windows rt

Showing 23 posts tagged windows rt

So if this number is accurate, and if my math is correct, Apple sells as many iPads in roughly 6 days as Microsoft sells Surfaces in roughly 6 months. Update: From Ian King & Dina Bass’ story for Bloomberg: Microsoft has sold little more than a million of the Surface RT version and about 400,000 Surface Pros since their debuts, according to three people, who asked not to be named because sales haven’t yet been made public. The company had ordered about 3 million Surface RTs, they said. Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG, had initially expected Microsoft to sell 2 million Surface RT devices in the December quarter alone. Yikes. And: Microsoft is taking steps to turn around the tepid demand. The software maker is trying to rejigger its marketing for Surface RT, said two of the people familiar with the company. Microsoft executives have said internally that they failed to persuade some customers to choose Surface over Apple’s iPad or Samsung’s tablets, which run on Google’s Android software, one of the people said. Marketing. Good luck with that. High-res

So if this number is accurate, and if my math is correct, Apple sells as many iPads in roughly 6 days as Microsoft sells Surfaces in roughly 6 months.

Update: From Ian King & Dina Bass’ story for Bloomberg:

Microsoft has sold little more than a million of the Surface RT version and about 400,000 Surface Pros since their debuts, according to three people, who asked not to be named because sales haven’t yet been made public. The company had ordered about 3 million Surface RTs, they said. Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG, had initially expected Microsoft to sell 2 million Surface RT devices in the December quarter alone.

Yikes.

And:

Microsoft is taking steps to turn around the tepid demand. The software maker is trying to rejigger its marketing for Surface RT, said two of the people familiar with the company. Microsoft executives have said internally that they failed to persuade some customers to choose Surface over Apple’s iPad or Samsung’s tablets, which run on Google’s Android software, one of the people said.

Marketing. Good luck with that.

Tablets Playing Out More Like Smartphones, Not PCs

I’m generally wary of these estimates (see: netbook projections from a few years ago), but even if IDC is off by a lot, this should be extremely troubling for Microsoft:

IDC said tablets running Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform would grow their market share from 1 percent last year to 7.4 percent in 2017.

Tablets running the Windows RT operating system, which is not compatible with older software that runs on Windows, will see their market share stay below 3 percent through 2017, IDC said.

The tablet market is expected to be close to 200 million units shipped in 2013. According to IDC, the iPad will control about half of that market with all the various Android tablets controlling the other half. Microsoft will be a non-player.

And even by 2017 — four full years from now — IDC doesn’t think Microsoft will control even 10 percent of the market. Yikes.

Microsoft To Make The Windows RT Experience Even Worse

Chris Welch for The Verge:

Microsoft has just announced that it will permit Flash content to run by default in both Windows RT and Windows 8 beginning tomorrow, March 12th. Until now, compatibility in Internet Explorer 10 has been limited to a select number of sites whitelisted by Microsoft. 

I was just thinking that I wish there was another reason never to use Internet Explorer 10. Wish granted.

Also, no mention of Silverlight — which says all you need to know about that. 

“There wasn’t really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was.”

Mike Abary, the head of Samsung’s PC and tablet business in the U.S., explaining to CNET at CES why Samsung was bailing on Windows RT.

It is, what we thought it was. A shitshow.

Nokia's Windows tablet to take on Surface with battery-equipped keyboard cover

Tom Warren for The Verge:

We’re told that the large majority of Nokia’s focus with its tablet is on a battery-equipped cover. Nokia will release a special cover for the tablet that envelops it like a book. Clicking into place, the cover provides a keyboard and a kickstand for the tablet. Nokia has also built a battery into the cover that can be used to power the tablet once it runs low on energy. Two USB ports on the case will also provide additional connectivity.

Sounds like a creative idea, especially that it acts as an additional battery. But this cover is the “large majority” of Nokia’s focus? Shouldn’t it be, you know, on the tablet itself?

thenextweb:

However, the most recent ad from Microsoft boosting its tablet line is a mess. Instead of focusing on any single feature of the Surface tablet, or even Windows 8, Microsoft tries to show off every single thing that it can in 30 seconds. Guess how effective that is. (via The latest Surface ad is a confused, spinning, spawn-of-rainbow mess - The Next Web)

Hope you aren’t prone to seizures…

Zero Microsoft Surface Tablets Given

Philip Elmer-DeWitt breaks down the numbers from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, who spent Black Friday at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Shoppers at the Apple Store bought an average of 11 iPads per hour. Despite heavy TV, print and billboard advertising for the new Microsoft Surface tablet, not one was sold sold during the two hours Piper Jaffray spent monitoring that store. Doesn’t bode well for Microsoft’s answer to the iPad.

