6 ms·

Microsoft about to unveil their own tablet

10 points by Keyframe 17y ago

rbanffy 17y ago
It's Windows for Pen Computing versus Newton all over again. With one important difference: Windows for Pen Computing was a real shipping product (although a laughably bad one) and this is 100% pure fantasy.
- raganwald 17y ago
  May I suggest there are other interesting differences: First, neither company had successfully shipped anything like PDA software at that point. Today, Microsoft is has experience with their Tablet version of Windows and and Apple has experience with their wildly successful Touch/iPhone platform. Second, it was enough for Microsoft to sow enough FUD to destroy the PDA market back then, they were still growing the desktop and notebook markets that they dominated. So their attitude to alternative markets was that if they couldn't dominate it, they should destroy it. Today, they desperately need new markets to grow. Playing defense by destroying potential markets like tablets through FUD is not going to rekindle their stock growth. They need to develop new monopolies. So they need to win, not just produce a stalemate.
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    "Today, they desperately need new markets to grow. Playing defense by destroying potential markets like tablets through FUD is not going to rekindle their stock growth" Unless there is a credible threat of someone else dominating that market. Then it's "dominate or destroy". The tablet space looks a lot like what Apple encountered with the MP3 player market when they launched the iPod: several products, all of them sucking really bad. I say there is a huge threat of an Apple future in that area.
jacquesm 17y ago
Microsoft is a software company. They've lost big $ on any hardware product they've ever shipped except for mice and keyboards, and without exception all of them were 'me too' products. All this is is a very transparent attempt at undercutting their competition, if the zune was any indication of how well they'll stack up then Apple has (unfortunately) very little to worry about. What is much more interesting here is if there really is a market for these devices as large as is being predicted.
- qeorge 17y ago
  Agree. I like the Courier concept, but I'm skeptical about MS's ability to deliver on hardware. Although to be fair, their mice are great. I also share the same sentiments towards Google and their recent hardware follies.
- steverb 17y ago
  FTA: "Hewlett-Packard has reportedly been working with Microsoft in preparation of the new slate-type computer, to be announced during the evening keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas." So, assuming that the article is accurate in this respect, I'm guessing that it won't be specifically Microsoft hardware.
- msluyter 17y ago
  Isn't the XBox a successful Microsoft hardware product? I think it actually turned a profit in '08ish.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    It is still a net loss and will continue to be so for at least several years.
- manbearpig 17y ago
  Xbox has done pretty well. There's too much blind Microsoft hate on this site.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Xbox is a net loss, and according to someone that works there (who is active on HN) they hope to be in the black 'somewhere in the next couple of years'. So, no, Xbox has not done 'pretty well'. They are now 5 quarters profitable, but overall they're still in a very deep hole.
    - misterbwong 17y ago
      They might be slowly crawling out of a big hole, but that doesn't mean they're not doing well. I'd argue that the cost so far should be considered more of an investment than a loss. They entered a difficult market dominated by two large players with a lot of brand/name loyalty (i.e. fanbois) and huge barriers to entry. Over the last 8 or so years, the Xbox brand has become number 1 or 2 (depending on which metric you use), beating out the last gen's leader (Sony). They've also become the leader in the online console space where profit margins are high and revenue is recurring (think WOW). All this isn't to say that MS won't mess up the courier concept but that they're better than many people give them credit for.
wendroid 17y ago
I hope they paint the reverse with black chalkboard paint cos you're gonna need it, the "black slate of death" coming to someone with more money than sense near you. EDIT: I knew I would pay in karma :>
joubert 17y ago
If this is true, I wonder what kind of software would run on this thing. Methinks CocoaTouch is a very nice framework to build apps that suit the hardware, but still allow incredible creativity. If the Courier allows any ol' WPF/.NET app to execute, I can see the intended users being quite confused. OTOH, there are some interesting interaction flows in WPF (e.g. back/fwd nav) which, like CocoaTouch, could form the basis for consistent app behavior. I wonder about the dual screen thing. It could be cool (two screens can yield a nice dual visual context), but I wonder about things like launching an app - which screen would it land on? can you move it from one to the other? can it span both screens? If all the speculation around iSlate and Courier come to fruition, Jan 2010 is looking to be quite an exciting month.
sid- 17y ago
Link with product video - http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsof...

