the latest versions. Each new version introduces ever more superfluous features, with little to no focus on refinement or stability enhancements. Most customers that buy Office today don't do so because they necessarily want it, but have to have it to maintain compatibility. There was a time when Office was the defacto standard. Now many people question whether they need it - or at the very least wonder if they can just stick with their old copy of 97/2000/2003.

On the Windows side, one might argue that Windows 7 is very good release of Windows. Although I agree, I just don't see the "gotta have it" factor or killer app over Windows XP. I suppose DX11 support may be compelling for gamers, but in all honesty, has it improved enough to warrant the difference in footprint or efficiency? I'm not sure it is - particularly as a corporate customer. Sure, we'll upgrade eventually, but it will mean lots of training for our customers, hardware upgrades and not to mention an incredible amount of effort. One has to wonder if the ends justify the means. I'm sure we're not the only company thinking like that.

Although Microsoft is still without a doubt the biggest player in the Enterprise market, so many others are nipping at their heels. Linux and open source alternatives like MySQL are making headway into the data center. Newer MS technologies like Active Directory have been all but stagnant since their release. Windows Server is refined in each new version, but it hasn't really changed all that much from Windows 2000 (aside from the obligatory code bloat). For those IT folks who are reading this incredulously - think about the difference between NT4 Server and Windows 2000. When was the last time you saw Microsoft release such a compelling upgrade in a new product iteration? The answer is that there really hasn't been one. Each new version of Microsoft's Enterprise products like Exchange, SQL, SMS/SCCM and others have been largely evolutionary, not revolutionary.

Microsoft can do so much more, but instead they seem to be content to branch out into these miscellaneous markets that are not core competencies for them. And the more they're distracted by things like Zune, XBOX, Kin, Tablets, Windows Mobile Phone 7 (or whatever they're calling it now), the more they seem to lose ground in their core markets.

I'm not trying to be a Mac fanboy here. Sure, I like Apple products, but my livelihood revolves around Microsoft. At the end of the day, it is of benefit to see them flourish - but looking back over the course of the last decade, I have to wonder if Microsoft has what it takes to compete in the long run.
 
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I could quote cwa107's post, but he is spot on.

MIcrosoft could do so much more, it is full of smart people, but from what I have read, its not the staffers that are killing it, its the management, and Steve Balmer has to take the buck.

The various MS departments need to stop fighting each other and concentrate, not on defending their own corners, but bringing out great products that integrate with each other. I will try and find the great article on MS in-fighting I found later, but - just look at the KIN, a great product from a good company that was just steered into the sandbank by rivalries with Windows phone.

Have you ever seen the speak coming out of MS staffers (engineers who work there). The code words and acronyms for pay levels, job evaluations and management positions sounds more like the organisation of Scientology, than a cutting edge tech company.

As for MS doing a viable tablet OS, we will see that in 3 years at best (they even killed the Courier - which could have worked), by that time Apple and Android will have already created the market. One thing MS usually do is not open to them, they cannot buy Apple or Google and just absorb their technology like some sort of Borg company.

Maybe I sound like a fanboy, but by now it almost hurts to see MS drop so many balls - like watching a once great football team (American or Soccer - take your pick) at the bottom of the lower leagues.
 
OP
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When are they gonna get it? Windows is not a touch based OS, I could see a Android tablet, windows tablets have been around for years, outside of the business world no one has cared for them.

Could not have put the words down better. And as cwa107 has stated
A device in a tablet form factor needs a GUI that has been designed from the ground up to be touch driven. You simply can't take a full desktop OS, designed around a mouse and manipulate it into a useful tablet OS
is quite right as well.
All i can say is let them keep trying and trying, and they just might give up after failure after failure

I think they call that Ecstasy:)

Please ;P lol
 

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I agree completely with CWA on this. louishen also!

MS needs to really get it together and fast.
 
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Microsoft's last great piece of software came out almost 10 years ago. Everything since then has been either meh, or it's been absolutely terrible.

Prior to 2003, I was a HUUUUUUGE PC fanboy. Then I got my PowerMac and that kinda changed everything. :D

They've really dropped the ball since Gates retired. (But the Kin was cute. I kinda wanted one.)
 

cwa107


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Microsoft's last great piece of software came out almost 10 years ago. Everything since then has been either meh, or it's been absolutely terrible.

Prior to 2003, I was a HUUUUUUGE PC fanboy. Then I got my PowerMac and that kinda changed everything. :D

They've really dropped the ball since Gates retired. (But the Kin was cute. I kinda wanted one.)

Well said - and me too. The thought of buying or using a Mac would never have been laughable back in 2000/2001. My how the times have changed.

I think Microsoft looks at Apple and goes "hey, they're doing quite well with this Consumer Electronics type of stuff, we can too". But what they fail to realize is that Apple had a very solid foundation before they branched out - and they didn't neglect their cash cow while they were doing it.

Apple is also a lot more nimble and only takes on the markets that they feel they can really compete in. Microsoft OTOH feels the need to have its grubby fingers in every part of the tech market, whether they know anything about it or not. But that's OK, because good ole Steve Ballmer likes his strategy.... he likes it a lot. I'm sure the last group of laid-off MS employees like it too, eh Steve?
 

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Agreed. Before OSX I liked the Mac and the OS but the OS really was behind the times in Multitasking and it used Shared Memory so if one Application crashed, the OS locked like in Windows 98. It was OSX that made me want to go Apple all the way.

I really personally don't like the Kim (all I have seen are the pics of it) but they should have not dropped it until they had something better to replace it.
 
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Microsoft's last great piece of software came out almost 10 years ago. Everything since then has been either meh, or it's been absolutely terrible.
But DOS 6.22 was released in 1994, that was 16 years ago!
 

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