tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33801994.post2222447467996555764..comments2024-02-14T02:30:36.732-05:00Comments on The Blog of Helios: Microsoft XP'ed the Bed with Windows 8Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978117986484281976noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33801994.post-75411279889339791952012-11-27T09:13:17.604-06:002012-11-27T09:13:17.604-06:00The elephant in the room comes in a small package....The elephant in the room comes in a small package. I'm talking about the Raspberry Pi and other similar devices, yet the folks at Redmond don't seem to be talking about it. I wouldn't be surprised if a gaming machine that costs $1200-$1500 USD today would drop to less than $100 USD tomorrow because of the move towards cheaper and cheaper computing (thanks in part to the ARM architecture). I'm thinking that's the one thing that they're going to have to be dealing with in the near future. They thought they had it beat after the OLPC and netbooks came onto the scene, but have they? Computers for less than $50 USD that can be easily connected to an LCD TV (or other monitors with the appropriate adapter) are at a much lower price point than netbooks ever were.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17612760065098765059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33801994.post-81308181727758296922012-11-24T13:44:07.860-06:002012-11-24T13:44:07.860-06:00There is a real problem for Microsoft. The audienc...There is a real problem for Microsoft. The audience for Windows (or any other operating system) is limited. <br /><br />99% of people buy a computer with a factory preinstalled operating system, never change hardware, never change the operating system for a newer version. Three/four/five years down the line they throw away the computer and buy another.[Same model as a contract smart phone.] Two or three sales per decade, tops.<br /><br />Servers can pretty much be ignored unless you think about mail servers or Windows-specific application servers: everything else in the world is already on Linux or mainframes or a tiny percentage of Macs and other stuff. This now includes banks and stock exchanges who've prety much abandoned Microsoft except for legacy apps.<br /><br />Bigger businesses, government departments - one sale per decade or one upgrade cycle. Many skipped from Windows 2000 to XP, others held off for Windows 7. NONE OF THEM will use Windows 8 - they don't have the budget for touchscreens, they've got legacy in-house applications reliant on six or ten year old code.<br /><br />No consumer sales for Windows 8 especially given a hostile UI, no business sales for some years if at all - Windows 7 will do. Hardware sales for Micosoft are led by X-Box which is losing money, you need to sell huge numbers of expensive phones/tablets/Surface to regain anything: throwing good money after bad in a vain attempt to gain and keep market share as a fire sale strategy.<br /><br />Senior leadership at Microsoft have resigned, including Mr. Sinofsky - where are they going to go to deal with the disaster?<br /><br />Some vendors have "forbidden" downgrades to Windows 7 on new hardware, presumably at Microsoft request - how long can this last?<br />Andrew Caterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17644077996431326998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33801994.post-77491424123362398942012-11-20T16:44:46.628-06:002012-11-20T16:44:46.628-06:00It's pretty clear that Microsoft just doesn...It's pretty clear that Microsoft just doesn't know how to operate in a market where it doesn't already have majority market share. Windows phones were rejected by consumers for many years because no one wanted a phone with a start menu. Now they've swung wildly in the other direction and have produced a desktop nobody wants because it <i>doesn't</i> have a start menu. Our non-friends in Redmond are so desperate to claw back the consumer market from Google and Apple that they are willing to set fire to their own ecosystem. Clearly they believe they have enough of a lead in the enterprise space that they can make up whatever ground they lose during this cycle. We will see whether that happens ... even the business world is finally starting to wake up to what we've known for decades: that "network computing" was a good idea after all and the conventional desktop needs to die, die, die.IGnatius T Foobarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15664986058467587907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33801994.post-86091685904765942232012-11-20T16:31:58.618-06:002012-11-20T16:31:58.618-06:00Ah, I wish M$ would die off with Windows 8, but sa...Ah, I wish M$ would die off with Windows 8, but sadly I don't think it's happening. At best, you're right and they'll need to make another Windows 7 to fix the bug that is 8. At worst, 8 will be a great success. I do know some people who really like it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17466317615289334958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33801994.post-68222557408833125172012-11-20T16:29:51.064-06:002012-11-20T16:29:51.064-06:00Oprah seems to like it on the Surface tablet. ;)<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/20/tech/social-media/oprah-surface-tweet/index.html" rel="nofollow">Oprah seems to like it</a> on the Surface tablet. ;)jhansonxihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02954133518928245196noreply@blogger.com