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.
It's a great move. (Score:0, Interesting)
I've been thinking it for a long time. Microsoft NEEDS to make their own hardware. They NEED the bubbled off environment that lets them make a good product. They NEED to stop trying to build for the lowest common denominator. Apple has been doing this for a long while now. Their products "Just work" because they are in a closed environment where testing can be done in a realistic matter. I hope to see them take this further and lock out desktops and Laptops to their own manufacturing.
Sure it sucks if you are a manufacturer, but there are other options out there for your gear. Android and Linux come to mind.
Mass revolt against MS? (Score:5, Interesting)
So, we have:
- Dell (project Sputnik. Partners with Canonical to sell Linux PCs)
- Valve (Steam for Linux)
- Blizzard (only blasted Windows 8, not announced their contingency plan yet)
- Mozilla (Windows 8 revives the IE browser lockin)
and now Acer
how can you not take the "think twice" line as a threat of defection
Acer seems a little sour (Score:4, Interesting)
Source: http://www.unwiredview.com/2012/07/24/asus-lenovo-toshiba-samsung-to-launch-windows-rt-tablets-this-year-others-await-microsofts-permission-in-january/ [unwiredview.com]
Hi, consumer here (Score:5, Interesting)
Dear Acer ( and everyone else ):
Please give me what I want at a price point I want it at, and I will buy your product. I have no loyalty to any specific vendor, indeed, why would anyone show brand loyalty?
If it works and it's cost effective, I'll buy it. Maybe you should try competing against MS on those grounds. Us consumers would appreciate that, i think.
Sincerely, me.
Re:Whether or not they want to keep relying on MS? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:2013 (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact in this market MS should be happy if everyone starts using non-MS OS. Look at the facts. Samsung is paying MS at least a half million dollars a year for the right to use Android. OTOH, MS has to pay Nokia $250 million to use MS phone OS. Which is better for MS?
Back in 200 when Apple showed that *nix could be used as the basis for a Desktop OS, I thought some of the major MS partners might go this route and develop a consortium to create a desktop OS for PC users, using emulation such as we see with WINE. Of course they were happy sucking the teats of MS and making the easy money. It would have been too much work for them to develop and innovative product.
Re:Pot Calling The Kettle A Racist Word (Score:4, Interesting)
I have owned a couple of Acer laptops over the years and they were great bang for buck. They were cheap and broke down, but by then I wanted an upgrade anyway. Buying a higher end machine would have still been out of date, I would still want to update, and the resale value would not pay back the difference I initially paid...
Google makes hardware (Score:1, Interesting)
MS wants to destroy the Intel/AMD desktop PC (Score:5, Interesting)
The following may come across as paranoid, but here goes. This is what I think Microsoft's plan is. I'm not guranteeing it'll succeed, but it's what they want.
* MS has not been able to beat linux in the server room. There's a lot of big bucks in corporate software.
* The problem is that PC's are open architecture, and MS can't stop corporations from running linux on a PC.
* They'd love to follow the Sony game console example and lock out other operating systems from Intel/AMD hardware, but they would run into anti-trust problems. The most they can do is ask OEM's to default to signed UEFI boot on motherboards, with a "legacy boot" option available in the machine setup.
* However, on the ARM platform "everybody does it", so MS has no anti-trust problems demanding that ARM Windows machines be signed UEFI boot only.
* So they bring out Windows 8, which will be deliberately horrible on desktops, but optimized for tablets.
* Tablet sales will take off, and "economies of scale" will kick in, pushing prices down. PC Desktop sales will crash and "economies of scale" will disappear. The price of an Intel/AMD "workstation" will shoot up to $4 K or thereabouts.
* Most people who need a desktop will find it cheaper to emulate a "desktop" by plugging in an external monitor/keyboard/mouse to an ARM tablet.
* Since the ARM Windows tablets will be locked down with signed UEFI boot only, they can't be re-purposed as linux machines.
* MS will probably also set up their machines so that apps can only be bought from an app store where they charge a fee for each app loaded. Good-bye OpenOffice for Windows, etc.
* Don't be surprised if MS follows Sony's example, and lobbies to get unlocked ARM PC's outlawed.
Somewhere, former US senator Fritz Hollings will be smiling.
Re:Pot Calling The Kettle A Racist Word (Score:4, Interesting)
My first prebuilt system was an Acer running Win95b from Walmart. Yes it didn't have the LEET hardware that was being offered in Computer Shopper but it sure as hell worked for what it was bought for. Over the years, I've owned several pieces of Acer kit and have been pretty satisfied with the quality so more then likely I'd buy again.
They have been doing the same thing since 1980's (Score:5, Interesting)
No matter it's Acer or ASUS or Dell or HP, their "PC" and "Laptop" business hadn't had any significant upheaval since the 1980's.
The original IBM PC, and IBM's decision to (sort of) "open-source" the hardware design was the one thing that gave birth to all these companies (except for HP).
And ever since that happened, in the 1980's, these companies had been doing the-same-old-thing and for once, I'm glad that Microsoft decides to manufacture and market their own "Surface" - for no other reason than to shake up the entire "PC business".
We, the users, deserve much better devices.
For almost 40 years we are stuck with the same-old-thing (tablets and smartphones only enter the field not that long ago) and I hope that this shakeup will bring us more diversed devices, to make our lives more productive, more enjoying