Acer: Microsoft Surface 'Negative For The Whole PC Industry' 360
Shortly after Microsoft announced its upcoming Surface tablet, there was speculation that it might sour the company's relationships with OEM partners. Statements from an Acer spokesperson indicate that's definitely the case. The spokesperson told Bloomberg, "On one hand Microsoft is our partner, but on the other, Microsoft’s move makes them compete not only with us but all PC makers. We think that Microsoft’s launch of its own-brand products is negative for the whole PC industry." The company is reportedly considering whether or not they want to keep relying on Microsoft's software products.
I didn't know Acer still made computers (Score:3, Insightful)
Most hardware vendors are Microsoft's bitch, and they have NO ONE to blame but themselves. They've been loving this relationship with them. I don't think PC manufactures can do anything.
Pot Calling The Kettle A Racist Word (Score:3, Insightful)
If anyone is bad for the PC industry its Acer. Short of those $70 netbooks you find on Craigslist, Acer is the bottom of the barrel.
And OEM's alternatives are... (Score:4, Insightful)
Where are they going to go?
Option A) Yes, they could just pick a Linux distro and run with it. But now they're a software company, and they don't want that. Most of these things are publicly traded, and they don't have margin to do a year of no profits while they spin up of a new division without getting killed in the markets.
Or option B) they bitch a little and keep selling Windows.
Cue the apologists (Score:5, Insightful)
You will get a ton of MS apologists on this story telling us how the PC makers have "failed" Microsoft and how MS had no choice but to blaze the trail. This is bullshit. When Windows Vista and 7 were both released we were assured by MS and their hangers on that it was finally touch friendly and anyone that argued that it was just the same old crap was shouted down in comment forums all over the internet. When sane people pointed out the fact that even if you could manage to put up with desktop Windows on a touch screen you still had to put up with the heat and bulk of the x86 chipsets available they also were shouted down. The funny thing was that despite the echoing chorus that Windows was tablet ready, Windows tablet after tablet bombed. Ballmer in a case of extraordinary egg on face even headlined CES with another HP tablet dud. Where is it now?
Then something strange happened. Another company took an idea that MS had failed to execute on for a decade and ran away with the market completely. And now we hear that MS is coming out with its own gear because somehow the OEMs have failed. No. Microsoft failed the OEMs. How were they supposed to compete with the iPad with fucking Windows 7 on a sawed-off netbook? Get fucking real. Of course this wouldn't even be an issue if the internet echo chamber weren't once again running to MS' defense and pointing the finger everywhere but at where it belongs. MS has failed their partners. Fortunately for Acer et al, Surface in both its incarnations is fundamentally flawed. It doesn't know if it's an ultrabook or a tablet. Windows 8 is some kind of weird FrankenOS that doesn't know what it wants to be and WinRT is as sure a dud against the iPad as any number of $79 tablets hanging in blister packs in Walgreens.
So fear not, dear Acer but have fun posturing. MS has failed you before and they are failing themselves now.
Re:So? (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course they don't want to rely on microsoft, that was a stupid position to get themselves into in the first place.
Acer already makes a line of Android tablets. If those were selling brilliantly, we wouldn't see Acer voicing any concerns. But they're not selling, and Acer isn't keen they were left out of the initial group (Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Samsung) to build Windows RT tablets, selected by Microsoft. It's no wonder Acer was left off the list, given the crappy hardware they produce.
Re:It's a great move. (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft NEEDS to make their own hardware.
That just shows how badly distorted the PC market is.
The OS is just one component of a computer. Microsoft should be just one parts vendor amongst many, then we'd see real competition and innovation.
Gotta Love Press Releases (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it really a negative "for the whole PC industry" or just a negative for Acer and the other OEM partners?
And do what? Write their own OS and take on Microsoft head-to-head? Release only products with Linux on them? I love Linux, but let's be realistic. Acer obviously isn't happy about Microsoft's entry into the hardware side of tablets, but they have few other options, so they will whine about it and continue selling Microsoft products all the while.
Re:Mass revolt against MS? (Score:4, Insightful)
Dell has already sold several different consumer grade systems pre-loaded with Ubuntu, but never with much publicity (/. notwithstanding) and therefore not in significant numbers. These efforts have also not lasted too long. This time may be different, but first let's see if they actually release it, at this point it's still vaporware.
