The PC market is contracting. Full stop.?
The PC market is becoming marginalized -- my long-held view from day one of this site. And, to be honest, my view was based entirely on the smartphone. When I started writing about the smartphone wars 4 years ago I did not expect that Apple -- Apple! -- would be selling a kick-ass computer for $350!
The one ring to rule us all -- Windows -- is becoming less and less relevant to our lives.?
Not that this means Windows is dead. There remains a massive PC install base. There are a billion smartphones in use, and that number will soon grow to at least 2 billion and, I suspect, more than 50% of each of those will be disposed for a shiny new smartphone every 15 months or less.
Anyone tells you the smartphone market is saturated does not know what they are talking about.
And as Frank X Shaw, Microsoft's communications shinobi and Twitter badoy will tell you, this game is not over.?
But, damn, Microsoft is late to this party, very late, and seems as if everyone's already hooked up with someone else.?
For me, the rage, the bitterness, the pent-up fury that rose like bile during the years of the Microsoft Terror are mostly gone. They are a big, smart, capable American company. I want them to do well. Honestly. I want America -- Apple, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon -- to rule the planetary smartphone wars.?
Microsoft's strategy for global domination, or in this case, relevance, is a sharp new OS that combines touch and type working across PC, tablet and smartphone. Which I absolutely believe is the best strategy.
In 2020 when shit can all work together like that.
Right now, and this is true for Apple and Google and, as is now painfully obvious given Windows 8 reviews, true for Microsoft, our very best people can't make all this work together seamlessly, intuitively. This harsh reality notwithstanding, Microsoft's current strategy of the same OS across all devices is the wagon they've hitched their sizable cart to.?
Only, their long-time partners don't seem to agree. Or won't or can't get on board with this.
Forcing Microsoft to bulid its own PCs -- or in this case, Surface Pro tablet.
On paper, the Microsoft Surface Pro could be killer. It's a laptop! It's a tablet! It's got Windows! It does all the Office and Windows-compatible stuff you require. And apps!
At least, that is, if you purchase the Microsoft Surface Pro with Keyboard but not with RT edition.?How is it truly??
We don't know. Despite Apple having already sold over 100 million tablets, this Surface is not available. Still. But...New York Times gadget reviewer, David Pogue, got a "hands on". Kinda. He got to play with one a bit while at CES.
Pogue's verdict after spending a few minutes with the device while under the watchful eyes of Microsoft reps??
FUCKING AWESOME!
But you?re looking at an entirely new kind of machine, one with new possibilities. It?s a touch-screen tablet, of iPaddish proportions, that runs desktop software: Photoshop, Quicken, the full Microsoft Office, iTunes (and Apple?s online movie and music stores). Desktop software on a half-inch-thick tablet. That?s a first.
?
Microsoft has pulled out all the stops to make sure that you?re not disappointed in either of the two functions, tablet or PC. The screen is dazzling: bright, crisp and responsive. It has 1,080 by 1,920 pixels, also known as 1080p high definition. But when you connect it to a TV or external computer monitor, it manages to output an even bigger desktop ? 2,550 by 1,440.
?
That you can use it at home as your main PC is only the first indication that Microsoft intends for this tablet to go head-to-head with actual computers. Another is the speed: it?s fast.
What really makes the tablet/PC concept sing, of course, is the famous Surface keyboard cover.?
I remain more skeptical than hopeful.?
This is Microsoft's first real foray into "PC" hardware. It's 2 pounds. It costs about the same as the low-end MacBook Air. Or, an iPad (new) plus an iPad Mini, with cash left over for iWorks and all those Angry Birds games.
If Pogue is right, than Microsoft may -- may -- have a winner on its hands. Assuming they can build the thing in sufficient numbers, sell it in sufficient numbers and support it in sufficient numbers.?
Frank X Shaw suggests we are at the end of the first quarter of play. Perhaps. I think 2013 is more like the fourth quarter, and Microsoft is down. Windows 8, Windows Phone and Surface all need to prove themselves this year. If not, then I don't know if any favorable product review can rescue them.
?
Source: http://brianshall.com/blog/david-pogue-hittin-crack-pipe-and-microsoft-surface
chuck pagano A Gay Lesbian daylight savings time 2012 Where To Vote james harden breeders cup Mitch Lucker
No comments:
Post a Comment