http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/24/windows-rt-oem-restrictions/
"China Times is reporting that Microsoft is only letting an elite few companies build Windows RT tablets in order to focus its research and development resources."
Microsoft limiting who can make tablets
(6 posts) (3 voices)-
ibwebb
MemberWell that is still a 'few' more than Apple is allowing. Apple has been doing this for .. well.. its entire existence; with the exception of that it is only THEM that can. It has worked for them and why wouldn't Microsoft try it out. Though, just as with Apple; there will be sites to help you 'get around' it. it does make me happy I am not looking for a tablet though. The prices will become really stupid (just like for an IPad). I say they will both lose out to Google and/or Android in the end. Until anyone can make a tablet that can compete with a gaming system I don't see the market in danger of being completely tablet anyways.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Anonymous
Unregisteredhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10820387
EU probes anti trust promises
EU will looking to that as well
Posted 12 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorWe'll have to wait & see which biz models work, & work best.
Microsoft has more people skills/knowledge than Google, but historically it has gone out of its way to tick people off. MS recently hired a very politically connected VP, who's been very famously tied to the Clintons... it's easy to say he was hired for his political clout, but it could be that he was also brought on board for his PR & other people-oriented skills like MS says.
Microsoft has made hardware off & on for a long time, failing more than once, & sometimes abandoning customers. The Xbox has been a success where unlike their mice, keyboards, & web cams they've been able to lock pricing, & not just maintained but improved hardware quality. In many ways Microsoft has been like a small kingdom where the success or failure of whatever initiative depended on the government minister in charge at the time -- chiefly that minister's clout with the king. The equivilent of palace intrigue will likely have an awful lot to do with their success selling Microsoft branded tablets.
Right now they seem to be sticking to the middle of the road, not taking as much control as Apple, yet being much more a control freak than Google. They're too much control freak to just let manufacturer's run with the new OS, so they're tailoring win8 to individual hardware prototypes -- that limits how many brands/models can be released, & raises manufacturers' suspicians that MS is stealing tech knowhow. Not having as much control [& maybe confidence] as Apple, Microsoft is already having supplier problems, choosing smaller vendors rather than making anything like Apple's commitment to Foxconn, & MS is suffering from it.
IMO the one to really watch is Amazon -- Amazon's already got all the necessary bits & pieces in place, plus a proven, sustained retail revenue stream to support their efforts [almost?] indefinitely. Amazon certainly has the network infrastructure, they have access to & proven experience selling apps, games, and video, while with Kindle they've made big steps towards owning the book publishing industry. Their logical next step is hardware, & towards that end they've created & recently *Really* expanded their hardware development, buying lots of design & engineering talent from Apple. Forget just new Kindle readers, & start watching for tablets & cells.
Posted 12 years ago # -
mikiem2
Moderator"Until anyone can make a tablet that can compete with a gaming system I don't see the market in danger of being completely tablet anyways. "
Never happen... at least not until they come up with some new basis for processor design [e.g. optics?]. Right now & for the foreseeable future size matters -- you can put as much circuitry as you want in a game console or PC because neither of those has a tablet's physical size constraints. Sure next year's tablets will be more powerful, but so will the next PCs & game consoles -- the bar's continually rising. They've already got game tech that no hardware today can fully take advantage of -- the developers are pushing manufacturers to raise their sights, create even more powerful designs than they'd originally planned on.
Tablets OTOH are a completely different market, despite games being the vast majority of offers on Google Play. Typing this I'm using the barest fraction of this PC's potential power as I sit at my desk -- it'd make much more sense for me to use my tablet sitting somewhere nice outside in the shade [I just don't have a nicer place to sit outside -- it's raining]. PCs are still relatively young, & many people are still figuring out how best to use them -- smart phones & tablets are infants in comparison. Tech creates the possibilities -- society makes the decisions. Read the other day that people in the UK use their cell phones more for texting than making voice calls, the purpose for which they were invented!
Posted 12 years ago #
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