Microsoft Backs Out Of Wi-Fi Equipment Market 348
Glenn Fleishman writes "Say it ain't so! Microsoft makes good consumer Wi-Fi equipment but is exiting the market, News.com reports. They'll sell out their inventory, but won't make new models or produce new product. I can't recall a case in which Microsoft had viable products and decent sales and exited instead of spending more money to compete more effectively. Or even when they had non-viable products (Pocket PC's original OS) and spent years and billions before they had something that worked. Perhaps competition from Cisco (Linksys subsidiary), NetGear, and even Apple (which has a disproportionate marketshare) made MSFT blink."
damn (Score:1, Interesting)
Diverting attention elsewhere? (Score:2, Interesting)
Either that or this is the first sign that MSFT is going belly-up. *g*
I think they like it in their core software market (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that Cisco also doesn't want any competition for it's Linksys brand. They may have pushed MS. Cisco makes a lot of software and this may have been a deal to push some of their software to run on Windows. Vonage runs a system built by Cisco on Sun Microsystems, and this may be a backroom deal for Sun to push their software on the Windows platform.
A bit of a shame... (Score:5, Interesting)
And no....don't talk to me about open-source here. I''ve played around with building an EAP-TLS system with Free Radius [freeradius.org] and after two days of solid effort it still wasn't working.
A real shame that opportunity has been missed.
Re:Nothing to offer... (Score:5, Interesting)
wi-fi usage (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Margins, Margins, Margins (Score:3, Interesting)
802.11i firmware upgrades? (Score:3, Interesting)
Are you talking about a different MS? (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps competition from Cisco (Linksys subsidiary), NetGear, and even Apple (which has a disproportionate marketshare) made MSFT blink.
We are talking about the same MS, right?
The same MS who jumped into the game console market with Sony and Nintendo? Who wrote Word and Excel, when the market already had Wordperfect and Lotus? Those guys? The ones who wrote Internet Explorer when Netscape was already on it's third release?
You can say what you like about MS, but don't say competition scares them. They look at an unentered market the same way Peg Bundy looks at a bon-bon. They know that they can intimidate and out-spend anyone on the planet. Even the law can't stop them, because they simply view the fines as a business cost.
A better question to ask would be why. Why would they leave a market, just when they're gaining share? This is what they live for. Move number two in this game is to take revenue from the other near-monopolies and turn this market opening into another monopoly, to fuel the next market they wish to exploit.
It can't be that they view the market as a brick wall. They didn't view the DOJ as a brick wall! I'm supposed to believe that after that, Cisco scares them?
I don't know why they left the market, but believe me...they have a good reason, and it's in everyone's best interest to figure out what it is. Especially the people who make WiFi equipment.
Weaselmancer
Re:End of support after two years? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Margins, Margins, Margins (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, it has been said that Microsoft keeps these money losing units around in part so that it can manage its official profits. If its going to have a bad year, it can kill off one or of them and improve it's bottom line. In the meanwhile, with its virtue of persistence (in the current US business climate, you have to give them a lot of credit there), one or more of these units like the X-Box just might become a big hit that they could really use....
Re:Say WHAT? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have. They're phenominally easy to use, and basically force you to set 128-bit WEP as the default. The newer ones suggest you use 256-bit WPA, which works hunky-dory with Apple's WPA implementation. I have a MN-700 base station a short distance from me right now and it absolutely screams.
Lest not overjudge. Like their keyboards and mice, they're damn fine products. If only they put that focus into other stuff.
Re:Say WHAT? (Score:1, Interesting)
Their keyboards and mice are, of course, made by Logitech. They are simply branded as Microsoft.
The same is probably true of the WiFi stuff: X-Box or not, Microsoft is not a hardware company.
Re:Say WHAT? (Score:4, Interesting)
MS Beta Hardware (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I don't mind either way... I just won't be getting any more free MS hardware. I may now have a chance to check out "the competition."
Re:Past hardware pullouts (Score:5, Interesting)
When I bought my TIVO I had a MS salesperson (they actually had one stationed at The Good Guys trying to sell the piece of junk) tell me that I was making a big mistake in buying the TIVO because they would be outta business in no time flat and that MS was the smart purchase.
Needless to say, we know what happened....
Microsoft isn't omnipotent? (Score:3, Interesting)
Add to this that there's a chance of a moderate-to-severe cash crunch for Microsoft sometime between now and when Longhorn finally (if ever) does come out, current cash on-hand notwithstanding. There's also some of uncertainty about whether demand will be there when it does finally arrive.
A pointless anecdote (Score:5, Interesting)
Several trips to a SuperJumboElectroMegaHut (or a Best Buy, I can't remember which) later, the only 802.11 card that would work "out of the box" with my Linux laptop was a Microsoft MN-520. All the others on the shelf used one of the either not supported or barely supported 802.11g chipsets.
For various job-related reasons using non-standard kernel patches wasn't an option for me, so the few other supported cards were out.
It is getting harder and harder to find wireless cards that work well with the stock kernel (or the Fedora/RedHat kernel, which, of course, can't really be considered a stock kernel).
So I'm sorry to see Microsoft leave this market because they were the best provider of Linux-friendly Wi-Fi cards. Ironic, innit?
Re:That's a change of pace... (Score:3, Interesting)
Bluetooth (Score:4, Interesting)
while I agree on this for the most part, the Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse Combo just plain sucks. The Mouse never goes into standby, so it's a big drain on batteries. Then 75% of the time, if the batteries die while the computer is off, you have to reinstall - which is very cumbersome.
you have to break out the good old wired versions to do this. They don't even offer a patch to fix this, just suggest a reinstall and or relocation of the bluetooth devices. Now why the hell do I want to reinstall every couple of weeks or so.
Re:Say WHAT? (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft makes good Wi-Fi equipment? (Score:4, Interesting)
It was my understanding that their appliances were very easy to configure, but the performance is poor and the feature set is wanting. Still, I suppose this is somewhat disappointing since there is a need for easy-to-use gateways. Many users looking for uncomplicated solutions will probably turn to Linksys products instead, which are arguably worse.
Re:Say WHAT? (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyone else know of good systems you can put outside in a wet/dry box you can pick up at a hardware store?
Re:Say WHAT? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Are you talking about a different MS? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Say WHAT? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've used plenty of different WiFi products, and was curious to what Microsoft had licensed, but never saw the killer deal on them to encourage me to buy any to find out. Other brands were always at a lower price, every time I went shopping. It seems that everyone in the WiFi business buys someone elses product and sticks their own label on it. I'm sure if you cracked open any Microsoft WiFi product and looked inside, the chipset wouldn't say "Microsoft" on it.
This, of course, has been Microsoft's way with everything, including many of their software products. They buy out a company, change the names, and sell it as Microsoft. The biggest example I can think of off-hand (at 1am, mind you) was Microsoft SQL, but throughout their lines, it's something they've bought (or stolen) over the years. What was the case they lost a year or so ago, where they had been distributing someone elses code as a Microsoft product, and finally lost in court?
I was expecting, if I ever got my hands on some Microsoft WiFi equipment, that I'd find a decent brand inside. Too bad that won't be happening now. If I get one, it'll be used junk someone is throwing away.
Almost everyone I know is using Linksys or Netgear wireless stuff. Even across all the wireless equipment I've heard (carefully not admitting to anything potentially illegal), I've never run across any Microsoft gear.