“Don’t get me wrong: Microsoft needs a tablet. Apple sold 3 million iPads in two months, and that was amid howls that it was overpriced and underfunctioning,” Rothman writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Ignorant baboons love to howl almost as much as stock market manipulators.
Rothman continues, “The debate at the core is whether you build a tablet using a low-powered but lower-featured mobile operating system, as Apple did, or whether you go whole hog with a full-fledged PC operating system… The very need for a distinction between tablets and PCs seems to trouble Microsoft. According to the current strategy, the tablet — or ‘slate,’ as Ballmer calls it — is a PC.”
MacDailyNews Take: The reason why Ballmer calls it a “slate” is because Steve Jobs made him call it a “slate”: Apple Inc. owns iSlate.com – December 25, 2009
Multiple downsides need to be addressed:
1. The hardware required to run Windows 7 with full graphic support isn’t thin or cool.
2. The interface was designed for a mouse, keyboard and larger screen.
3. PC multitasking is not the same as tablet multitasking.
4. There aren’t (m)any touch apps for Windows 7.
Rothman concludes, “There is no hope for these tablets.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David M/.” for the heads up.]
“There is no hope.”
I think that sums it up nicely.
The (long, unpaved) Road Ahead.
why does Microsoft insist on calling their hopeful entrants into this market “slates” ?
is it because they’re as heavy, hard to use, and prehistoric as the stone tablets Barney and I used to carry around back in Bedrock?
Always “countering” never innovating
They’re not gonna stop until they’re bankrupt. So it’s a good thing that’s where they’re going!
“Slate” as in “back to the blackboard” . . .
You have to wonder: is there a board of directors at MSFT that hold Balmer accountable? Do the stockholders just keep their stock because they are getting good dividends? Cannot anyone not associated with Apple see that they are just a one trick pony (actually, two trick pony – Windows & Office)?
Windows 7 for a tablet is a bad idea.
Slow boot time.
The OS will take up 10GB of your SSD.
A windows update and a couple of antivirus updates will use up most of your months data allowance.
Ah look now I can enjoy virus scanning on the move!
“1. The hardware required to run Windows 7 with full graphic support isn’t thin or cool.”
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I’d also point out Nvidia’s Tegra does a good job of delivering all the eye-candy you need.
“2. The interface was designed for a mouse, keyboard and larger screen.”
I somewhat agree with this one–I’ve used a Mac on my iPad via various RDP clients and there ends up being a lot of “Oops, I hit the Apple menu instead of the File menu.” Either that or you end up zooming in and out. Not to mention the various different ways to do things like “right click”, “scroll”, etc. You either end up having to memorize a bunch of gestures or bring up an on screen widget to do the job.
That said, there’s no reason you can’t create a viable touch interface with Windows. The problem is that most PC software companies are about volume (kind of like the PC hardware companies). You won’t see Adobe Photoshop for the tablet. You won’t see Quicken or QuickBooks for the tablet. The only place you’re really going to see software for a Windows tablet will be custom software for Doctors offices, etc. The volume just won’t be there to make it worthwhile for these established Windows developers and the small-frys won’t be able to generate the attention necessary–at least not without Microsoft’s help.
@Peter
Why wont we see those apps on a slate? I don’t see why not. What is the problem?
If I were Microsoft I would release a true tablet computing aka.Courier and show the world how it’s done.
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From now on bing and decide. http://www.bing.com
what a coincidence… MS leaning on a 30 year old product for earnings growth? Good luck with that innovative work, guys!
Steve Ballmer: The best vaporware salesman in the tech sector.
Balmer is such an awesome leader.
Poor Microsoft. Even businesses don’t buy their new stuff. Windows XP is enough if you are computer ignorant.
Right now, Apple has a free ride. “… that was amid howls that it was overpriced and underfunctioning” means a) it’s really the only product with anywhere near that functionality so Apple can charge whatever the market will bear and b) this is the other side of the page … nobody else offers a product with even this “low” level of functionality.
At some point, there will be vaguely serious competition in this space.
A full-blown version of Windows on a tablet-sized device would certainly offer more functionality … for as long as it ran. I fully expect users would prefer either a longer run time or a lower weight. Linux/Android would offer a more sensible choice, but that wouldn’t help MSFT, not one bit! As for Apple … they’d just up the ante.
Actually this has a good chance to succeed. Just like the criminally insane Windows OS still succeeds with a 9x% market share today!
> Rothman concludes, “There is no hope for these tablets.”
That’s exactly why HP cancelled its “slate” based on Windows 7 and bought Palm to get WebOS, once Apple reset the expectations for tablet computers with iPad.
How about this gem:
it’s a very nice operating system. I can close or click open all the little pop-up messages, and can monitor all of the tiny icons in the system tray, no problem. Double-clicking, right-clicking, scrolling, alt-tabbing and F5’ing all come naturally to me…
…that about sums up the issues with windoze and it’s fanbois
imagine a Mac OS where Dashboard becomes a runtime enviro for iPad apps via touchscreen desktop displays and swivel screens on laptops.
Hey MDN, where’s the stock take, “…as long as it takes!”. When your opponent is drowning, throw him an anvil. There was this company called Lotus which dominated the biz market in the 80’s. What ever happened to them?
@Fred Flintstone: It’s because Ballmer is about as pig-headed and effective as Mr. Slate, Fred’s boss at the quarry.
“Always “countering” never innovating”
Wll let’s be honest, microsoft had tablets for the last decade, their only problem was trying to sell them as a “Business”enterprise device instead of a consumer product.
Apple did steal, touch technology, page turn technology, the whole idea to enter the smart phone market from msft.
Next they’ll make a game system and call it “the iBox”
Once msft gets the win7 phones and new slates out (consumer products) apple will die a slow and painful death like they did in the 80’s.
“Wy did they call it a slate?” Well l guess sound like a female hygiene product just doesn’t wok for Steve Ball.. Plus The iTampad was already taken.
Should ballmer go?N, but he should stay in operations, that is what he does. Msft needs anoter genius like gates to move them into the 21st century.
When Gates was in charge, he didn’t let Apple come close to touching MSFT.
@Fred Flintstone “…why does Microsoft insist on calling their hopeful entrants into this market “slates” ?
The reason why is because it should have happened a year or more ago. Somebody mis-heard what was said about it.
It’s late.
“There is no hope for these tablets.” – MDN should iCal when people are right, too.