“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.
@SteveJobs ThePirate
“Well l guess sound like a female hygiene product just doesn’t wok for Steve Ball.. Plus The iTampad was already taken.”
Yes, because the word “pad” now only has one meaning in the english language. Grammarians all over the English-speaking world are looking for new words for things like those stacks of paper with lines on them that you write upon, or the things that football players have in their uniforms to help keep them from injury, or the big areas that helicopters land on, or even the places they launch rockets from? None of those things can be called pads because now that word ONLY refers to that specific form of feminine hygiene product, nothing else.
Asshat.
Ballmer is a true visionary. I say go for it Mr. Ballmer. Throw in billions and billions on this innitiative and launch the thing. Give it all you got there!
Microsoft will manage to find a way to cripple (i.e.:’fsck up) thier ‘slate / tablet product in the same way they’ve managed to screw up almost every MS consumer product released in the last 10 years… Windows Mobile, Zune, Vista, and Kin immediately come to mind.
Please feel free to remind me of any others.
@SteveJobs ThePirate
Nice job. I couldn’t have said it better myself—however I disagree on two points:
1) Microsoft’s innovative tablets are ‘enterprise only’. I find these wonderous devices work magnificently in the consumer realm. REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling sounds just as good on my tablet as it does on my Zune and Dell Ditty.
2) Ballmer should be reassigned. No way. His vision for Windows everywhere will never be realized and everyone—MAC sheep included—will suffer. WIthout Windows MAC will have no idea what to do next.
Again, keep posting SteveJobs ThePirate!
Your potential. Our passion.™
@Spike – now that you mention it, Steve Balmer DOES remind me of Mr. Slate – just add the dark framed glasses and caveman suit…
If the last ten years of running Windows on a touch based device is an indication of how well Windows 7 will do, then it will surely be successful. Right?
This is typical business strategy, make sure all your partners know that you will be producing your own competitive version sometime in the future. This is one method of trying to keep the cows in the corral and not wandering into greener pastures.
Of course they fail to point out that there are already a few slates out (one from Archos) that have attempted to run Windows 7 and have failed miserably.
“Apple did steal, touch technology, page turn technology, the whole idea to enter the smart phone market from msft.”
No. Read some Schumpeter.
After a market has stabilized and matured past initial individual ideas, innovation becomes developing a new stable and better “combination” of new and existing ideas.
I hope MS calls it “Mr. Slate” like the Flintstones. It’ll be at least as advanced as anything the Flintstones had.
With its market share, why aren’t there a billion people ridiculing or hating Ballmer instead of Steve Jobs?
Is it because fat people are funnier?
I found out why Ballmer is still in charge at Microsoft.
It’s all about the PowerPoint slideshow he has of the Board of Directors and a Herd of Sheep at a drunken company picnic several years ago.
win 7 is too heavy weight for a tablet. Something slim and fast and reliable (not in the microsh*t vernacular) is required for any semblance of getting a toe in the pool. Maybe they can resurrect windows 95? Say what you like it was easily the best OS microsh*t ever did (despite pilferage/overlap with os/2) resources wise (which isn’t saying much). Shame it’s only 16 bit, not 64. Sadly for microsh*t, android is to be the big rival I’d expect, followed by various flavors of linux on tablet form devices. Sucks to be microsh*t at the moment…
One would think that Ballmer would learn when HP dumps the Tablet and actually goes out and buys another OS to counter Win7.
I’ve used Win7 and it is way too bulky for a tablet. Get real and make a mobile OS to run on the device and stop deluding yourself into thinking that you can run a full fledged PC on a tablet. You’ve tried that before and it failed.
As a rabid Mac fanboy – currently own 6 Macs and may in the past, plus other Apple products – I would WELCOME a Win7 tablet in the form factor of the iPad. Why? Because I mainly produce things with my computer, whereas iPad, as Jobs said, is mainly for consuming. I tried the iPad twice and decided not to get it because it is hopeless for actually producing something. The syncing and editing of documents is so convoluted, even with Apple iWorks.
Microsoft understands the commercial and corporate market better than Apple. MS knows that there are people out there that need to get work done.
I use Apple because of its beauty and stability – but always wish for Microsoft’s greater amount of features (albeit less user friendly).
Besides, Apple is too arrogant these days, and we can only benefit with a resurgence of Microsoft.
