“Around the time the iPad came out more than two years ago, Microsoft executives got an eye-opening jolt about how far Apple would go to gain an edge for its products,” Nick Wingfield reports for The New York Times.
“Microsoft learned through industry sources that Apple had bought large quantities of high-quality aluminum from a mine in Australia to create the distinctive cases for the iPad, according to a former Microsoft employee involved in the discussions, who did not wish to be named talking about internal matters,” Wingfield reports. “The executives were stunned by how deeply Apple was willing to reach into the global supply chain to secure innovative materials for the iPad and, once it did, to corner the market on those supplies. Microsoft’s executives worried that Windows PC makers were not making the same kinds of bets, the former employee said.”
Wingfield reports, “The incident was one of many over the last several years that gradually pushed Microsoft to create its own tablet computer, unveiled last week. The move was the most striking evidence yet of the friction between Microsoft and its partners on the hardware side of the PC business. It is the first time in Microsoft’s almost four-decade history that the company will sell its own computer hardware, competing directly with the PC makers that are the biggest customers for the Windows operating system… ‘You’ve got this sclerotic partnership structure where the partners don’t have any oxygen to be innovative,’ said Lou Mazzucchelli, an entrepreneur in residence for a venture capital fund backed by the state of Rhode Island and a former technology analyst. ‘I believe Microsoft was painted into a corner. If they’ve didn’t move soon, Apple would have so much of a lead, it would be almost impossible to catch them.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: From what’s we’ve seen from Microsoft to date (Blurry Ass Tablet™), Apple, as long as they continue to execute with even half the focus they’ve shown for the last 15 years, is already uncatchable.
ZunePads saddled with Windows of any stripe simply aren’t going to cut it.
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Microsoft could hardly expect their partners to make bold moves in the supply chain area to secure valuable supplies. For years, the only one making big margins on the PC side is Microsoft. The rest are left fighting for market share on price alone. Yep, MS was painted into a corner and mostly by the system they created.
Isn’t that funny.
“What’s the matter with you guys?!? How come you’re not re-investing your 1.5% margin back into hardware innovation!?!”
The Surface changes nothing for Microsoft. while it might be a hedge against the future of computing, structurally, it lives and dies by selling the most popular OS in the world. This is a world that will for some time require the symbiotic relationship that MS has with its hardware partners. This is indeed a critical time for eh MS business model; a balancing act that will be precarious.
to quote Dandy Don Meredith of Monday Night Football…
“turn out the lights, the party’s over..”
What? Another song reference? Ok… “Closing time. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” – Semisonic
Microsoft is in for a whole world of hurt when they decide to compete with their partners and the partners have a free Android solution they have been working with for a couple of years.
Microsoft against the world, poor babies.
““The case is one-of-a-kind,” Mr. Sinofsky said, holding the gray device in his hands. ”
Cause they only have the one? 😉
luv it!!!
Microsoft’s sad mistake is in realizing without a hardware/software combo innovation plan that also extends to supplies of innovative build materials you ain’t got nothin’. No advantage and only lost opportunity. It would be presumptuous for their partners to make the bold choices in hardware that Microsoft would benefit most from. It is Microsoft’s responsible to control the whole widget as time has now proven is the best strategy Apple has pursued. Of course it was always in Apple’s DNA to care to for this thorough tech experience as it was not and still is not for Gates & Ballmer. It scares the hell out of them. Thorough solutions for them has usually been met with indifference and consumer apathy due to the geek approach (like the Media Center) instead of working on elegant simple solutions. It was always their deal to advance any MS tech and they avoided that responsibili for as long as they could unto they were caught with their pants down, humping each other as their startled eyes met Apple oncoming headlights.
That’s one seriously disturbing image you ended with…
Yeah, thanks to that “lovely” vision, I’ll definitely need Apple’s ‘Eyes Free’!
Sorry guys. Just know that Skipper Steve is always the one on top (of his “little buddy” Billigan).
Watching this whole thing play out is going to be a blast!
MS is wallowing around like a ship with no rudder – no, more like a ship with an unpredictable rudder – no telling where they’ll end up as the wheel is turned – and with Ballmer navigating and shouting out “course corrections” to boot.
What a show!
Talk about sloppy seconds. The ZunePad is now the leading candidate for the sloppy seconds prize of the decade. If the ZunePad fails miserably, there will likely be a mass exodus of investors from Microsoft stock.
So much for Microsoft’s stratergy. They loved it a lot until Apple twisted it around their collective neck.
So be it, let the games begins.
So the MS mantra of “variety” and “choice” aren’t so great after all?
Windows PC makers have discovered a plastics mine in southern China that they will use to manufacture their business premium line of Surface tablets.
This guy has no clue what he’s talking about. Dell clearly made the bold move to corner the market on exploding capacitors and cheap plastics years ago!!
There you go again, MDN, attempting illegitimate trademarking. Look, if you need government help to protect your catchphrases, at least do it correctly.
Also, word to the wise: Apple’s premium design for iPad means that yes, it is possible to create cheaper imitation copies. And what do we know about a generation of tech idiots raised with Walmart-style disposable everything mentality? They actually think they’re saving money by buying shoddy junk.
I’m not insinuating that the iPad will ever be challenged for excellence, but only a fool would believe that the highest quality product will maintain the highest market share over the long run. Too many cheapskates in the world for that to be true.
Full speed ahead, Captain Ballmer!!!
I wonder if there is a comparison to be made between Google and Microsoft in that both are one-trick-pony technical giants who are on the same time continuum (or perhaps arc is a better word) but at different points. Both are great borrowers who enjoyed a time when they were perceived as being companies that were brilliant and innovative but as time passed, the truth came out.
I say continuum because I believe that both will ultimately be seen as also rans alongside Apple. In this news report, it is apparent that at a fundamental level, Microsoft does not understand the philosophy of its principal competitor nor is it capable of the sort of vision that fostered so much innovation at Apple. The writing is on the wall. Apple innovates; Microsoft reacts.
“Apple had bought large quantities of high-quality aluminum from a mine in Australia to create the distinctive cases for the iPad”
“Microsoft’s executives worried that Windows PC makers were not making the same kinds of bets”
Having these two sentences in the same paragraph really emphasizes the understatement.
“Apple had bought large quantities of high-quality aluminum from a mine in Australia to create the distinctive cases for the iPad”
Two things here suggest that Nick Wingfield writing for The New York Times has no idea about what is going on.
1. Aluminum is not mined, it is produced from aluminum oxide, which is produced from mined bauxite. Aluminum is not specified as “high quality.” 2. Aluminum is specified by composition, i.e., purity and alloying materials. Maybe Nick goes to a grain silo to buy bread, or to an oil company to buy “high quality” tires for his car?
Thank you. His assertions had been bothering me also.
Microsoft can’t win. If they produce a product similar to Apple’s they are accused of copying, if they produce anything at all it doesn’t match Apple’s genius. Man, it sucks to be those guys.
If you were a PC assembler working on tight margins would you stake the company on a bet that the next version of MS mobile software was going to be any better – let alone market dominating ,,,, I think not.
MS mobile 2,3.4.5.6,7,8 where is the development path how backwards compatible are they, how many billions has MS paid in to develop the software – the answer is clear for MS