“Satya Nadella has enjoyed a fairly smooth ride in his first 100 days as Microsoft Corp chief executive, but he risks hitting a rough patch next week when he unveils the latest models of the tepidly received Surface tablet,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters. “So far he has stressed the services side of the business, making the momentous move to put Microsoft’s Office suite on Apple Inc’s iPad. This was popular with Wall Street and more importantly with consumers, who performed 27 million downloads in a matter of weeks.”
“But Microsoft is expected to unveil the third generation of its Surface devices at an event on Tuesday, laying hints that it will also introduce a smaller tablet, to address the fast-selling lower end of the market dominated by Apple’s iPad mini, Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle Fire, Google Inc’s Nexus and Samsung’s Galaxy range,” Rigby reports. “The devices side of the strategy has been a challenge. Microsoft’s Surface, launched in October 2012, has about 2 percent of the market and has not made a dent on Apple’s iPad. That fits with Microsoft’s 3 percent global share in smartphones.”
“Given that tiny market, some investors believe Microsoft should not waste time and money on the low-margin hardware business. ValueAct Capital, which led the shareholder revolt last year which culminated in previous CEO Steve Ballmer’s retirement, has lobbied against Microsoft’s hardware effort, including its costly acquisition of Nokia’s handset business,” Rigby reports. “Said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, ‘If the turbulence gets too rough on the tablet and/or mobile segment, we can potentially see some strategic changes on the horizon around the hardware business.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Satya was smart, he’d pull the plug. Of course, if he was smart, he’d have fled the sinking hulk that is Microsoft years ago.
Rearranging deck chairs…
Satya continuing the Ballmer “Floundering Mambo” device dance. I like their sink hole straggly, I Iike it a whole lot.
straggly = stragedy. (I DON’T like fixing a word that was auto-corrected and it changes it again before I catch it.)
Look,
He produces a bunch of tablets. Sells very few, and gets market penetration by giving them away.
Funded by the automatic revenue program approved by the government. 😉
…and runs adverts in saturation bombing style. MS could actually make a better product if they stopped with their wet dream that Surface is work/play and iPad is only play. It demonstrates that they don’t understand consumer vs pro market, what tablets are, what iPads are, and what the fuck they are doing in general.
If the new CEO follows the same path, it will be popcorn for Apple fans. Even if he changes the I stupidity, it’s fine for Apple. As long as Apple makes quality products, they’ll make tons if money. That is the one huge difference between smart phones/tablets that tech press doesn’t get – at these prices and app crossover, marketshare is not an either/or proposition. It’s a threshold and it’s not market share, but developer revenue. I’m shocked that the tech press still cannot understand that.
The only places I ever see MS tablets are on high-profile American TV shows like NCIS/NCIS LA/Hawaii 5-0; I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone using one in a meatspace situation, every tablet I’ve ever seen being used is an Apple one.
I wonder how many millions MS have written off for such product placement?
And for how little actual return?
Yes, yes we’d all like to know how much µ$oft is paying those shows (including Elementary, to shockingly shilling effect) for this screen time. It’s obscene, really.
Mmmmm. Meatspace….
with all the money he is making as ceo i don’t think he cares if the ship sinks
Macdaily needs to stop slamming MS and Google. Just do your job and report Apple news. Let Apple products speak for themselves. These type of articles make you looks childish. If I wanted to seek Google or MS, I would be on their pages, not this one!
Where’s the fun in that?
Paw, you must be new here.
MS and Google deserve it. They have continuously stolen Apple IP and called it their ‘innovation’ for years.
MDN have *loooong* memories about everything MS and Google have done to Apple, and aren’t going to sit idly by and let it happen without pointing out their hypocrisy and deriding them for how stupid and classless they are.
MDN also has no qualms about calling Apple out for doing seemingly stupid things, either.
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading MDN over the past 10 years for their takes and their level of snark-sprinkled passion. It’s usually very clever, informative and entertaining. Not childish.
And please remember, this is their site. It’s not ‘their job’ to report Apple news, it’s their labor of love.
We are only guests here. If MDN’s level of passion, humor, and topic choice is unacceptable to you, then don’t click on the link. It’s as easy as that.
Or at least, it is until the FCC gets a hold of your interwebz. So, perhaps I should say, enjoy your freedom of choice while you still can.
Just in case Pawpower is a newbie, as opposed to yet another of the usual…
The history goes like this:
1) Apple haters come to Apple happy places like MDN and denigrate the hell out of anything Apple. Some of them are even paid to do so.
2) Apple fanatics do NOT do the same at the hater’s dens of iniquity because Apple users are not haters. (There are deplorable rare exceptions who receive severe scoldings).
3) Rather than hate on the hater’s at these dens of iniquity, Apple fanatics hate on the sources of the haters well within the limits of the Apple happy places. We keep our loathing of worthless and evil crap companies within the comforts of home.
Therefore, shut up and be happy, dammit.
Uh, Derek, I wanted to point out I can be a hater sometimes 🙂
not always, but, sometimes.
M$ may have had 27 million downloads of Office for iPad, but how much did they make from that. The downloads were free. The money comes in the subscription. How many people actually subscribed. Thereby hangs a different tale, I imagine!
Free and cheap pirated software is how M$ got started and spread in the beginning. How many have I heard say they bought a PC and Windows because it was cheaper than a Mac? Those days are over. Though Samsung and Android are again doing a fair imitation of Apple these days, one would have thought.
Probably more than on all of their tablet sales. The ads of the woman store owner and russel wilson are a joke. I doubt Seattle is using the Surface as their “playbook” as the ad implies.
So writing off .9 billion last year wasn’t enough?
The world history of corporations advancing over their peers is filled with examples of companies LEAPFROGGING competition, not playing catchup.
Is Microsoft going to lead or follow?
I can hardly wait for the answer/s.
You just watch:
TWO kickstands!
Hmm. Not a word about Surface RT. Has it been silently slid into the grave?
Meanwhile, I have a standing bet that Surface is going to be killed off this summer. How frustrating that I may lose that bet. On the other hand, what a joy to watch Microsoft:
spend Spend SPEND! on loser Surface.
The more, the faster, the better.
If iPad is just for “playtime” & Surface is for “serious work & play” then why “Office for iOS”? P.S.: 2% is not “serious” & not working.
The MS Titanic thinks it is the worlds largest most technological submarine, but is really just the sinking Titanic of Tech.