2 ms·

In this article I see a MSFT strategy unfolding of skipping the current smart-phone mobile battlefield, and leaping directly into full-bore cyborg computing. B

by aresant 14y ago

In this article I see a MSFT strategy unfolding of skipping the current smart-phone mobile battlefield, and leaping directly into full-bore cyborg computing. Bear with me, they've effectively laid out all the pieces: - A "omni touch" interface that allows for interaction without physical input devices. - A variety of leaps forward for Kinect to map and translate your physical environment to a data stream. - A "holodeck" and other tools that overlay interface design onto physical objects. - Foveated 3d graphics and other leaps forward that would drastically reduce hardware costs for graphic rendering. Nearly every one of these projects are directly applicable to the "wearable computer" concept. I wonder if, looking back in 10 years, we'll see that MSFT's currnet weak smart-phone entries were ultimately not that important to their overall strategy.

krschultz 14y ago
The real question: will the executives at Microsoft be able to drive that strategy based on the pieces R&D is giving them? Historically, Microsoft R&D has come up with some great stuff, it just really hasn't made it into their user products. Bill Gates was hammering on tablets and touch interfaces for years, but Apple made it happen. They have had great microkernel OS or modern language OS R&D projects, yet the Windows kernel hasn't changed dramatically. There is a missing step between R&D and revolutionary product improvements.
JPKab 14y ago
I agree with you here, but I don't think the "weak smart phone strategy" is necessarily by design. Honestly, I think they have a solid smart phone product, but were so late that they won't get the solid ecosystem of apps they need. My issue with this article is that it forgets about the ugly side of Microsoft: delaying the sale of innovative new things to protect old profit centers in the enterprise market. Does anyone really believe that Microsoft CAN'T make editing hosted documents in Sharepoint as seamless and smooth as Google Docs? I truly believe that they have chosen to neuter a lot of their collaborative, web app based software to keep their old trusy desktop software (Office) profit center alive and kicking. They benefit from this, in the short term, in two ways: If the latest version of Office has new features, they sell the upgrades and make bank. Because it's desktop, they can say "you need Windows 8 (or whatever is latest and greatest) to run it Mrs. CIO." So then they make the OS sale too.
pron 14y ago
This isn't a strategy; It's just research. See comments below to see how MS Research works. It's more of a university than an integral part of corporate MS. Maybe the ideas explored there will be picked up by MS, maybe by some other company, and maybe they'll forever remain what they are: research. The title is misleading. The work described is done at MS Research, the relation of which to corporate MS is not quite clear.

by aresant 14y ago

krschultz 14y ago

The real question: will the executives at Microsoft be able to drive that strategy based on the pieces R&D is giving them? Historically, Microsoft R&D has come up with some great stuff, it just really hasn't made it into their user products. Bill Gates was hammering on tablets and touch interfaces for years, but Apple made it happen. They have had great microkernel OS or modern language OS R&D projects, yet the Windows kernel hasn't changed dramatically. There is a missing step between R&D and revolutionary product improvements.

JPKab 14y ago

I agree with you here, but I don't think the "weak smart phone strategy" is necessarily by design. Honestly, I think they have a solid smart phone product, but were so late that they won't get the solid ecosystem of apps they need. My issue with this article is that it forgets about the ugly side of Microsoft: delaying the sale of innovative new things to protect old profit centers in the enterprise market. Does anyone really believe that Microsoft CAN'T make editing hosted documents in Sharepoint as seamless and smooth as Google Docs? I truly believe that they have chosen to neuter a lot of their collaborative, web app based software to keep their old trusy desktop software (Office) profit center alive and kicking. They benefit from this, in the short term, in two ways: If the latest version of Office has new features, they sell the upgrades and make bank. Because it's desktop, they can say "you need Windows 8 (or whatever is latest and greatest) to run it Mrs. CIO." So then they make the OS sale too.

pron 14y ago

This isn't a strategy; It's just research. See comments below to see how MS Research works. It's more of a university than an integral part of corporate MS. Maybe the ideas explored there will be picked up by MS, maybe by some other company, and maybe they'll forever remain what they are: research. The title is misleading. The work described is done at MS Research, the relation of which to corporate MS is not quite clear.