Microsofts plan to take on Apple

Devilsbane

ballmer-aims-to-overcome-mobile-missteps: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

tpatt100

I don't get why Microsoft tries to always "catch up" or "beat" when they should instead head in a different direction or spin off ideas from stuff they already have. I remember when PDAs were big and everybody was bugging Apple to release something, they waited and waited and when smartphones became the norm they released the iPhone. Same with netbooks, they did release sort of a flop in the net book market but the Air was trying to stand out instead of being just one of the regular net books. At least they hit a home run with the iPad.

Microsoft though tried to one up the iPod with the new Zune which is great but the problem was Apple already pretty much dominated and now with the App store it makes no sense since Android is getting the sales from the non iPhone users. And people are wanting apps which iTunes and the Android market already has.

I think they should focus on spinning more off their Xbox platform to be honest. That is their portal into the home market now a days.

Devilsbane

tpatt100 wrote: »

I think they should focus on spinning more off their Xbox platform to be honest. That is their portal into the home market now a days.

I think thats where their focus has been. They've changed their page back now, but for awhile there the whole homepage was devoted to Microsoft.

I think they have a good thing going with their client and server OS's. Keep that as their number 1 so that I don't have to start using a MAC at work or learning whatever they call Apple's directory services.

And I completely agree about the Zune. I've never used one, but I'm sure that it works great. But apple already built one, and they have a better design with more (and better) options.

eMeS

It seems to me like Microsoft does this all the time. It must be their business plan. They're late to some market and they spend a bunch of money trying to catch up. IE, NT, Mail/Exchange, the XBox, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Zune are all excellent examples.

This is one of the things that I think I like least about Microsoft. Instead of being really good at one market, or innovating in some area, they try to be good at everything and they're usually a 2nd or 3rd comer to the market. Seems like by trying to be good at everything they dilute themselves. Seems like Sony is very similar.

Don't get me wrong; I absolutely despise the iPhone. I hate typing on glass. However, it's clear that Apple's thought about what their market wanted and delivered a product to match. I also thought that originally the iPad was fairly dumb. Until I recently decided that it would make a nice movie player to go in the SUV for my kid, and a cost effective one at that.

MS

Devilsbane

eMeS wrote: »

Don't get me wrong; I absolutely despise the iPhone. I hate typing on glass. However, it's clear that Apple's thought about what their market wanted and delivered a product to match.

+1 Same here.

I find it annoying to use, but I can't argue that they have a ton of apps. In that part, I'm jealous. I don't know if anyone will ever be able to steal that market away. You can't convert the people to your phone if you can't match the apps. And you can't match the apps unless lots of people start developing them. And people won't start developing them until there is a large number of users.

Microsoft probably isn't the company to do this though. Leave it to Blackberry, Motorolla, or Palm. Microsoft has other money makers and should stick to what they do best.

tpatt100

I thought the iPad was stupid also, then I tried it and thought yeah this is lame. When the apps started pouring out I got one and now I use it almost every day. Good Reader and Dropbox allows me to study on the road, I have all my work documents on it (reference PDF files, Word Documents, etc) and the battery life is pretty long.

eMeS

tpatt100 wrote: »

I thought the iPad was stupid also, then I tried it and thought yeah this is lame. When the apps started pouring out I got one and now I use it almost every day. Good Reader and Dropbox allows me to study on the road, I have all my work documents on it (reference PDF files, Word Documents, etc) and the battery life is pretty long.

I have a feeling that either my wife or I will find some reason to take over the one we're about to put in the new SUV. The kid will be out of luck. Little bastard will have to find some other way to watch Yo Gabba Gabba on the road.

MS

N2IT

eMeS wrote: »

I have a feeling that either my wife or I will find some reason to take over the one we're about to put in the new SUV. The kid will be out of luck. Little bastard will have to find some other way to watch Yo Gabba Gabba on the road.

MS

You can always buy him an IPOD Touch. Doesn't that play video? You have to forgive me if it isn't enterprise related I really don't know much about it.

tpatt100

eMeS wrote: »

I have a feeling that either my wife or I will find some reason to take over the one we're about to put in the new SUV. The kid will be out of luck. Little bastard will have to find some other way to watch Yo Gabba Gabba on the road.

MS

My son is only a year old and I already have several 99 cent apps that are stories or do the Alphabet that he likes. With my new job I spend an hour every morning reading to him before I take him to day care.

eMeS

N2IT wrote: »

You can always buy him an IPOD Touch. Doesn't that play video? You have to forgive me if it isn't enterprise related I really don't know much about it.

It does, but with a 2.5 year old what is really needed is something mountable that's big enough for him to see that he can't destroy. We could plug it into the video system that's in the car, and it would play through the Nav, but that would mean that I would have to watch Monsters for the 500th time...

BTW, back on topic, (a little), I went into my local Apple Store last weekend to buy an iPad. Something I really can't stand about Apple is the whole "Apple Store Experience". First of all, it looks like the cantina from Star Wars in there. Second, no one appears to be in there to buy or sell anything. Third, it appears to be impossible to actually buy something in that place.

I walked out empty-handed, and swore that I'd never return. Thank God Microsoft didn't copy Apple's success here and decide to setup retail stores. Oh wait, they did: Microsoft Taking Retail Challenge To Apple's Door - WSJ.com

Again off topic...why aren't there any more and better "iPad" jokes by now?

