“Right now, Microsoft Corp. seems poised to do something bold: go into the computer business to compete with Apple Inc.,” John C. Dvorak writes for MarketWatch.
“This is possibly being done under the guise of its new emphasis on the Xbox360 and the upcoming Xbox720 which maybe be previewed later this year,” Dvorak writes. “Microsoft may have finally realized that the Xbox can become more than a game console.”
“Microsoft has done a very poor job of pushing the capabilities within the Xbox division. Instead it spins its wheels on the Windows Phone and Bing fearing an overall threat from Apple and Google Inc., respectively,” Dvorak writes. “This may be changing if Microsoft can realize it has a market all to itself and a real competitor to Apple if it can make the Xbox720, or whatever it is called, a full blown computer that is also a game console. I’m thinking Xbox-PC.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Junk food for thought. As usual.
Dvorak drivel
SAD! Dvorass is a Microsoft Lemming!
Hey, Grandma and Grandpa!
You need to by a gaming console!
It folds out into a Windows PC.
Yes, that is really going to fly. 🙁
Dvorak says perceptive things sometimes – About MSFT he says, “Right now there is no evidence that they can pull off an original idea”. Some of us been sayin’ that for years.
Microsoft may be poised to challenge Apple if they do something.
Most will never have or use an XBox to even give Microsoft a competitive advantage unlike iOS devices. Game over.
An X whaaaat?
How can Dvorak be so wrong on just about everything he writes every single time he writes an article he gets it wrong.
It must be Bizarro vision or something. I also can’t understand why the rags continue to pay this guy a wage. I would put a chimp on a typewriter with a dozen bananas and get better more accurate articles.
Is he still alive?
Um, yeah.
Time to dust off my Atari 2600, the future of the post-PC world….
If you do, be sure to check out the new 2600 games available at AtariAge!
http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_list&c=24
There’s 2600 of them already? Who knew?
Pretty hard when your team is in the ninth inning with no score and the opposing team is up by 23, eh?
He’s a dope that’s for sure. Wonder if he owns MSFT shares?
Xbox 720, good name, just running around in circles
+1
you mean red rings.
No! Brown Zune Rings!
Hey Jon, did u forget to Take ur Medication today, (OMG)
Never mind. A Leopard can never change it’s Spots.
Wow. Amazingly BAD prediction. Even if Microsoft added iTunes-like movie rental, etc. to Xbox, it would NEVER reach the potential of iOS-enabled devices.
Plus, Microsoft would have to overcome the game-machine public viewpoint. Unless you’re a gamer, you’re not considering an Xbox, PS3, or Wii for anything other than gaming. The other features are added benefits, but definitely will never drive sales of these units.
They already have rentals on Xbox via Zune. While Xbox is no real competitor to apple in this sense, I still use my Xbox more for serious bouts of gaming than any of my apple stuff, which I have a lot of. Xbox has pretty much the same setup as apple tv (content wise) but I greatly prefer my apple tv, when choosing to get a tv show available on Xbox or iTunes, I choose iTunes because it’s more versatile, easy to use, and just plain better looking, but I always go back to my Xbox for gaming
You just proved my point. You are a gamer. So you like Xbox. If you’re not a gamer, would you buy an AppleTV or an Xbox which costs 3X more?
or… you realize an Xbox is capable of being used as a digital converter terminal (something no AppleTV can do), can be used to download movies, operates as a true game platform, and is subsidized by MS through your local ISP meaning you get one FREE for signing up. After that the ATV begins to look somewhat pale.
Why doesn’t the jerk find a company to run? Does he advise anyone or just troll for hits on the web? He’s getting more and more clueless with age.
Just read that first paragraph. Have you ever read more equivocations and suppositions in your life? And this guy is what; a journalist? Jesus wept.
No, he’s a “columnist.”
Once upon a time, there used to be a difference.
Well, at least someone is thinking about what MS can do.
Obviously it has not been Ballmer doing his job (see stock price over 10 years).
Apple taught the whole world you need to control an innovative product by having vertical integration. Maybe MS might go for it…though it is hardly a guaranteed success.
Didn’t Ballmer try vertical integration with the Zune and Zune Store? Remember Zune points? Been there, screwed it up!
It’s all about Eco-systems, and MS doesn’t have one. Apple on the other hand has iOS as its mobile platform and has linked certain features back to its desktop OS. Blend in iCloud and you have the best Eco-system. MS has SkyDrive. Mmm, enough said.
