Microsoft's worst enemy is Microsoft

[power666]

With all the hype of Apple's iPad settling down from last week's introduction, attention is turning to tablet designs from other PC manufacturers. Google quietly released some concept designs over the week end to wet everyones appetites. For current tablet PC's, there is Microsoft and a dedicated version of Windows for that form factor. However it is not without its bugs. The New York Times has an op-ed by a former Microsoft VP that MS Office was intentionally sabotaged to not run well on tablets. Internal corporate politics dictated design in a market where innovation dominates. While the jury is still out about how usable commodity applications like word processing and spreadsheets are handled on tablets, Microsoft has handed the advantage over to Apple's iWork suite in this area.

This raises the question is Microsoft losing traction in the market place because its competitors are that superior or because of their own missteps in the market place? Perhaps a little a both?

[Icemage]

Like any large corporation, Microsoft is plagued by its own size. Anyone who works with software of any sort knows better than to trust Microsoft to get things even half-right on any of their products prior to version 4, and thereafter to add as much ridiculous bloat as possible before imploding it all and changing the paradigm in the next version until things get absurd again.

iWorks is undoubtedly the better product on a usability scale, but in practical terms, MSOffice is still the de facto gold standard - it would take an enormous groundswell of negativity to topple it from its leadership role in office software, and I just don't see there being enough momentum from the netbook niche to make that happen.

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As for the iTampon, all I can say is lol. I might be wrong, but I don't see where the target market is for that monstrosity. It's too big to be portable, it's too small and not powerful enough to be used as a serious working environment, and it's not beefy enough to do any serious gaming (and lacks any sort of reasonable standard controls as well - a problem it shares with the iPhone).

Maybe Apple can catch lightning in a bottle again, but I'm heavily skeptical of the iPad - even if it didn't have such an unfortunate name.

[power666]

MS has posted a response to the matter.

Like any large corporation, Microsoft is plagued by its own size. Anyone who works with software of any sort knows better than to trust Microsoft to get things even half-right on any of their products prior to version 4, and thereafter to add as much ridiculous bloat as possible before imploding it all and changing the paradigm in the next version until things get absurd again.

For the most part this is true. I guess I'm getting old as I remember when MS actually produced decent products (MS Word 5.1 is one of my favorite word processors).

iWorks is undoubtedly the better product on a usability scale, but in practical terms, MSOffice is still the de facto gold standard - it would take an enormous groundswell of negativity to topple it from its leadership role in office software, and I just don't see there being enough momentum from the netbook niche to make that happen.

I think MS Office as the gold standard has more to do with format compatibility than the actual applications. Companies to like to maintain their data. This aspect of MS Office is slowly changing as they've tried to move to an XML based save format. In the process they've gotten into a bit of legal trouble.

As for the iTampon, all I can say is lol. I might be wrong, but I don't see where the target market is for that monstrosity. It's too big to be portable, it's too small and not powerful enough to be used as a serious working environment, and it's not beefy enough to do any serious gaming (and lacks any sort of reasonable standard controls as well - a problem it shares with the iPhone).

Maybe Apple can catch lightning in a bottle again, but I'm heavily skeptical of the iPad - even if it didn't have such an unfortunate name.

Yeah, the name kinda sucks. However, I do see a niche market for this. Apple tried something similar before in the educational market and it met with positive results from users. The education market itself wasn't enough to sustain that product and it was during a time when Apple wasn't doing so well financially.

Apple hasn't discussed specific educational details on the hardware but I suspect they'll try to make deals with several K-12 school districts on top of universities. Several universities have required students to get iPods before and I see the freshman class at those places being required to get iPads. Still this isn't enough of a market to be sustainable.

This time around Apple is using synergies with the iPhone to expand that old niche and offering the hardware directly to consumers. It does sit in between a smart phone and a netbook but it remains to be seen if it inherits its partents advantages or its disadvantages. A netbook can run full fledged applications and may arguably be better suited for them but the iPhone with iWork maybe good enough to get the task done. The iPad does look to be better at mundane web and email (though no Flash support) than a smart phone but isn't as portable.