Look at the callous way Apple discards the matte screen – sure, not needed for movie watchers and web surfers — but it’s needed by graphic artists, photographers and people who need to stare at a screen for hours per day in environments that have high amounts of direct light, e.g. right next to and back facing against a full sunlit window, with no ability to orientate the screen away (e.g. in an office). Apple just goes for shiny objects that look great, but cares not about the worker who needs practical tools. That’s why I welcome Microsoft, particularly if they can copy Apple’s concepts. I don’t need Microsoft to be innovative – just copying Apple is good enough. Microsoft have shown they can come up with something serviceable, not 100%, but maybe 80% is good enough, particularly if they make it more targeted to content producers, rather than content consumers. I think Microsoft might do this, given their comments about the iPad being underfunctioning.
A coyote baying at the moon.
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Or maybe microsh*t can find an obscure BSD-unix based os with excellent graphics currently being overseen by a former employee and buy that because they can’t get their own OS to work. Then they can rebadge the OS and pass it off as their work…or at least fail to openly acknowledge where the OS came from…then all the microsh*t fanboys can worship it like it’s the greatest thing they ever did (without acknowledging that it was bought, not developed in house particularly the key component: the kernel). Then they can adopt a superior attitude to the fanboys of other OS’es because their ‘bought’ OS is better. Then the can accuse others of copying their ‘bought’ OS…when they did the ultimate copying! Hmm, this story is starting to sound very familiar…
The problem that Microsoft has (read Steve Ballmer) is that they lack vision and the confidence to see products through to the release stage and beyond.
Microsoft has seen a train wreck of projects that have been dumped, scrapped, delayed and gutted. There’s the Kin, Window’s Mobile, Vista etc. Over time this attitude leads to a corrosion of confidence both inside and outside the company.
As a result Microsoft employees don’t have the confidence to push for projects because they just don’t know how long the company will support their plans. An example of the results of this is the number of well-placed employees who’ve left the company.
I really do believe it is incorrect to say that Microsoft lacks talent rather, it’s the lack of quality leadership and the resulting loss of morale that leads to their intellectual capital failing to reach their potential.
The problem for Microsoft is that as they are facing a gradual decline and the board and the shareholders are reluctant to take the necessary steps to clean out the dead wood (Ballmer and his minions).
In the 1990s Apple was haemorrhaging and quick action was taken over and over again until they got it right. After that Steve Jobs made some tough decisions (whither the Newton) and it still took almost a decade to see the fruits of these actions.
In Microsoft’s case they are still chasing their arses and the longer they wait the longer (and harder) it will be to see the results.
As a Mac user (who had to put up with disdainful insults throughout the 1990s) I hope they take their own sweet time and lose more market share.
Why when I read on Mac sites there are some PC guys forcing every chance to argue against Macs, Apple or SJ. This is a heavy Mac oriented site, dudes. But manny biased arguments about Mac and Apple appear on PC sites too when a Mac article is written. And they dare to call someone “Fanboys”?Why are you here, don’t you have anything to do in your life. Or you don’t have life to live. I am sorry for you people but my Mac and PC computers are good tools. Just that. I love them both and I want them both to prosper. And to you PC lost on Mac sites I really wish you to prosper and find some love…
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@JJ
Rabid Mac fanboy, my aunt Fanny.
I love these PC trolls who claim to be Mac lovers, than immediately show their true colors.
Go back to voluntarily suffering on your pc
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I love the “Windows everywhere” strategy. Keep it up Ballmer! It’s working SO well. Please, keep it up. Those WIndows Phones are gonna ROCK. Everyone will forget all about iPhone and Android.
And I can’t WAIT for the Win 7 tablets! Get McAfee working now on the mobile anti-virus software. iPads are gonna be so last year…
Sorry, but the only reason Microsoft got to where it is is by painting people into a corner. Instead of making software that people want to buy, eliminate the competition so that consumers are forced to buy Microsoft. I am forced to use Windows every day, and I can’t believe people willingly put up with the way it constantly shits the bed.
a Ballmer slate is a new innovation from Microsoft: it is a futuristic concept referred to as a ‘lap top’
“WIthout Windows MAC will have no idea what to do next.”
I’ll be damned, you’re right. Its going to be tough finding another company that Apple can so easily ridicule and belittle their products like Microsoft. Apple needs to keep Microsoft around for laughs.