I think you're missing the point. A lower price reduces value and expectations, people will be more willing to accept Rt's trade offs if they pay a much lower price.
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Microsoft CEO: 'We Built More Devices Than We Could Sell'
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I think you're missing the point. A lower price reduces value and expectations, people will be more willing to accept Rt's trade offs if they pay a much lower price.
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it's a good thing they have realized their mistake, now let's hope we will see lesser but much better surface products.
I think I figured out Ballmer's problem
Ok, if he is saying they built "a few more" devices than they could sell...and took a $900 million write down...and each device retails for, let's see, Surface Pro about $900, Surface RT about $450 (to make the math easier), I would say that they built...
...a friggin' *****-load more devices than just "a few more." More like a million or two million *at retail prices*, the cost for each is probably close to half, so, gulp...two to four million more? Holy Cow!
And Ballmer was a math major! I guess you have to spin it somehow, but man, that is f'-ed up.
Ok, if he is saying they built "a few more" devices than they could sell...and took a $900 million write down...and each device retails for, let's see, Surface Pro about $900, Surface RT about $450 (to make the math easier), I would say that they built...
...a friggin' *****-load more devices than just "a few more." More like a million or two million *at retail prices*, the cost for each is probably close to half, so, gulp...two to four million more? Holy Cow!
And Ballmer was a math major! I guess you have to spin it somehow, but man, that is f'-ed up.
I'm interested to know if that write down takes into account selling the inventory at reduced cost. Which would mean the number of devices involved unsold could be even higher.
Its just one flop after another with microsoft.
Hopefully they'll do it right with windows 8.1
Ha! Good joke. Not with Ballmer as CEO.
Hopefully they'll do it right with windows 8.1
Ha! Good joke. Not with Ballmer as CEO.
marketing is also a big sector to cover, just imagine, if they had poured those $900 million(the loss) in the marketing sector, sales would have been much, much higher.
Why the heck would they call it Surface to begin with.
"Your Surface looks awesome" sounds awkward to me.
"Your Surface looks awesome" sounds awkward to me.
??? Dude, from the programs I watch on Hulu, I don't think there was a spare 30 sec or even full 60 sec ad that they didn't buy.
Marketing will only get you so far. How many Apple iPad ads, or MBA ads do you see on TV?
In a different context, no where near as bad as, "Your Wii looks awesome!"
To this day, my wife STILL laughs when I say I'm going to play with my Wii.
Well, I laugh too when I say it!
Your forgetting the surface was an ok idea, not good and defiantly not great. The surface is hard to use on your lap as a laptop. And falls short of a good mobile tablet experience. Marketing could not have helped the surface.
My understanding is this is better in iOS 7. I don't mind the ads because Siri says ouch and stuff.
It is amazing nobody has really created an iPad competitor though even with google claiming half of all tablets run android.
People realized the tablet market would be bigger than the phone market once apple created it but now apple has run away with it.
The problem is apple leverages their low os price with hardware sales. Microsoft found not make money selling windows 8 do it detailed for $20.00.
Ah but the rub is this move by Microsoft into the new world computing actually reduces competition. Microsoft realized that apples vertical control of hardware and software was a huge advantage. The new tablet computer world does not have three thousand dollar pcs where $200 for an os makes sense. Everything is under 1k which means there is no room for expensive tablet oses. You either have to also sell the hardware, like apple, or sell the customers, like google.
How does this reduce competition? It takes oems out of the race. Traditional pc oems would be potential customers for a Microsoft tablet os as opposed to phone vendors more relying on google. With Microsoft following apple those oems potentially never get into the game at all.
The tablet market is weird. I think apple still has room to improve their tablets before they move into the gimmick era (which is where we are with smartphones). On top of that I think there is potentially room for apple to diversify the tablet line further.
On the other hand we have seen Hp, blackberry and Microsoft fail miserably and none of the android tablets really standing out. In fact probably the most successful non apple device that is a tablet/almost a tablet/phablet is the Samsung note. Since it is smaller we basically have the top three tablets all being a different size.
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Actually, I know three people who own one; they're all incredibly happy with it.