No, no it doesn’t.

One store, sure. But when I went to buy the Surface a few weeks back, I saw exactly one sold in all my time playing around at the kiosk — the one sold to me so I could do my review. On the other hand, I was also in an Apple Store (in Miami) on Black Friday, I’ve never seen such a crowd. And yes, plenty of folks were leaving with Apple bags in their hands.

Your post, Premature Crapulation, says " I believe Microsoft made a fundamental miscalculation in trying to cram the touch elements and legacy point-and-click elements together in Windows 8." But do you believe the same thing if it was Windows RT that was installed on a desktop PC or laptop (with or without a touch screen)? ...I'd love to know.

Asked by Anonymous

I actually think Windows RT is a bigger problem than Windows 8 itself. It makes no sense — no sense — to have the legacy Windows interface exist there only for Office (and IE). I think Windows RT should exist as a “Metro” only interface and Windows 8 should continue the traditional Windows paradigm, fading out over time.

I think you’re mainly asking though if I think the Metro interface would work on a desktop or laptop PC. Perhaps, though the lack of apps would really hurt there. People would buy those devices expecting them to do what the PCs they’re replacing did. And they would not be able to except maybe in the web browser which is pretty poor.

The Sin(ofsky)s Of The Father

A day later, all of the stories about the Steven Sinofsky departure seem to be pointing in the same general direction:

  • That he was indeed fired (or asked to leave).
  • That he clashed with Steve Ballmer.
  • That he didn’t work well with others.
  • That Ballmer wanted a more collaborative Microsoft.
  • That Windows 8 and Surface sales had nothing to do with it.

What I’ve heard from people both inside and close to Microsoft is in line with all of those things. But I’m still not sold on the last point.

Is it too early to gauge the success of Windows 8 and the Surface in the market? Sure. But Microsoft certainly has their own internal metrics and indicators that give them a better sense of how things are going. I’m obviously not privy to such data, but a 23-year veteran of Microsoft, the man in charge of both projects, was just fired.

It certainly seems like he didn’t work well with others. But he probably hasn’t for the past 23 years. At the very least, that seems to be the case for the past several years since he’s been running the Windows division, and the years running the Office division before that. Both remained huge successes, so no one seemed to care. What changed?

Yes, there are obvious parallels to the Scott Forstall situation inside of Apple. But the overall situation is different as Tim Cook is only one year into the job and felt the need to consolidate power while streamlining internal processes (his M.O.). Ballmer has been on the job (as CEO) with Sinofsky for 13 years. Again, what changed?

My (unsubstantiated) guess remains Windows 8 and the Surface. I think we’ll see this play out in the months ahead.

Sinofsky was the driving force behind the “no compromise” approach to Windows 8. I believe that approach is at the heart of the ultimate problem with the OS. As two separate halves, Windows 8 and Metro seem fine. As a whole, the OS seems like a schizophrenic mess. Microsoft should have copied the Apple approach with OS X/iOS, keeping them separate and slowly merging them over time by taking the best of both.

It was Sinofsky’s call to do the opposite. And he went on and on and on about it as he oddly defined “compromise” by extolling the virtues of not compromising.

Meanwhile, the Surface is a mess. My full review is forthcoming, but it’s hard to imagine why anyone buys this device beyond initial curiosity. Maybe the “Pro” version of the Surface is better and will make some sense, but the initial Surface is another weird combination of things that yes, define compromise.

Ultimately, I have this strange feeling that the strict adherence to “no compromise” with Windows 8 is what led to there being no compromise when it came to Sinofsky staying with the company. We may never know if my feeling is right or not, but the numbers over the next few months should be at least directionally revealing.

Ultimately, I don’t think Forstall gets fired without the Maps situation (and to a lesser extent, the Siri issues and his “no compromise” approach to design). And I think there’s an even more straightforward reason why Sinofsky is out. I think Microsoft can see it right now. And I think we’ll all be able to see it before long.