Microsoft to Apple: We're coming for you now
Microsoft has learned (the hard way) that it cannot sit idly by anymore hoping its partners such as Dell and Hewlett Packard will develop effective hardware. Microsoft now seems ready to become more proactive in its bid to compete with Apple.
Microsoft has learned (the hard way) that it cannot sit idly by anymore hoping its partners such as Dell and Hewlett Packard will develop effective hardware. Microsoft now seems ready to become more proactive in its bid to compete with Apple.
The most interesting tech story happening beneath the surface - to me anyway - is about how Microsoft has essentially given up on its hardware partners and has decided to be more proactive in the war on Apple.
Redmond, Washington has awoken and the furnaces have been jerked into life, steam and smoke appear above the forest's treeline.聽 And it's a good thing, because it's getting past the point where it will matter anymore.
Microsoft has learned (the hard way) that it cannot sit idly by anymore hoping Dell and Hewlett Packard (and to a less extent Nokia) will come up with the hardware that will showcase its software admirably enough to get some traction in what the PC guys call "alternative devices."聽 Anyone not living in a secret terrorist compound in Northeastern Pakistan knows that there is nothing "alternative" about tablets - they are replacing PCs, plain and simple, and Microsoft increasingly finds itself as the king of operating systems for yesterday's device.
So how far with Microsoft go on the hardware side?聽 I think pretty far.聽 They certainly have the capital and the relationships and the gumption (historically, anyway) to really go for it.聽 But what does that mean for their partners at Dell at HP?聽 Are they now competitors?
Here's Tiernan Rey writing for Barron's Tech Trader last week:
Will Microsoft's ambitious entry into hardware mean a competition-driven renaissance for the box-makers they used to rely on? That would certainly be the optimistic case and perhaps the thing Apple (and Google) would fear most. Or does it simply mean a more brutal environment for gadget and device makers in general?
One other thing I came across that lends credence to the latter view - here's Ina Fried on a pretty noticeable departure at MSFT in All Things D:
My conclusion is that this kind of thing makes HPQ, DELL, NOK and anyone else making hardware "for" Mister Softee an uninvestable company.聽 Ballmer's grown impatient with his partners and there's no telling what the company's product roadmap may actually mean going forward.