MS

tpatt100

eMeS wrote: »

It does, but with a 2.5 year old what is really needed is something mountable that's big enough for him to see that he can't destroy. We could plug it into the video system that's in the car, and it would play through the Nav, but that would mean that I would have to watch Monster for the 500th time...

BTW, back on topic, (a little), I went into my local Apple Store last weekend to buy an iPad. Something I really can't stand about Apple is the whole "Apple Store Experience". First of all, it looks like the cantina from Star Wars in there. Second, no one appears to be in there to buy or sell anything. Third, it appears to be impossible to actually buy something in that place.

I walked out empty-handed, and swore that I'd never return. Thank God Microsoft didn't copy Apple's success here and decide to setup retail stores. Oh wait, they did: Microsoft Taking Retail Challenge To Apple's Door - WSJ.com

MS

I saw that, I remember seeing pictures where they pretty much copied the Apple store. The thing is Apple set up stores because they lacked a decent method to sell their OS which was different than Windows. Microsoft has the advantage that odds are your using Windows at work so your going to buy Windows for home.

nvm found some pics:

http://gizmodo.com/5387880/microsofts-first-retail-store-opens-like-apple-store-with-more-colors

Ugh I remember applying to Gateway Country back in the day and they turned me down.

Devilsbane

Target sells the ipad now, buy it there

eMeS

tpatt100 wrote: »

Ugh I remember applying to Gateway Country back in the day and they turned me down.

Yeah, those Gateway stores were awful.

In the 80's there were stores that were licensed by Apple. They all died out when Apple went into the doldrums in the late 80's early 90's. If I remember correctly this was the main channel to buy Apple products back then. I do remember in the early 90's Wal-Mart used to sell Apples.

Tough for me to understand why a Microsoft store is needed, considering that you can buy that stuff anywhere. Now that Apple has more retailers signed up, it also puzzles me why Apple thinks they need these stores???

I was not only frustrated by my inability to buy an iPad this past weekend, but I also couldn't invoke my ability to purchase through my alumni association at the Apple store, and, they only have the MBP with 5400 rpm drives in the store....

MS

eMeS

Devilsbane wrote: »

Target sells the ipad now, buy it there

The problem is being able to invoke my discount. Which I should be able to do at the Apple store, but can't. I don't expect to be able to do this at Target.

MS

BocaRatonIT

tpatt100 wrote: »

I don't get why Microsoft tries to always "catch up" or "beat" when they should instead head in a different direction or spin off ideas from stuff they already have.

because its cheaper.

snokerpoker

Interesting that nobody is diggin' the new Kindle.......everyone seems to be all about the Ipad.

Mike-Mike

eMeS wrote: »

It does, but with a 2.5 year old what is really needed is something mountable that's big enough for him to see that he can't destroy. We could plug it into the video system that's in the car, and it would play through the Nav, but that would mean that I would have to watch Monsters for the 500th time...

BTW, back on topic, (a little), I went into my local Apple Store last weekend to buy an iPad. Something I really can't stand about Apple is the whole "Apple Store Experience". First of all, it looks like the cantina from Star Wars in there. Second, no one appears to be in there to buy or sell anything. Third, it appears to be impossible to actually buy something in that place.

I walked out empty-handed, and swore that I'd never return. Thank God Microsoft didn't copy Apple's success here and decide to setup retail stores. Oh wait, they did: Microsoft Taking Retail Challenge To Apple's Door - WSJ.com

Again off topic...why aren't there any more and better "iPad" jokes by now?

MS

i love this post, start to finish

tpatt100

I think Adobe should focus more on making their products more secure first before going under Microsoft.


Microsoft, Adobe Teaming Up To Beat Apple: REPORT

NEW YORK — Shares of Adobe soared in heavy trading Thursday on a report that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discussed a possible buyout of the company.

A report posted in the "Bits" blog of The New York Times said Ballmer recently met with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen to talk about Apple's control of the cell phone market and how Microsoft and Adobe could work together to fend off the iPhone maker.

It was in this context that a possible buyout of Adobe by Microsoft Corp. came up, according to The Times. Microsoft had no comment.

In a statement, Adobe said it shares "millions of customers around the world" with Microsoft, and "the CEOs of the two companies do meet from time to time. However, we do not publicly comment on the timing or topics of their private meetings."

Adobe Systems Inc., based in San Jose, Calif., makes software such as Photoshop and the Flash technology used for Web videos and games. The company has been in a long-standing feud with Apple Inc. over Flash, which Apple bans from mobile devices including iPad and the iPhone.

An Adobe acquisition would be a huge one for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, whose last big purchase was in 2007, when it bought aQuantive Inc. for $6 billion. A proposed deal to buy Yahoo Inc. the following year fell apart when Microsoft withdrew a $47.5 billion bid. Adobe's market cap is close to $15 billion.

laidbackfreak

eMeS wrote: »

Something I really can't stand about Apple is the whole "Apple Store Experience". First of all, it looks like the cantina from Star Wars in there. Second, no one appears to be in there to buy or sell anything. Third, it appears to be impossible to actually buy something in that place.

reminds me of this :-
YouTube - The ArseStore - That Mitchell & Webb Look Series 4 Episode 6 Preview - BBC Two