Myself? I hate tablets of any kind with a passion.
I don't know how the apps work on the surface but I know someone with a windows phone who loves the phone. However since there are so few of them the market for software is almost non existent. Unless there is something I don't understand wouldn't the lack of third party applications make any device substandard when it comes to utilization?
While on a 3 week vacation this month, I saw iPads everywhere. Actually, I was surprised at the number of folks using the iPad mini as a camera. Our travels were pretty widespread: Cooperstown (baseball tourney for my son), Barcelona, and Paris. IPads are everywhere....airports, hotels, ballparks, site seeing locations.....everywhere. I did not see one Windows Tablet. I am sure they are around, but I just didn't see them in people's hands being used.
It's weird. Steve Jobs saying, at the time, "We are in the post-PC era," was just a bunch of marketing/sales crap, but he was right now.
It is almost like everybody has realized they don't really need a PC...like they have "cast off their chains," and can now everything they always wanted, where they want to.
I think the iPad would have been a disaster if it had been released before the iPhone (look at the original Windows Tablets by in 2001-02, or thereabouts). With the iPhone, people started to realize they could do 90% of what they wanted to do with a computer with their phone. "If only it had a bigger screen..."
That was then the perfect time for the iPad. Before the competition had a response, Apple owned the market. Now, there is only room for something that is really, really good & better than iOS. I'm not seeing much of a contender in the Surface (it didn't help they confused everybody by releasing two different OS's...and it doesn't help to not have a phone out in the market).
I want to buy a surface but both the pro's and RT are inherently conflicted products for educational and business use.
The PRO has a very nice size and form for business travel (i.e. productivity and entertainment possibilities), but it gets horrible battery life so sucks for travel.
There are other minor issues to, like it doesn't have standard video ports for projectors, only one usb (i.e. you can have a clicker and a usb but not both!). It also doesn't have a monitor and peripheral dock, which it needs because it's screen is too small for regular use.
The RT obviously has battery life for business travel, but it has a crappy productivity environment. On top of that, businesses usually lean towards one software package or other that they use regularly and obviously you can't install that on the RT.
So while the Surface should be a great bit of kit, they've spent too much time trying to follow Apple and it's ecosystem than designing and thinking through products for their ecosystem.
So Microsoft is really close to a good product, but they lack confidence in themselves to execute properly. There still isn't a really great educational or business hardware for less than $1500 (unless you're running bootcamp on a MBA), so there's a huge opportunity here.
The PRO has a very nice size and form for business travel (i.e. productivity and entertainment possibilities), but it gets horrible battery life so sucks for travel.
There are other minor issues to, like it doesn't have standard video ports for projectors, only one usb (i.e. you can have a clicker and a usb but not both!). It also doesn't have a monitor and peripheral dock, which it needs because it's screen is too small for regular use.
The RT obviously has battery life for business travel, but it has a crappy productivity environment. On top of that, businesses usually lean towards one software package or other that they use regularly and obviously you can't install that on the RT.
So while the Surface should be a great bit of kit, they've spent too much time trying to follow Apple and it's ecosystem than designing and thinking through products for their ecosystem.
So Microsoft is really close to a good product, but they lack confidence in themselves to execute properly. There still isn't a really great educational or business hardware for less than $1500 (unless you're running bootcamp on a MBA), so there's a huge opportunity here.
No surprise here! This company is run by a bunch of old people that should have retired decades ago. All they produce is crap, I couldn't care less about the products they make. They have no vision, they need a little Apple vision in their world. Get rid of these old folks and get some young folks with vision in there before it's too late.
-Mike
-Mike
I disagree with your assessment that the surface tablet is crap. I've spent a lot time handling the Surface at the Microsoft Store near me. I considered buying one. The tablet is beautiful, smooth and fast. Its colors are very eye catching. The build quality, even though a hard plastic, is very nice. Its downfall however is the lack of apps on my opinion. The only reason I didn't purchase was because I want my phone, computer (rMBP) and phone in the same eco system. That is where Apple has the advantage.
I would agree that Microsoft was a little late coming to the tablet and smartphone table.