My son is 22 going on 12 and believes every word of this. Thinks everybody wants to dwell in a basement tied to a game console.
its called a fuse box. Just flip the proper one off once in awhile (or more often as you like) to get him uncouched.
No John C. Divorak is a consomitprofessional. He has been at this for years and knows how to get the hits, he makes a good living at getting fans of different platforms juices flowing. That said the xPad will be a flop, Microsoft gets its wins based purely on luck.
He makes a living? Who pays him? Rob Enderle perhaps?
I always thought that the Xbox was just a way to sell another computer to people who already had one. I mean, if you want to play a game, why not play it on the computer you already have?
Of course I’m no Windows fan, and I’m no gamer either. But why would anyone who already is happy slumming with Windows want to buy an Xbox to do that when the trend is to buy the cheapest piece of junk you can buy?
Because its not consistent for one, new game comes out and you sometimes your machine suddenly needs to be upgraded.
Controls are another, the only thing a dev knows for sure is you have a keyboard and mouse. Not always the best choice.
Consoles are a KISS designed product for gaming.
Idiots have been proclaiming the end of consoles for years, the PC was going to kill it, then portables, then cellphones and now the ipad. I doubt it will happen.
The opposite is going to happen: as Apple pushes iPad + AirPlay it will kill off the console gaming market. The timing of M$ putting all their eggs on Xbox is typical M$ strategy: bet on last year’s tech.
The iPod and iPhone are already cutting into the gaming market. The iPad should provide a different and perhaps better in its own way gaming experience. 720 would be a good name for M$ X-Box; going in circles on its way down the toilet.
Let’s see where M$ is: Desktop, laptop, and netbook losing sales to iPad. Corporate market PC sales: down due to iPad. M$ phone sales: never in the game, minor also ran. Gaming console: see above.
M$: Please, please, please, keep Stevie as CEO-for as long as it takes. 🙂
I’ll say something for Microsoft. At least they have the decency to circle the drain the other way in Australia.
No way, not gonna happen. iPad is lame a game platform and thanks in part to the nature of Apple’s short product cycle will not displace game consoles.
Just one aspect, look at longevity of the 360. Released in 2005 and still kicks ass as a gaming platform 7 years later. Just wait to see what the 720 & PS4 will be able to do, no iPad or ATV will come close in processing power for years.
The iPad and other Apple products with their short lifespans are not suited as game platforms. Its really frustrating but 2 years later the 1st iPad is slow on iOS 5.1 and isn’t supported by many apps. This wonderful situation doesn’t sit well with gamers or any customer with common sense.
So they gonna slap Metro on the Xbox and aliante all their gamers?
I like their strategy, I like a lot!
I can’t wait to see the xbox/metro/windows amalgam.
And (virtually all) the tech reviewers were horrified with the windows/metro mashup. They will soon experience the ultimate in completely unworkable OS’s.
I say Bravo! Windows everywhere… for as long as it takes.
It’s a PC Junior for the 21st century! (Anybody remember those?)
A full blown computer that’s also a game console?
Somebody needs to tell Dvorak that a full blown computer is defined by not being a game console, and a game console is defined by not being a fullblown computer.
Or does he mean that Microsoft should turn the Xbox 720 into a computer that also does gaming, which would just make it a regular computer?
Does he have any idea what he’s actually talking about?
Oh come on. Dvorak is spot on. This is exactly what Microsoft should be developing. I like this strategy.
The Dvorak we all know and despite opens his orifice yet again. As usual, he spouts twaddle.
Microsoft releases products on a three-year cycle. I believe that the last Xbox upgrade, the 360, came to market in 2009. There is no way that Microsoft can compete with entrenched entities like Apple, which has a long-term plan, killer products stacked in the pipeline, and vision. Microsoft has never demonstrated any of these desirable characteristics.
“Microsoft releases products on a three-year cycle”
You believe wrong. Not terribly surprising.
Someone click on my links! I’ve got bills to pay!- John C Dvorak
Dvorak, 1984: “The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I don’t want one of these new fangled devices.”
Dvorak, 2007: “Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone”
Dvorak has admittedon camera that his role is to make up stuff to push our buttons and generate traffic for his publisher.
MDN, why are we giving this guy clicks? Sure, there’s *some* comedy value, but at some point all we’re doing is encouraging more of the same.