Valve is a big deal for Linux, but they haven't said they would stop supporting Windows, so to MS it's not an immediate danger. Sure, some people may no longer need to boot into Windows as often, and a few may remove it entirely from their systems, but I highly doubt it will lead to a big decrease in Windows licenses sold.
As you said, Blizzard has not publicized any plans for a possible strategy shift as Valve has.
Mozilla is an obvious anti-MS, Firefox was started in part to restore open standards on the web, IOW, to loosen IE's iron grip on the web.
Don't get me wrong, as a longtime Linux-only user, nothing would please me more than my favorite OS getting some much needed attention from important software and hardware companies, especially at the expense of MS and/or Apple. I just don't think it will happen any time soon. Look at LibreOffice, it's free and roughly equivalent to MS Office for the average non-professional user, but it has yet to gain any kind of significant traction. And as long as MS has a hold on Office, Windows will be around.
Re:Cue the apologists (Score:5, Insightful)
When Windows Vista and 7 were both released we were assured by MS and their hangers on that it was finally touch friendly and anyone that argued that it was just the same old crap was shouted down in comment forums all over the internet. When sane people pointed out the fact that even if you could manage to put up with desktop Windows on a touch screen you still had to put up with the heat and bulk of the x86 chipsets available they also were shouted down.
I think you're remembering wrong. Windows tablets have always been laughed at on this and many other tech forums. I should know since I argued for them back them, having used one daily through my college career, and I was the one constantly being shouted down. I still maintain for specialized use cases, pen and finger input was ideal and something you didn't have from any other manufacturer or OS vendor at the time. But that's where the problem was: MS and all OEMs saw Tablet PCs as niche systems meant for business, and they marketed and priced them that way. Since they lacked the audience, they lacked the apps. Apple saw tablets as consumption devices for the consumer, and they won that side of the bet, for pretty obvious reasons (size, price, usability).
So you'll forgive me if I don't seem to remember this history you're painting where forum nerds everywhere rushed to the defense of Tablet PCs. It was really quite the opposite.
Re:2013 (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually thats true. In the post-pc computing era 2013 is the year when Android will have sold more copies then Windows 7. With the post-pc era I'm talking about pc, smartphones and pads merged into one market for computers.
Currently the linux distrubution Android is outselling Windows 7 with about 50%. By the end of 2013 Android will have delivered
more units then Windows 7. In the longer run - with the current sales continuing - we are looking into future a situation where about 3 of 5 of the post pc era computors will be running a linux kernel and most of the others splitting with running Windows and iOS.
Well, unless the linux kernel distributions penetration and market share of sales goes up even more of course.
Re:I didn't know Acer still made computers (Score:2, Insightful)
I wonder how many people at ACER have apple products. The fact is, these companies cant make good devices so the software companies have to start doing it. I don't blame MS one bit.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:2013 (Score:4, Insightful)
They are run by lawyers that picked up bad habits from gangsters and don't care who knows it.
Re:They have been doing the same thing since 1980' (Score:4, Insightful)
How to get quality software to Linux. There is tons of it now, but not for the consumer.
Not for the enterprise consumer, but for anything anyone needs a computer at home for, Linux has more than enough software for anyone's needs.
GiMP is not Photoshop
True, but photoshop isn't for the home market, the damned program costs as much or more than the computer it's running on. Most non-professionals using photoshop are using a pirate version. There's no need to spend $700 to edit the photos you shot with your cell phone.
There is no real possibility of editing video.
Google says you're wrong. [google.com]
Open/Libre Office is not, for the average consumer, an alternative to MS Office.
What does the average user need an office suite for? Writing grandma, cropping photos, balancing the checkbook. Oo is perfectly capabe of doing anything the average non-enterprise user needs. Why would a home user spend a couple hundred dollars on a program they would seldom use?
The overall experience is not particularly high quality (I use Linux every day, it isn't).
Then you're running the wrong distro; I see that here often. One fellow was saying last week that he couldn't play MP3s on his Linux machine, well DUH, he was running Red Hat. You don't use a server OS for a desktop client, you use the right tool for the job. There is no "Linux", there are a LOT of Linuxes. I'm running kubuntu, and it's not as pretty as Windows 7 (I have that on a notebook) but otherwise it's superior in every way to Windows.
If Linux lacks quality, why do you use it every day? I call bullshit, friend. If Linux wasn't better than Windows, nobody would use Linux because the computer already has an OS when they buy it.