Displaying items by tag: Windows RT

Microsoft just cannot get out of their own way in making some very bad decisions over the past few months. First they have pushed an OS on the public and OEMs that does not make all that much sense based on real consumer feedback. Next they dove headlong into the market with their own unsustainable product in the form of the Surface tablet. Finally they stabbed their partners in the back by offering an update to Windows 8 Professional for $40 including installs of XP, Vista, Windows 7 and even the Release Preview of Windows 8. Microsoft has been pushing the claim that Windows 8 will be compatible with existing hardware as well in an attempt to bring even more people to the new OS. All of this is going to seriously impact partner sales and has caused more than one company to rethink their Windows 8 plans.

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.

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 Windows 8 (both Windows RT and Windows 8 for x86-64) is due to hit the market around November of this year and it has already caused a ton of controversy. But there is one that did not get a ton of press when it was announced that highlights a few issues with Windows that many are not anticipating. Around the first of July it was announced that HP would not be making an ARM based tablet for the next OS and we also know that Acer will probably not as well.

Microsoft has made Windows Phone 8 semi-official at its Windows Phone Developer Conference happening right now. We call it semi-official because right now Microsoft is not showing off any hardware running it. They are waiting to have that announcement later. So while the OS is out of the bag and we have some new information no one has made any specific announcements of support for the new OS.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone Developer Conference will be kicking off tomorrow (June 20-21) in San Francisco and there are those in the media that feel we might see Windows Phone 8 Officially launched. On the surface (no pun intended) this would make sense especially right after Microsoft announced their own home grown tablet yesterday. This announcement has sent something of a cold shiver through Microsoft’s partners as many feel they are no competing directly with them for sales.

We wondered when this would start happening, but Microsoft’s decision to compete against their own partners has had its first casualty. It seems that after the Surface was announced last night LG has decided to stop working on new tablets for the foreseeable future. Is this decision in response to having to compete with Microsoft or a decision that is based on LG’s poor sales in the market?

Well the cat is out of the bag now and the winner is a new tablet called Surface from Microsoft. The thin (.5 inches) tablet was shown off today at the big event that Microsoft had planned for a long time. From the pictures we have seen it looks like a nice device 10.6 inches long with a gorilla glass display, full sized USB port, MIMO antenna for WiFi a track pad, 64 or 128GB of storage, and a built in kickstand. There is just one problem; Microsoft’s partners. By entering into the market like this Microsoft runs the risk of alienating their major partners for Windows based tablets.

Microsoft is making a “super-secret” announcement on Monday and it has already invited select members of the press… Wait a minute does this sound familiar to anyone else? Sorry we had a momentary flash back to some of Apple’s announcements. In fact it this this similarity that makes many people believe that the show on Monday June 18^th will be the official show for Windows RT (and a Microsoft made tablet).