“New tablet or slate devices — small, hand-held, wireless computers — running Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system are in the pipeline from Acer Inc., Dell Inc., Samsung Electronics Co Ltd., Toshiba Corp., Sony Corp. and several other PC makers, Ballmer said at the company’s annual partner conference in Washington, D.C.,” Rigby reports. “‘This year, one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates,’ said Ballmer. ‘This is a terribly important area for us.'”
Rigby reports, “Apple’s iPad, launched in April, has already sold more than 2 million units worldwide, and threatens to take customers away from Microsoft-dominated desktop computing.”
MacDailyNews Take: Make that 3 million sold in 80 days and counting, Bill.
Ever notice how the media’s “mistakes” in Apple numbers almost always severely undercount? In fact, we’d be hard pressed to come up with an example where some “reporter” actually vastly overstated Apple numbers by “mistake.”
Oh, yeah: May Microsoft shareholders remain catatonic so that Steve Ballmer can stay CEO for as long as it takes!
Full article here.
typo fixed:
“This is a terribly impotent area for us.”
@Arnold Ziffel
Yea. I saw that too.
http://themacadvocate.com/2010/07/07/no-one-destroys-value-like-microsoft/
This is a situation where Apple is SO much better suited to come up with a winner than any combo of OS-maker plus hardware-maker. The iPad is not the first out of the gate, nor the least expensive, just the best interpretation of what the consumer wants. Without all that stuff from some OS designed in the last century.
However … “Apple’s iPad, launched in April, has already sold more than 2 million units worldwide, and threatens to take customers away from Microsoft-dominated desktop computing.” … deserves some comments. He could have said “more than three units” and still have been correct. Using the “more than” construction makes it accurate – if potentially misleading. That said, sales of the iPad are unlikely to take many, if any, customers away from any part of the desktop market. The iPad drawing loyal Microsoft customers into the Apple Store to be exposed to that content, that could draw down the MSFT share of the market. Using, becoming comfortable with, an iOS device, that could do the same. Apple could stop selling iPads tomorrow and the damage would have been done. It’s the familiarity that does the damage, not the purchase.
Microsoft: Putting the terrible back in important!
Microsoft came out with the Zune of an iPod and it got no where. Next it came out with the Kin of an iPhone and it got killed within 3 months. Now it will introduce another Zune-like device of an iPad and how long it will survive only God knows.
so how are these tablets going to be different than the ones they’ve been trying (and failing) to sell prior to the iPad?
But it doent´t have a keyboard either…
Do you still like your strategy Ballmer?
Will this fool ever learn? He’s still trying to ship Windows 7 onto tablets. I read the title and thought: Maybe Ballmer finally discovered the importance of specialized tablets with OSes optimized for them.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Then again, Windows Vista shows that it is possible to achieve different results by doing exactly the same thing.
Balmer has got to be Jobs’s most innovative product. A one-off device that has really padded the Apple bottom line. Maybe he’ll make another one to run Google.
We all sound giddy about this but it is business, not sports. We trash talk MS, but this announcement does help MS stockholders–just today MS market cap has closed the gap with AAPL by more than 10 billion and may well put MS ahead by months end. The bigger Apple has gotten, the more haters it has created. We fanboys can crow all we want, there are still many more MS users by far. And that is a lot of companies interested in joining the slate game.
…explosion of interest in Apple Inc’s iPad?
From who? The 2 or 3 remaining MAC sheep left still holding onto hope MAC will ship a 2-button mouse? Nobody I know cares or has even heard of an I-Pad. The IT guys at work can’t wait to start testing bold and innovative Windows 7-based tablets and Office Ultimate Tablet Edition for Business and Exchange Live Tablet Edition for Business. MAC will never know what hit them.
Your potential. Our passion.™
MS is so embarrassing. It’s like they’re the father of the bride and show up at a wedding promising everyone that she’s on her way, she’s just getting ready, and no one has the balls to say, “Where the f*ck is your part of the bargain?!”
I _love_ the battery life on my iPad, and if that means no Flash, camera, or floppy drive, I’m okay w/ that. But the only way PC-makers can differentiate themselves from Apple and each other is by adding these things, so it’s a no-win situation for them.
