Microsoft Working On "Surface 2" Tablet 192
A reader snips this news from Tech Radar: "The Surface tablets that Microsoft will start selling on 26 October at Microsoft Stores (and in temporary 'holiday stores' in twelve US cities including New York) are only the first of a planned family of Windows devices and Surface 2.0 is already under development. Although Microsoft corporate communications chief Frank Shaw said recently that calling Surface 'our new family of PCs built to be the ultimate stage for Windows' was no more than 'literary licence' and that there was nothing more than the two tablets already announced, the Surface team is 'currently building the next generation' of 'devices that fully express the Windows vision' — according to more than a dozen job adverts posted on the Microsoft Careers site between June and August."
Why is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Surface 1 is done. Of course they are working on Surface 2 and maybe even Surface 3.
In other news, Apple is working on iPhone 6.
Samsung is working on Galaxy S4.
And so on...
Re:Osbourne Effect (Score:4, Insightful)
Really, they need to be more tight lipped. One of Apple's points is that they don't leak, so they don't lose sales "waiting". You can't "go back" and get money customers didn't spend this quarter... It's gone. People that wait generally didn't keep the money handy, so they don't buy "more".
Apple is already citing that as a reason for diminished quarter... Because everybody KNOWS we get a new iPhone, iPad, iPod each year.
The obvious question is that if Surface 1.0 isn't released, why are they working on 2.0? Microsoft hasn't released ANY Surface yet... Stop assuming anybody will care about the NEXT one... Or worse, what features are they going to leave OUT? This becomes like iOS updates where people get upset when only this YEAR's model gets all the new features.
Surface x86 Tablet looks great! (Score:1, Insightful)
The x86 Surface tablet looks fantastic! Fairly lightweight, plenty of power, great screen, full on high resolution stylus and digitizer. It's exactly what I was looking for earlier this year, my absolute dream machine that I spec'd out in my head. Too bad it's stuck with Windows 8.
Re:Osbourne Effect (Score:2, Insightful)
They did the same with their phones:
http://mashable.com/2012/06/25/lumia-why-no-upgrade/ [mashable.com]
Release v7 phones then announce that they won't be able to work on v8 phones.
Guess it's a bit like their close partner Nokia, with the famous Burning Platform memo:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/nokia-ceo-stephen-elop-rallies-troops-in-brutally-honest-burnin/ [engadget.com]
It'll all end in tears. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or more likely, end in mediocrity.
Re:Osbourne Effect (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple might not leak, but is it really surprising that any company is working on "the next version"?
What company in their right mind would put out a device and say "yep, I think we'll just stop developing anything further for the next 5 years while we sell this one."
The only thing that needs to be held under wraps is potential release dates.
Re:Why is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Building the microsoft vision (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously they'll take share and make money by making Windows not work as well on the hardware of their OEM competitors. That won't be hard to do as they must write the drivers for the hardware - the OEMs can't - and these days they're streaming updates so they can make your Dell PC gradually progressively worse instead of waiting for a new Windows version. This has been their go-to strategy with software competitors since, I think, 1986.
Just in case you're going to get all [citation needed] on me... Here's Microsoft's internal communications about doing this to Novell [groklaw.net] and here is the painful Novell internal emails about how Outlook 95 broke email on install for users Novell's GroupWise [groklaw.net]. These are just two recently transcribed documents of 3,600 from the Comes v. Microsoft case that was settled just a few days after the plaintiff put the documents up on their website because Microsoft failed to seal them - and they are all very, very bad. Fortunately some thoughtful people archived them.
OEMs have always known that Microsoft did this to software vendors, and they looked away because they were getting theirs. Lotus, Borland, Aldus, Ashton-Tate and many others fell the same way. Well now it's the OEMs turn to play Microsoftball blindfolded and with their legs hobbled, giving their competitor an advanced look at their strategy.
