“Windows 7, the most recent version of Microsoft’s operating system, is too unwieldy for an iPad-like device, said David Daoud, an analyst at IDC,” Culpan and King report. “A lighter edition won’t be ready until the fourth quarter, giving Apple almost a year’s head start in the burgeoning market for tablets.”
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft has been trying and failing to sell tablet PCs for the better part of a decade.
Culpan and King report, “The iPad’s success caught much of the PC industry by surprise. Within two months of the April 3 release, Apple sold 2 million iPads — more than IDC expected for the entire tablet industry in 2010. To catch up, Dell and Hewlett-Packard are turning to Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Taiwanese manufacturers that build most of the world’s PCs said they’re dissatisfied with Microsoft’s current lineup… The iPad, which can display books, videos and the Internet on a thin touch screen, will reach sales of 5.5 million units this year and jump to 13 million next year, according to Macquarie Group Ltd.”
MacDailyNews Take: Macquarie’s iPad unit sales estimates are too low.
Culpan and King report, “Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Embedded Compact 7, which will require less processing power and reduces the drain on batteries.”
MacDailyNews Take: Wonderful name. So memorable and sure to inspire loads of sales. Or maybe just loads.
Culpan and King report, “Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has tried for more than a decade to build a market for tablet-sized personal computers. “
MacDailyNews Take: Wait, we just said that. We thought that Apple will have “almost a year’s head start in the burgeoning market for tablets?”
Culpan and King report, “Chairman Bill Gates predicted in November 2001 that the tablet would become the most popular form of PC within five years.”
MacDailyNews Take: Charlatan.
Culpan and King report, “Demand for the Windows tablets currently sold by Hewlett- Packard and Dell has been lackluster, according to IDC.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ha! Thanks, we needed a laugh.
Culpan and King report, “Before the iPad made its debut this year, the researcher had been forecasting that sales of tablets would decline to less than 1 percent of the overall PC market in the U.S. IDC had predicted total shipments of just 523,000 tablets.”
“Intel Corp., whose chips run about 80 percent of the world’s PCs, hasn’t helped Microsoft’s cause,” Culpan and King report. “The chipmaker’s most energy-efficient tablet-ready processors don’t run Windows 7 — and won’t until early next year.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Most of the world made a big, very costly mistake with Microsoft last time around. It won’t happen again.
Nice take, MDN.
I hadn’t actually committed to buying an iPad, until I handled one. I had to get in on the second round of deliveries. . . . Owning it has only increased my desire to buy my first laptop, in an MBP.
Looking at the Mac sites, the acceptance of the iPhone 4 is actually a bit scary.
And oddly enough, their straws are about 4″ long and chalky white….
“Windows Embedded Compact 7”
Don’t forget….
“Windows Embedded Compact 7 Home Edition”
“Windows Embedded Compact 7 Professional”
“Windows Embedded Compact 7 for Media Center Devices”
“Windows Embedded Compact 7 Lite for Third World Countries”
“Windows Embedded Compact 7 Bob”
etc…
MW: ‘aid’
Doing “very well in mobile”
Quote from Steve Ballmer……
Am I missing something here or is this CEO TOTALY DELUSIONAL?
I MEAN SERIOUSLY!!!???
Stay as long as u like MONKEY BOY!!!!! You can’t by your way out this time!
Microsoft: 10% of the time, they deliver every time.
“… Apple almost a year’s head start …”. What? Apple has been working on this even prior to the iPhone. Steve Jobs said that when he saw the prototype iPad after several months of playing with the graphical users interface software, he realized that this would make a great phone.
Hello “almost a year”! Idiots. This is based on many years of software and hardware research and development. NOT DAYS OR WEEKS LIKE THE iPAD KILLERS ARE DOING!
@Plain Old Regular
LOL. Very true.
@Jersey_Trader
I think they’re speaking strictly in terms of launch dates. It’s just vaporware until that time, including all the R&D;. So they’re not idiots because of that, they’re idiots because Microsoft actually had the head start, considering they’ve been making tablets for a decade. Now, if they’re talking about desirable tablets, then yeah, Apple has (at least) one year’s head start.
The analyst forgot to mention that it’s actually the fourth quarter of 2011.
WEC? Is Wack!
WEC 7= Windows Embedded Compact(er) 7
When you really need to squeeze the crap out of trash and make those HP’s and Dell’s that square angular look they so deserve!
5.5 million is funny. I bet Apple is most of the way there by the end of this month.
It’s amazing to me that an entire industry is so visionless that it has to wait for one company to define a product segment before it can play in that segment.
If the tech industry would learn one thing from Apple over the last 10 years, it should be this: the ability to innovate in the tech sector is far more valuable than the ability to iterate.
Microsoft will spend years and billions slimming Windows down to fit properly in a tablet.
Meanwhile Apple will be spending those years building up iOS into a Windows replacement.
Windows Embedded Compact sounds like something that needs an enema.
The problem with tablet computers in the past was the cost. They cost more than a high-end laptop with limited functionality. Not a good combination for mass sales.
Grasping at straws that are already on fire on the other end.
Waiting on MS, HP/Palm, Android, Flash, Intel, MeeGo, Chrome, whatever.
WEC 7
as in TWAIN WEC
Windows Embedded?
Like a colonoscopy?
Nah. More like Vlad the Impaler.
> Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Embedded Compact 7, which will require less processing power and reduces the drain on batteries.
Yeah, where does Microsoft come up with these names?
Even if they manage to release this “special” version of Windows 7, there are no good chips to run it. iOS and A4 are designed with ultra-efficient computing in mind. Any Windows 7 release plus any Intel chip equals “brute-force” computing. It will take more system resources just to boot up a Windows 7 tablet than an iPad uses to do all of its “magic.” That’s why HP bought Palm rather than try again with Windows 7, and almost everyone else is going to make an attempt with Android.
Wow, if there is anything symbolic of how far down the tube the Windows OS is, it would be the name. I mean, WOW! How long did it take MSFT’s internal naming committee to come up with the WEaCk7 name and get it approved through umpteen execs until Ballmer approved it on 4 o’clock in a Friday afternoon? They can’t even come up with a COMPACT name? Like WinTab OS? Or at least make it somewhat catchy like Windows Entertainment Bundle (WEB)?
Deus nailed it.
Given microsoft’s history of delivering products well past their targets and well under promised functionality, I don’t imagine many are preparing windows-ready tablet hardware.
Android will likely work every bit as well on tablets as it does on phones, which is bad news for Dell and HP.
@Basil Ganglia
I think it means it had an enema, (or so the manufacturers hope)
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It really is crazy when one considers how much time Apple’s rivals have had to establish themselves in the tablet and smartphone markets and how late Apple came to both games. And yet, despite its tardiness, Apple is on fire in both areas, because it entered both markets after deliberation and patience, resulting in cunning design and great products.
I love how the iPad sent nearly every other tablet maker back to the drawing board. Just like iPhone redefined the expectations of a smartphone. Why were they surprised by this?