Microsoft Totally Going to Make Things Happen in Tablets
Microsoft–which foresaw the tablet PC, but failed to commercialize it–has a lot to prove in the market currently dominated by Apple’s (AAPL) iPad, and every intention of proving it. Bringing Windows-based slates to market “is job one urgency around here,” said CEO Steve Ballmer at the company’s Financial Analyst Meeting Thursday. “No one is asleep at the switch….We have got to make things happen. Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we have to make things happen on Windows 7 and slates.”
And just how does the company propose to “make things happen”?
Well, that’s not entirely clear, but make no mistake, things are definitely going to happen.
“We’re working with our hardware partners, we’re tuning Windows 7 to work on slates,” Ballmer explained. “We’ve got the user base, we’ve got the user familiarity. We’ve got everything on our side if we do things really right.”
Of course that’s often the case with Microsoft (MSFT). The problem is, it doesn’t always manage to do things really right. Certainly, it didn’t manage it with Windows Vista. Or Windows Mobile. Or Zune. Or, more recently, Kin. Who’s to say this time will be any different?
Not that it even matters if it is, as Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert wrote in a note to clients this morning: “If you stop thinking of Microsoft as an innovator and start thinking of them as a fast, low cost, mass market follower, you’ll stop being disappointed in their inability to divine new markets and realize they are staring at some of their largest growth opportunities ever.”
Comments
Wasn't Microsoft's first weapon against the iPad its 'PlaysForSure' music format, which it licensed to hardware makers. Of course it failed. Then came Zune. Zune HD. Windows Mobile. Kin. Soon Windows Phone 7. See a pattern?
Microsoft doesn't have confidence in Windows Phone 7, which is why Ballmer won't put it in a slate, as he's afraid it might fail. Now he's gone off looking for other OSes to put in slates.
Posted by Crowd_Sorcerer at July 30th, 2010 at 8:22 amLets see, HP bought palm to put their OS on a Tablet and Dell is with Droid software for a tablet. Asleep at the switch, not really, the problem is there is no power to the switch.
Posted by FullMetalPhotog at July 30th, 2010 at 8:56 amI thought Steve Ballmer regardedTablets as unnecessary. Oh of course that was before Apple launched one and sold over 3 million. As other authors have commented two of the major hardware suppliers Dell and HP have already elected to go with other operating systems. Could it be that Microsoft have missed the boat again, or is it down to Steve Ballmer for ignoring recommendations form his staff…
Posted by stevet12 at July 30th, 2010 at 9:01 amBallmer also complained that people who had iPads at the event were taking “ten minutes” to get them set up.
So while he's saying this is an important market they need to be in he can't control his mouth from bashing it at the same time.
Posted by MurphyMac at July 30th, 2010 at 11:46 am“I don't think everybody wants a slate. I've been to too many meetings with journalists who'd spend the first 10 minutes of the meeting setting up their iPad to look like a laptop.”
Too many meetings… Ten minutes setting up their iPads…
Why does Ballmer have to pathologically lie about competing products? For this kind of lie to emerge from his lips he must have some serious issues. The only thing that could explain it would be if some of these journalists at too many of these meetings we terrified that Ballmer would throw a chair at them or some such and were effected by some kind of Ballmer Reality Distortion Field, where Apple products cease to work properly in his presence.
Posted by rattyuk at July 30th, 2010 at 12:01 pmI don't really think anyone cares what “monkey boy” Balmer says or thinks about a Windows Pad. If it is Microsoft, it will be slow, buggy and annoying and obsolete quickly. Look at all those miserable WinCE Palm Pilot wannabees that never came close to being a useful PDA. Microsoft has yet to introduce a piece of hardware that does not suck in all manners possible.
Posted by villageprisoner at July 30th, 2010 at 12:24 pmBallmer is almost iconic
:-)
Bill Gates must stop by Steves' house occasionally to see if he can find an iPhone mistakenly left out, or one of the kids comes running into the room with their iPad, screaming about their Scrabble game.
Posted by pushbuttonchimp at July 30th, 2010 at 5:09 pmHave you ever tried using a Zune HD? Or are you just another fanboy shooting his/her mouth off. The Zune HD is a great device and was one a couple of presigious design awards – it was too late to market – it came at a time when PMPs were being replaced by Smartphones. Do you think XBOX sucks too?
Posted by Robin Mestré at July 30th, 2010 at 5:12 pmI've never thought of Microsoft as an innovator or as being fast or even low cost. A mass market follower, yes, but not a very successful one in the recent past.
Posted by Partners_in_Grime at July 30th, 2010 at 5:55 pmI don't think it's a lack of confidence in WinMo 7. I think they still believe that Win 7 and Office are their aces-in-the-hole with a slate but they don't know their ace-holes from a hole in the ground.
Windows 7 and Office are a liability for a slate unless they are radically overhauled from the ground up for a pervasively touch interface.
Posted by synthmeister at July 30th, 2010 at 6:38 pmMicrosoft is so locked-in to its pc model that all products either have to defend & extend that business, or they end up never making it to market. Microsoft is unable to listen to the market, so it doesn't know how to design products that meet market needs http://bit.ly/bRuFMA
Posted by adam_hartung at July 30th, 2010 at 9:40 pmMicrosoft making something happen with a customer product? Is this a joke? If so, good one!!!!!
Posted by Nefraneer at August 2nd, 2010 at 1:43 am