If their tablets and slates are running full Windows, there’s no need for a store, but there is need for anti-virus software, which will, again, totally drain their batteries. How do you Ctrl-Alt-Delete w/ a software keyboard?
MS has no way of reigning in expectations — PC users will want to do everything they can on a laptop on it, and then will piss and moan that they can’t. Where’ the Bluray drive? Where’s the Parallel port? Long live Ballmer!
Who’d have thought that Microsoft would promise something wonderful in the future in the hope that you wouldn’t buy today’s successful product ? There must be an ever dwindling supply of gullible fools who can fall for that routine.
It will be interesting to see just how well their offering stacks up. The iPad’s combination of battery life, speed of operation, security, ease of operation and wide choice of apps is a formidable act to match. To match that and at a similar price point seems impossible unless manufacturers are prepared to make a loss.
Are there really that many companies willing to throw money down the drain ? They’ve seen how netbooks don’t make much money, do they not see where they are heading ?
Just pathetic…! Yet another crash to come…
Hey! Zune Tang! You’re back? How is your ongoing daydream (or daywindowshorrortrip) doing so far?
Is your Zune synched with your knew Kin?
@Almux…unfortunately he is back. Perhaps if we ignore him, he will crawl back to where he came from…. to paraphrase this article, the land of little importance.
Sorry, Winblows 7 on a Slate??
What battery are they going to strap to the back of it so it runs for 3 hours?
Oh that’s right, it will be like the portable computer that is sold that really needs to be plugged into an outlet to be useful.
Need one really speculate on the likely result of running Windows 7 on a tablet-sized device? Absent some magical evolution in the efficiency of Microsoft software design or manufacturers’ respective hardware designs, it will no doubt yield a molasses-slow experience with a short-life battery that is drained faster than a canteen by a thirsty Bedouin in the middle of the desert.
At any rate, whatever second-rate product Microsoft eventually comes up with with respect to slate devices will be undone by its mind-boggling failure to have developed a viable portable OS by this point. Trying to push Windows 7 — a bloated OS that needs serious hardware to run even remotely efficiently — into a slate device is like trying to shovel a ton of elephant dung into a backpack — it won’t work, no matter how hard you try to make it fit.
So, Microsoft will release its mediocre offerings to an inevitably tepid reception, and then Apple will outdo it even further with the second generation of the iPad.
Oh boy, a great big fat Intel-Acer/Dell tablet running Windows, complete with Flash! Bet they throw in a free stylus.
Can I have an attached keyboard, three back-up batteries, and a floppy drive to go with that?
Honestly if there is an area for them to “try earnestly” to get in…. It will be the slate/iPad arena. Laptop…phones…fughettaboutit! I have aaaaallllll the following. iPad, MBP, iPhone 4. But I think the iPad needs some work. They’ve sold so much it may be pointless. But it’s got the most room for improvement. So if I had to hang onto a branch before I went off the cliff it would be the slow Internet browsing IPAD.
They’ve gotta try somewhere.
Let’s see – Apple spent years developing iOS and the iPad, even releasing the iPhone years before the iPad, and these commodity assemblers think they’re going to just slap some parts together, install Windows 7, and they’re off to the races?
Wow, can’t wait to see the battery life comparos when these ugly beasts come out.
Windows 7 Phone is the name of Microsoft’s new phone OS.
Windows 7 Phone for Slate is the likely name for the new slate OS.
Even Microsoft isn’t stupid enough to put Windows 7 Home Deluxe on it’s iPad Killers, are they?
I don’t like coming off as an Apple fanboi/zealot/etc… But there is NO way that Windows 7 tablets will compete with the iPad. iOS is made for touch input, Win7 is for keyboards and mice. Shoehorning touch input onto a desktop OS does not give you a tablet OS. If MS actually tried to make a REAL touch OS it could potentially be interesting… But this? This is lame.
The “touch augmented” windows that failed on tablets for the last 10 years and then failed on desktops (the HP & sony “touch” imac clones that inspired users to coin the term “gorilla arm”)
is now coming back to tablets. How nice, I bet it will work well for them. (not!)
On second thought, they will no doubt will sell a few to the rabid apple haters out there. Hell they even found suckers to buy zunes and the dell “ditty” music players