10 points by Keyframe 17y ago

It's Windows for Pen Computing versus Newton all over again. With one important difference: Windows for Pen Computing was a real shipping product (although a laughably bad one) and this is 100% pure fantasy.

raganwald 17y ago
May I suggest there are other interesting differences: First, neither company had successfully shipped anything like PDA software at that point. Today, Microsoft is has experience with their Tablet version of Windows and and Apple has experience with their wildly successful Touch/iPhone platform. Second, it was enough for Microsoft to sow enough FUD to destroy the PDA market back then, they were still growing the desktop and notebook markets that they dominated. So their attitude to alternative markets was that if they couldn't dominate it, they should destroy it. Today, they desperately need new markets to grow. Playing defense by destroying potential markets like tablets through FUD is not going to rekindle their stock growth. They need to develop new monopolies. So they need to win, not just produce a stalemate.
- rbanffy 17y ago
  "Today, they desperately need new markets to grow. Playing defense by destroying potential markets like tablets through FUD is not going to rekindle their stock growth" Unless there is a credible threat of someone else dominating that market. Then it's "dominate or destroy". The tablet space looks a lot like what Apple encountered with the MP3 player market when they launched the iPod: several products, all of them sucking really bad. I say there is a huge threat of an Apple future in that area.

jacquesm 17y ago

Microsoft is a software company. They've lost big $ on any hardware product they've ever shipped except for mice and keyboards, and without exception all of them were 'me too' products. All this is is a very transparent attempt at undercutting their competition, if the zune was any indication of how well they'll stack up then Apple has (unfortunately) very little to worry about. What is much more interesting here is if there really is a market for these devices as large as is being predicted.

qeorge 17y ago
Agree. I like the Courier concept, but I'm skeptical about MS's ability to deliver on hardware. Although to be fair, their mice are great. I also share the same sentiments towards Google and their recent hardware follies.
steverb 17y ago
FTA: "Hewlett-Packard has reportedly been working with Microsoft in preparation of the new slate-type computer, to be announced during the evening keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas." So, assuming that the article is accurate in this respect, I'm guessing that it won't be specifically Microsoft hardware.
msluyter 17y ago
Isn't the XBox a successful Microsoft hardware product? I think it actually turned a profit in '08ish.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  It is still a net loss and will continue to be so for at least several years.
manbearpig 17y ago
Xbox has done pretty well. There's too much blind Microsoft hate on this site.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Xbox is a net loss, and according to someone that works there (who is active on HN) they hope to be in the black 'somewhere in the next couple of years'. So, no, Xbox has not done 'pretty well'. They are now 5 quarters profitable, but overall they're still in a very deep hole.
  - misterbwong 17y ago
    They might be slowly crawling out of a big hole, but that doesn't mean they're not doing well. I'd argue that the cost so far should be considered more of an investment than a loss. They entered a difficult market dominated by two large players with a lot of brand/name loyalty (i.e. fanbois) and huge barriers to entry. Over the last 8 or so years, the Xbox brand has become number 1 or 2 (depending on which metric you use), beating out the last gen's leader (Sony). They've also become the leader in the online console space where profit margins are high and revenue is recurring (think WOW). All this isn't to say that MS won't mess up the courier concept but that they're better than many people give them credit for.

wendroid 17y ago

I hope they paint the reverse with black chalkboard paint cos you're gonna need it, the "black slate of death" coming to someone with more money than sense near you. EDIT: I knew I would pay in karma :>

joubert 17y ago

If this is true, I wonder what kind of software would run on this thing. Methinks CocoaTouch is a very nice framework to build apps that suit the hardware, but still allow incredible creativity. If the Courier allows any ol' WPF/.NET app to execute, I can see the intended users being quite confused. OTOH, there are some interesting interaction flows in WPF (e.g. back/fwd nav) which, like CocoaTouch, could form the basis for consistent app behavior. I wonder about the dual screen thing. It could be cool (two screens can yield a nice dual visual context), but I wonder about things like launching an app - which screen would it land on? can you move it from one to the other? can it span both screens? If all the speculation around iSlate and Courier come to fruition, Jan 2010 is looking to be quite an exciting month.

sid- 17y ago

Link with product video - http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsof...