Yikes. Combine this bad news with the rumor that iOS 7 may have iWork productivity apps for free in the fall - Apple products will look SO attractive that the bad news for Microsoft may just be beginning. Even if they can't come out on top and have to settle for second place at the mobile/tablet-computing table, that's better than not being at the table at all!
Combine THAT possiblilty with the shrinking importance of the desktop market makes for a questionable future for Microsoft. That would actually be sad. Yes I'm an Apple fan and I just wrote that. Love them or hate them you have to admit there's a lot for computing that Microsoft has brought into the world. There are a lot of smart people that work there - they should be better than this. Even as an Apple fanboy I have to say competition is good.
Bingo on iWork -- it has enough features to satisfy 80% of "office" needs -- and it is usable by anyone!
Google.
Wonder how much longer before they kill Motorola, like HP did to Palm, or sell it off for a loss.
Microsoft.
Surface RT = Surface Really Tanks
Windows 8 = Windows h8
Wonder if Steve Ballmer is on a '3 strikes & your out' contract as CEO? If so, 1 more &...
I think it's ten strikes: Zune, kin, vista, surface table, etc.
Microsoft is a mature company with lots of different sources of revenue.
Why is the market hating on Apple when they've got the phones, the ipods, the computers, the App store, iTunes customers, pro software, etc? Apple has many sources of revenue.
Google? Correct me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't Google make like 95% of its money via just one thing and one thing only: online advertising?
I know Google DOES lots of cool things, but their big meaningful source of moolah is selling ads.
So when the ad revenue goes down, what is left?
I don't get why Google is such a Wall Street darling in that case. All the eggs are in one basket, online ad sales.
Dont know if firing Ballmer will help. But im sure Bill is advising Ballmer too behind the scenes.
Ballmer will likely take the fall soon but I don't see him as the specific problem. The real problem is that MicroSoft attracts the wrong type of employee. MS needs people who aren't afraid to but heads with the management team and other departments in a constructive manner. If so things like Visual Studio would be more industry standards compliant with for example their compiler technology. Further MS would have had a more solid operating system experience if the engineers where better able to address security and other issues instead of pitting so many holes in the platform for marketing. In many cases Surface got dismissed out of hand not due to Surface per say but the reputation MS has accumulated in the marketplace.
That isn't to say that Surface was ready for the market either or that it even got the OS right. Surface is far from perfect and that might have been bearable if people had the remote thought that MS would fix it down the road. History isn't on MS side, the likely hood is that Surface would have gotten worst instead of better.
In a nut shell they shipped a crappy product before it was ready for market. That combined with no hope of MS ever getting it right made people very cool to the whole platform. That being said I can't sit here and say I could do better in the time allotted. MS was under the gun to deliver something and frankly the ship isn't light enough to be steered through those waters.
I have to wonder what Yahoos association with Mötley Fool is. It just isn't Apple these guys seem to dispense stupidity daily about numerous companies. With the daily links on Yahoo I'm beginning to wonder if Yahoo wants to shoot its credibility all to hell.
There is (at least) one upside here. With Intel, Nokia, Google and Microsoft reporting disasters... we can enjoy at least one day where the conspiracy of dunces, from the usual Motley Fool idiots (Munarriz, Niu, Heller, Bylund), nor that Yarow tool, nor any of the (mostly) self-serving Seeking Alpha idiots, not even the biggest ciown of them all, the former porn actor Rocco Pendola at the Street, had enough guts to come out with a doomsday Apple article.
(Now I just hope Apple's numbers next week will not make them come out again.)
I never understood the difference between the Surface tablet and the Surface RT tablet?
Also, what is the difference between Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT?
That pretty much explains it all!
It does indeed. Contrary to those who think it's "not that hard," your confusion is exactly where Microsoft failed in marketing the two tablets.
They produced two tablets, gave them almost the same name, said both where running some kind of "Windows," same UI, marketed both in extremely similar ways (break dancing clicking ads), and at no point do they try to differentiate the two Surfaces in their ads. Of course you're confused.
<h1 style="font-family:facitweb, sans-serif;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:12px;line-height:1.13;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:38px;">[SIZE=14px]PC World reports:[/SIZE]</h1>
<h1 style="font-family:facitweb, sans-serif;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:12px;line-height:1.13;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:38px;"><span style="font-size:14px;line-height:1.13;">Source: Microsoft Surface RT isn't dead</span> </h1>
[SIZE=14px]"This parrot's not dead - it's just pining!"[/SIZE]
I have to wonder what Yahoos association with Mötley Fool is. It just isn't Apple these guys seem to dispense stupidity daily about numerous companies. With the daily links on Yahoo I'm beginning to wonder if Yahoo wants to shoot its credibility all to hell.
If that is what they are aiming at, then they are doing well.
I certainly don't know, but let's be naïve and go for the most forgivable option. They have a highly frequented finance site and pretty much no own content worth mentioning. Linking to the most click-whoring headlines is their easiest mean to finance that enchilada. OK. Maybe not that forgivable :roll eyes:
What truly annoys me is that some of these people are not really bad writers. Was "our" (grossly simplified) own unwillingness to pay for quality content cause this? And if less than a decade of high volume blogging resulted in "this"... what will we have soon?
It does indeed. Contrary to those who think it's "not that hard," your confusion is exactly where Microsoft failed in marketing the two tablets.
They produced two tablets, gave them almost the same name, said both where running some kind of "Windows," same UI, marketed both in extremely similar ways (break dancing clicking ads), and at no point do they try to differentiate the two Surfaces in their ads. Of course you're confused.
I understand that and I've often said that it was a mistake wrt the general public.
But anyone who's enough of a computer geek to be posting here shouldn't be confused by it.
I understand that and I've often said that it was a mistake wrt the general public.
But anyone who's enough of a computer geek to be posting here shouldn't be confused by it.
I am not so sure about this. If the Surface RT would only support Metro apps and we could say "this is Metro only, the other is Metro and legacy apps"... Then I would certainly agree, because the distinction x86 vs ARM, x86 vs Metro is something the vast majority of geeks will easily understand.
But if I (not that I would) demo a Surface RT to a group of geeks (a mixed group of geeks, not a dedicated group of MS fanboys), and I would show everything including the mouse cursor, the "classic" GUI, including Control Panel and legacy dialogs, and I would also show them using Office using a keyboard and a trackpad. Then I would take a written test, consisting of one question only: Can you install a retail version of Outlook on this?
You really think 100% will give a correct answer? I just showed them a system that has a classic shell and is virtually indistinguishable from Windows 8. I can't give a percentage, but I expect a relevant amount of geeks to be as mislead as the general public.
Do you expect Apple to post figures indicating growth next Tuesday, or do you think they will join the trend?
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackbook
The problem is even if they do grow they're stock may still tank.
Nowadays it's all about meeting analyst unrealistic expectations and if they don't they'll tank just like Google is.
Sad that Apple has held off all of their big hardware reveals for the fall because there is no uptick for them in the near future.
This is often a quiet quarter for Apple since they moved the iPhone intro to later in the year. The first hurdle is for Apple to beat their own guidance numbers for the past quarter, then beating the market analysts predictions. The next confidence factor is whether Apple has some expected new releases that they base their next quarter guidance number on.
For Apple's stock to tank is not such a bad thing for Apple. They will just be able to buy back more stock with the same dollars (of which Apple has in abundance).
This closing quarter usually includes a lot of school and governments sales which are big numbers at slimmer then normal margins. This would have been figured in Apple's forecasts, however, Apple is moving a ton more products into these channels then normally. Apple has landed all of the biggest school system contracts in the USA. In addition, the federal government has allowed ONLY Apple iPads to bought for tablet computer needs. MS and Goog are out in the cold.
If Apple iWorks is free to use on the web & iCloud, I don't see much hope for MS Office 247 going forward at $100 per year. Especially if Apple dresses up the iWork specs by as little at 10% more features. The MS Office as a software package, may stagger onward, but with little or no growth.
I never understood the difference between the Surface tablet and the Surface RT tablet?
Also, what is the difference between Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT?
That pretty much explains it all!
RT: ARM CPU, castrated version of Windows 8
Non-RT: intel CPU, full desktop version of Windows, able to run regular MS-Office, still kind of underpowered. Have heard good things about Sony's hybrid tablet/ultraportable devices, but much heavier/bigger than iPads and thus really a different market segment.
GOOG down more than 4% after hours. They're going to have a rough day tomorrow.
Somehow I have a feeling the stock won't be down much tomorrow at all. Wall Street loves Google. Yesterday on CNBC they said that Google has missed the past 7 quarters in a row (not sure if they were referring to revenue or profit), yet the stock is up 50% over the past year. But Wall Street has blinders on when it comes to Google so no one talks about Google stock being a bubble that could pop like they did with Apple.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
Microsoft's reign is over. Google is starting to crack and its stock will be cut in half in the next 18 months.
Do you expect Apple to post figures indicating growth next Tuesday, or do you think they will join the trend?
Thief advising moron, that'll work!
The problem is even if they do grow they're stock may still tank.
Nowadays it's all about meeting analyst unrealistic expectations and if they don't they'll tank just like Google is.
Sad that Apple has held off all of their big hardware reveals for the fall because there is no uptick for them in the near future.
Bingo on iWork -- it has enough features to satisfy 80% of "office" needs -- and it is usable by anyone!
I think it's ten strikes: Zune, kin, vista, surface table, etc.
Microsoft is a mature company with lots of different sources of revenue.
Why is the market hating on Apple when they've got the phones, the ipods, the computers, the App store, iTunes customers, pro software, etc? Apple has many sources of revenue.
Google? Correct me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't Google make like 95% of its money via just one thing and one thing only: online advertising?
I know Google DOES lots of cool things, but their big meaningful source of moolah is selling ads.
So when the ad revenue goes down, what is left?
I don't get why Google is such a Wall Street darling in that case. All the eggs are in one basket, online ad sales.
Or am I missing something big? Probably lol.
Ballmer will likely take the fall soon but I don't see him as the specific problem. The real problem is that MicroSoft attracts the wrong type of employee. MS needs people who aren't afraid to but heads with the management team and other departments in a constructive manner. If so things like Visual Studio would be more industry standards compliant with for example their compiler technology. Further MS would have had a more solid operating system experience if the engineers where better able to address security and other issues instead of pitting so many holes in the platform for marketing. In many cases Surface got dismissed out of hand not due to Surface per say but the reputation MS has accumulated in the marketplace.
That isn't to say that Surface was ready for the market either or that it even got the OS right. Surface is far from perfect and that might have been bearable if people had the remote thought that MS would fix it down the road. History isn't on MS side, the likely hood is that Surface would have gotten worst instead of better.
In a nut shell they shipped a crappy product before it was ready for market. That combined with no hope of MS ever getting it right made people very cool to the whole platform. That being said I can't sit here and say I could do better in the time allotted. MS was under the gun to deliver something and frankly the ship isn't light enough to be steered through those waters.
It does indeed. Contrary to those who think it's "not that hard," your confusion is exactly where Microsoft failed in marketing the two tablets.
They produced two tablets, gave them almost the same name, said both where running some kind of "Windows," same UI, marketed both in extremely similar ways (break dancing clicking ads), and at no point do they try to differentiate the two Surfaces in their ads. Of course you're confused.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
Microsoft's reign is over. Google is starting to crack and its stock will be cut in half in the next 18 months.
Actually, some analyst babe on CNBC was predicting GOOG to be at $650 by next year. We can only wait and see.
Brilliant!
If that is what they are aiming at, then they are doing well.
I certainly don't know, but let's be naïve and go for the most forgivable option. They have a highly frequented finance site and pretty much no own content worth mentioning. Linking to the most click-whoring headlines is their easiest mean to finance that enchilada. OK. Maybe not that forgivable :roll eyes:
What truly annoys me is that some of these people are not really bad writers. Was "our" (grossly simplified) own unwillingness to pay for quality content cause this? And if less than a decade of high volume blogging resulted in "this"... what will we have soon?
My thoughts too. Heartbreaking isn't it.
I understand that and I've often said that it was a mistake wrt the general public.
But anyone who's enough of a computer geek to be posting here shouldn't be confused by it.
I am not so sure about this. If the Surface RT would only support Metro apps and we could say "this is Metro only, the other is Metro and legacy apps"... Then I would certainly agree, because the distinction x86 vs ARM, x86 vs Metro is something the vast majority of geeks will easily understand.
But if I (not that I would) demo a Surface RT to a group of geeks (a mixed group of geeks, not a dedicated group of MS fanboys), and I would show everything including the mouse cursor, the "classic" GUI, including Control Panel and legacy dialogs, and I would also show them using Office using a keyboard and a trackpad. Then I would take a written test, consisting of one question only: Can you install a retail version of Outlook on this?
You really think 100% will give a correct answer? I just showed them a system that has a classic shell and is virtually indistinguishable from Windows 8. I can't give a percentage, but I expect a relevant amount of geeks to be as mislead as the general public.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cnocbui
Do you expect Apple to post figures indicating growth next Tuesday, or do you think they will join the trend?
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackbook
The problem is even if they do grow they're stock may still tank.
Nowadays it's all about meeting analyst unrealistic expectations and if they don't they'll tank just like Google is.
Sad that Apple has held off all of their big hardware reveals for the fall because there is no uptick for them in the near future.
This is often a quiet quarter for Apple since they moved the iPhone intro to later in the year. The first hurdle is for Apple to beat their own guidance numbers for the past quarter, then beating the market analysts predictions. The next confidence factor is whether Apple has some expected new releases that they base their next quarter guidance number on.
For Apple's stock to tank is not such a bad thing for Apple. They will just be able to buy back more stock with the same dollars (of which Apple has in abundance).
This closing quarter usually includes a lot of school and governments sales which are big numbers at slimmer then normal margins. This would have been figured in Apple's forecasts, however, Apple is moving a ton more products into these channels then normally. Apple has landed all of the biggest school system contracts in the USA. In addition, the federal government has allowed ONLY Apple iPads to bought for tablet computer needs. MS and Goog are out in the cold.
If Apple iWorks is free to use on the web & iCloud, I don't see much hope for MS Office 247 going forward at $100 per year. Especially if Apple dresses up the iWork specs by as little at 10% more features. The MS Office as a software package, may stagger onward, but with little or no growth.
RT: ARM CPU, castrated version of Windows 8
Non-RT: intel CPU, full desktop version of Windows, able to run regular MS-Office, still kind of underpowered. Have heard good things about Sony's hybrid tablet/ultraportable devices, but much heavier/bigger than iPads and thus really a different market segment.
Good! Maybe fan droids will shut up for at least one day