Re:Building the microsoft vision (Score:5, Insightful)
There is nothing about Microsoft Tablet that says
True, but the plan of developing software, prototyping hardware and hoping the 3rd party manufacturers would make something materialize that was worth buying didn't work, and they tried that plan for 10 years.
Trying something else may not go anywhere either. But clearly the last plan didn't work, and somehow android has been adopted for slate form factors even though no one ever tried that with windows, when it could have been tried* years before the iPad. I suspect this is microsofts way of negotiating with it's hardware providers, they better get off their collective arses and start at least trying different things, or microsoft will.
*caveats. Yes they had convertible tablets, I've owned several over the years and they worked quite well for a lot of things. And yes, they had slate form prototypes in what, 2002, but no one tried to market those for whatever reason.
Re:Building the microsoft vision (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is this being moderated Troll?
This is exactly what Microsoft do. They have always tried to make subtle incompatibilities for competitors products.
Java, Secure Boot, OOXML, H264, their ACPI trickery, Mono/Silverlight and so on ad nauseum.
Even Microsoft knows they're an unreliable business partner. This is from their SEC filing: "...our Surface devices will compete with products made by our OEM partners, which may affect their commitment to our platform." "Users may increasingly turn to these [mobile] devices to perform functions that would have been performed by personal computers in the past," "Even if many users view these devices as complementary to a personal computer, the prevalence of these devices may make it more difficult to attract applications developers to our platforms."
Re:It sucks to be a Windows OEM right now (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More vaporware from Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
They can certainly freeze the Windows tablet market...
Re:Building the microsoft vision (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow that's a thoughtful, complex post. Let's deal with these issues one at a time.
Para 1: Bill is gone. Bill Gates remains the chairman of the board at Microsoft [microsoft.com], and hand-picked all the other board members - who pick the CEO and evaluate his performance, give him goals and guidance, set his pay, bonuses and options, and set policy. Bill is still very much responsible for what goes on there, and weighs in on every big decision.
Para 2: Steve Ballmer. You neglected to mention the sea of red ink [businessinsider.com] that is Microsoft's Online Services Division. I happen to like the direction Steve Ballmer is taking Microsoft. Clearly this is a man with vision [youtube.com] and purpose who is ready and able to take the company where I want it to go. It takes Marvel Comics level superpowers to get rid of this much cash flow, to destroy a 42 percent success in mobile market share from 2007 [wikipedia.org] given their advantages and high hopes [macdailynews.com], to so capably destroy the morale and productivity [slashdot.org] of the world's best developers, to put a company with this much income in $55B of debt [google.com]. So let's lay off of Steve-o, mmkay? I like him where he is, sweaty shirt and all.
Para 3: No more Big, Bad MS. With the OOXML debacle [groklaw.net] that nearly ruined ISO, their recent rape of Nokia [blogs.com], their current ongoing rape of OEMs [computerworld.com], retail vendors [zdnet.com] of both their products and Windows PCs, their planned rape of software distributor partners [cnn.com], developers and competing independent software vendors and much much more they prove every day that they have not changed. Last week they confirmed they're going to murder the advertisers they bought relationships with in an acquisition by making "Do Not Track" the default [arstechnica.com] in IE. Just yesterday [pcworld.com] it came out that the new replacement for Hotmail, Outlook.com is incompatible with Android. The "new kinder, gentler Microsoft" is a myth. They have now declared war on absolutely everybody on Earth, including the people who pay for their products and excepting only the Women's Temperance Union [wikipedia.org] and media executives [wikipedia.org]. Naturally this means I expect them to announce an embedded bittorent feature for IE that involves a drinking game next.
Para 4. Ballmer outbound. Steve Ballmer is not retiring for another seven years at least, when his last kid goes off to college [informationweek.com].
Para 5. Immortal desktop victory. It's not enough to take ground. Once you take ground, you have to hold it. MS won mobile with 40% share too [link above], once upon a time. And now they'r