The really odd thing is that I do know of some users whom the iPad would be ideal: my own parents. Much like how the Wii was able to create a new market with casual gamers who would otherwise never touch a console, the iPad might be the ideal computer for people who don't like to mess with computers.

[GitMo]

Power666 making insightful posts about the iPad I'm impressed so you were trolling me

On Microsoft:
Title is correct, want proof? look at how Microsoft poorly handled its acquisition of Danger, or how it left IE6 stagnating while failing repeatedly to get Longhorn out the door.
The only way Microsoft can recover is through a breakup or government intervention (forcing them to open up or adapt standards), which accounts to as much.
Another example of how Microsoft prime directive is hurting them, is Microsoft Office for Mac. You get a feel that it was intentionally crippled just to not undermine its Windows business (if you want best Office get Windows).
I don't hate Microsoft because their products are bad, that's not the case with many of them, I just don't approve of how they abuse their monopoly in an evil way. Now that Microsoft Office supports ODF I have no problem whatsoever about paying for it and using it
It is funny that Microsoft considers Natal as one of its innovations as it acquired the actual developers who originally wanted to sell it to Nintendo, but they did do a great job integrating it quick unlike their past acquisitions. Then again Apple considers plenty of technologies it acquired as its own innovations, prime examples: Mac OS X, iTunes, iPod, and multitouch used in iPhone and iPad.
In many ways Microsoft today is the IBM of the 70s and 80s, remember Microsoft is still a young company, yet Ballzer's (intentional typo) reign is destroying it fast!

On the iPad:
Ever since I've got my iPhone 3G I wanted two things badly, a blue tooth keyboard and video out. I felt the iPhone's potential was lost on a small screen, and thus I'm happy with the iPad. I get the bigger screen I always wanted, in addition to a bluetooth keyboard (or Apple's keyboard dock) and video out.
If my paperwork get sorted out quick I could be back in college before the end of the year, the iPad will be useful for me. 10 hours of battery life means I can carry it around with me without worrying about it dying on me and the 3G means I can browse pr0n and not worry about the college WiFi rules and restrictions.
The thing most of you are missing is not everyone has equal needs, for some us the iPad does well enough good.
iBooks and iWork to me, since I'm going back to college, are major reasons why it wins over the iPhone and iPod touch, plus it runs all iPhone OS apps that I invested $$$ in, hopefully iPad-optimized versions will be a free (or trivial fee) upgrade, I'd hate to rebuy them all :\
The iPad is not as portable as a smartphone, but it is more portable than most netbooks (half the weight of the MacBook Air) and with better battery life. I only intend it for light use on campus and on the bus/tube.
The iPad is exactly ideal for the same people Wii was ideal for. Everyone remembers how the Wii was laughed at, I was one of the few who stood in its defense only to be ridiculed. I never expected it to be a major seller, but as a concept and execution it was epic. Now I enjoy watching the meltdowns every time the Wii crushes the PS3 and X360 (in terms of sales). My uncle who used to ridicule gamers and gaming enjoys playing Wii Sports. This is a niche no one knew it existed and turned out to be a HUGE niche, if you can call it that.
I expect the same for iPad. It wont necessarily sell by the millions but its execution will find its niche, and maybe it'll be like the Wiis niche. A new market none of us knew existed.
Then again Apple still didn't manage to deliver on the Apple TV and it is still a massive fail.

And yes the name is awful! What was Apple thinking? iPad?


On the Courier:
As a concept it is leaps and bounds ahead of both iPad and the Chrome Tablet, but it is only a concept and we've seen nothing of it last CES.
There are two reasons it'll never materialize:
1. It'll undermine Windows 7 tablets, though Microsoft did it with its playsforsure partners when it introduced the Zune.
2. It'll need a new OS with a new UI paradigm, Microsoft will never be able to pull that off at its current state.
I hope future iterations of the iPad or Chrome Tablet get closer and closer to the Courier concept, I can never bet on Microsoft to make it happen and I'm not interested in a Windows tablet. Not now and not 9 or so years ago when they first came.