It’s sad to watch the slow invasion of senility:
spins its wheels on the Windows Phone and Bing fearing an overall threat from Apple and Google Inc., respectively
What threat? Windows Phone and Boingo live in the FAIL Trough. Their very existence in the future is unlikely.
But Dvorak can’t tell the difference between a doorknob and a downspout. The end of an inane career.
Uhhhhh… I hate to spoil your party, but Windows is still far and away the dominant operating system. I have a Mac, several PC’s, a new iPad, iPhone and an Apple TV, so I am certainly no fanboy for MS.
One thing I always notice about exclusively Mac users is the fantasy world you live in. You think because you paid $2,000 more than you had to for a computer just to show the world that Apple logo, that everyone does that too. Apple has no lead in computers (desktops or laptops), MS is the top operating system and Explorer is far above any other browser in users.
Would any of you even like to take a guess at the PC market share in BUSINESS customers? How about 95% or more.
These are all facts the Apple zombies choose to ignore.
Windows is currently entrenched in businesses, but PC sales continue to decline about 10%-15% per year, meanwhile Apple’s computer sales are increasing 20% per year. It will take awhile to catch up, but Apple definitely has the momentum. iOS will only speed up the switch from Windows to Mac, especially with the train wreck Metro is turning into.
The more important stats are the mobile device figures, and here Apple rules. Android has sales numbers, but not apps and, most importantly, few developers are making money from Android apps. Plus, Windows Mobile is basically DOA.
Add in that Microsoft can’t seem to get out of its own way, and Windows will slowly die on the vine.
Facts: Last quarter 75 million Windows licenses sold, 62 million iOS devices, estimated 60 million Android devices. Windows is declining, while iOS and Android have almost triple digit growth.
“I have a Mac, several PC’s, a new iPad, iPhone and an Apple TV, so I am certainly no fanboy for MS.”
You know how to instantly spot an MS troll/fanboy? They open their comment with the above.
“Windows is still far and away the dominant operating system.”
Well, when you erect an illegal monopoly for the better part of a decade, achieving upwards of 90% marketshare and entrenching the world in your proprietary standards, making it as difficult as possible to escape from your platform, your momentum tends to carry you for quite awhile.
But fortunately, the momentum behind Windows is finally running out. Mac sales continue to increase as the PC market recedes, which of course means OS X up – Windows down. As bomber pointed out, iOS is rivaling it. The adoption rate for new versions of Windows just gets worse and worse, with XP still having around 40% marketshare despite Microsoft’s best efforts to make PC users switch to Vista 7. As for 8, it’s a debacle already. And Apple is stealing away developers thanks to the App Store.
“You think because you paid $2,000 more than you had to for a computer just to show the world that Apple logo, that everyone does that too”
Really? I’m pretty sure that no Mac user has ever been under the illusion that Macs enjoyed a dominate marketshare, and that you’re just making that up because you’re a troll. By the way, I’m also pretty sure that people do have to pay that “extra $2000″* if they want to use hardware that isn’t cheap scrap and want the pleasure of using an operating system that actually works.
(*Pretending for a moment that Macs aren’t about the same price as equally equpped PCs)
“MS is the top operating system”
Yes, in the same way the Titanic was the top cruise liner. Hey, what’s icebergy looking thing on the horizon…?
Steve Ballmer: Ramming speed!
“Explorer is far above any other browser in users”
Internet Explorer? Isn’t its user share hovering around 50%, which is a disaster when you consider it used to be over 90%?
“Would any of you even like to take a guess at the PC market share in BUSINESS customers?”
Setting aside that iPhones, iPads, and now even Macs have begun eating its lunch, and that XP is the preferred choice of Windows in this area which is doing Microsoft absolutely no favours at all, why am I supposed to care what the PC market share is among BUSINESS customers? Am I supposed to be impressed that MS will probably be able to survive like IBM, catering to the enterprise, after its consumer business collapses?
“These are all facts the Apple zombies choose to ignore.”
Well, that’s certainly nothing an MS fanboy would ever say, ever.
You know how to instantly spot a Mac troll/fanboy?
They whinge constantly about stuff that happened in the 90s.
Forget about MS & other companies. Just think about DELL & MR DELL. AAPL is now 19 times bigger then DELL and also they have just abot 3 times DELL in cash. WOW
It seems far fetched but at the end of the day, Microsoft could never beat Apple at hardware (or even software for that matter). I for one welcome the challenge.