Displaying items by tag: Windows 8

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is trying to do a little damage control, but as usual he just does not get how to do that. At the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference Ballmer made the rather foolish mistake of announcing his intent to compete with Apple directly. Now you might not think that this is foolish and on the surface it is not, but if you think about what the statement actually means it is a tacit acknowledgement that Apple is ahead of them and that their new products are not innovations, but measures to counter Apple offerings. It is a subtle, but vital distinction to analysts, investors and consumers.

AMD has just announced that their Q2 earnings may be as much as 11% lower than expected (over Q1 2012). Originally AMD predicted a gain of 3% sequentially for this quarter, but it looks like a few things did not turn out the way they planned. AMD is mostly blaming the issue on slow channel sales in China and Europe, but also stated that they encountered a weak market which impacted their OEM sales. Both causes are over generalizations of an issue that we saw coming back in 2011; AMD has to get their products into the hands of the consumer.

Microsoft is looking to get a jump on Windows 8 sales and as such has announced the general availability date. Unlike past releases Microsoft is going to pull the wraps off of Windows 8 (including Windows RT) in October instead of November. We are thinking that they will still probably favor the end of October instead of the beginning simply to make sure they are in the stores for the Holliday rush. This would seem to be a smart move on Microsoft’s part especially as Apple should be launching the next version of the iPhone sometime around then if the rumors are true.

On Saturday we published an editorial about some of the issues with Windows RT. These issues served to highlight why Microsoft might have chosen to build their own tablet. Although we do not agree with the decision and think that it will hurt Microsoft in the long run (with Windows RT) we cans still see how it all unfolded. As you might imagine not everyone saw things the way that we did, but what surprised me was a comment that seemed to indication that the development community was going to HAVE to write for Windows RT.

Microsoft’s Xbox Live network is down and many are not happy about this as the service has been down since around 11:00 am today (July 6th 2012). This issue appears to be affecting users of the Xbox Gaming Consoles, Zune players and also the websites for Both Xbox Live and Zune. We have a feeling that the issue is probably due to upgrades or updates that are in progress as Microsoft nears the launch of their new Windows 8 OS with its integrated features.

****** Updated both the Xbox Live and Zune Services are back online ******

We all know that Microsoft is pushing a combined ecosystem with their move into Windows 8. This is something that has both good and bad parts to it (we have covered the bad at length so we will not go into too much detail here). On the good side there is the interoperability that may want from their collection of devices. People really do want the same experience on their mobile products (tablets, phones etc.) as they have on their desktop. Both Apple and Microsoft have been working towards this, but as of right now it looks like Microsoft will get there first with an operating system that has a similar look and feel across multiple platforms.

If you want to get a good grasp on how much Microsoft needs Windows 8 and their Surface tablet to work all you have to do is take a look at who they have talking about it. Right now they have gotten Bill Gates to talk about Surface and also to back Ballmer’s play on having Microsoft make their own. This comes the day after they call for a $6.2 billion write down and not long after we have heard that Nokia is making backup plans for if Windows Phone 8 fails in the market.

Microsoft is working the Windows 8 angle in a very surprising way. Instead of their usual “if you just bought Windows” upgrade specials they are actually offering a promotion where anyone with a valid “consumer” license of Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 can get an upgrade for only $39.99. Yep, you heard right; Microsoft is practically giving away Windows 8 if you want to upgrade.

Despite the buzz over Google and Asus’ new Nexus 7 tablet there is still a lot of talk about Microsoft and their new Windows 8 combined push. Over the past week we have read a few very enlightening articles that tell us a lot more about the state of Windows 8 (RT and Phone) than is being publicly talked about. Right after surface there were several articles where analysts explored the possibility that Microsoft might be considering building their own phone in the same manner that they built the surface tablet.

We have talked (at length) about Microsoft’s new move to the cloud and also their push with the Windows 8 Ecosystem (which is the cloud). We have pointed out many items of concern as well as shown some of the good parts to the OS; such as faster boot times, much better windows explorer interface, significantly improved task manager etc. However, the one massive point that we cannot get past is the choice Microsoft has made in making the Xbox and Windows Phone the center of the connected home. What Microsoft has done with this mode of thinking is what earned me a D- on a science paper in High School; Concluding the Assumption.