interesting. I just got an e-mail yesterday from Microsoft on my college e-mail account about an one-hour phone survey, and one of the pre-screening question was "do you own an iPad?". Hmm, sounds like the same stuff here... except I got a personal invitation.
I'd feed them false information. If they ask if you would be willing to trade a thin & light tablet with a long battery life for a thick & chunky brick with a short battery life and a noisy fan, and software that requires pervasive right-clicking and function keys, say "yes"
sounds like they want to push the "Courier" full speed ahead and add all the features that fanboys/girls are griping about in the current iPad.
If i were to take the study, I would suggest that whatever they produce, or propose to produce, they better make it feel as good as the ipad. It really does feel good to hold and the quality of the materials is top notch. That would be number two on the list of top features to emulate about the iPad. The number one would be User Interface. It has to be as easy to use as the iPad. Without those two, you don't even have a comparison, it will be doomed to fail, like the Zune.
I think the only other issue MS has if they are going to go ahead with the Courier is the marketplace. They need to tap into an existing MS environment. Like the XBox market for apps. Something people know and trust. That would be really smart and start to tap into the MS universe, rather than having consumers required to buy into some unknown marketplace they don't trust and have to learn all over. Could you image doing streaming live gaming from you courier or Faux-Pad to a friend's Xbox playing "insert-game-title-here"? Or, watch a netflix movie on the go in an airport waiting for a delayed flight? The current Xbox marketplace is the perfect way to launch a Faux-Pad. Google has already done it with Android too.
So Microsoft is going to run Windows 7 on a tablet like the iPAD. Given the CPU power, memory and energy consumption of Windows 7, the tablet they are looking at is going to be re-packaged laptops and a crappy touch interface and a 3-4 hour battery life. They really don't understand what Apple has created. On top of that, for the cost of a single program for Windows 7 you can get dozens of paid apps for the iPad and about 100,000 apps and games for free. Microsoft is grasping at thin air and broken straws at this point.
They will create something to appeal to all those people who criticized the iPad - it will have 2 cameras, front and rear with video, it will have USB, it will have a VGA connector, probably DVI and HDMI too, and they'll throw in a parallel port for people with old printers. Oh, and of course it will have to have an optical drive, preferably blu-ray to go with the ever-essential floppy drive. It will weigh about 3 - 4 pounds, run really hot on your lap and be about an inch thick to accommodate all the extra stuff.
Unless the "gratuity item" is a million dollars, I'm not helping Microsoft. I need a minimum of seven figures before I help that Redmond-based corporation.
It's probably not a bad idea for Microsoft to see how people from a variety of walks of life use the iPad, not just Microsoft employees.
There are probably some unusual applications/uses for the device that might not be easily identifiable from a relatively homogeneous survey group such as your own employees.
That's an understatement. It's not only not a bad idea it's their only hope. That or hire someone with a sufficient vision for such a large company. I think surveying their own employees is a mistake unless that is their target audience. Sort of a snake eating it's tail. I'm sure they have smart employees that can contribute good ideas though.
What Microsoft lacks is vision and balls and that can and will prevent them from effectively using their smart employees ideas.
The iPad broke new ground with no effective predecessor to study, except what not to do. Apple is very good at this. Microsoft is not.
I think something is still missing here, like two hundred small buttons with obscure looking symbols on them and one very large button labelled "HELP!".
well, thanks for the update. however i do mention "whatever they produce" since it's just speculation that this research has anything to do with a new product by MS in the first place.
I think something is still missing here, like two hundred small buttons with obscure looking symbols on them and one very large button labelled "HELP!".
Where are the Ctrl Alt Del keys? For that matter where is the ON/OFF button. Need to restart....where are these damn keys! <Ov@>
MS can't seem to figure out that less is more. Even if MS does get good information from this type of research they will screw it up by trying to put ALL of it into a product. I think that a big part of the appeal of Apple products comes from what they are willing to leave out.
Microsoft recently offered owners of Apple's iPad a "gratuity item" in exchange for participating in a survey later this month ...The original posting, from the Microsoft User Research group, noted that the Windows maker wanted to talk to iPad owners for two hours, to find out how they use the device. Specifically, Microsoft was interested in speaking with students who own an iPad...
>> But seriously, I think that there are SOME fanboys for Apple -- but mostly those are NEW fans. The people who get defensive were people who got picked on by the Herd of MS fanboys for years. That trait of "not listening" seems to be widespread.
I wish Microsoft good luck -- because competition is good for consumers. However, like always, they announce the "great new product" before they've got a working one -- and use their reputation to make people hold off so they can get almost as good from Microsoft -- unfortunately, their Halo in the consumer/education space isn't that useful.
The iPad is letting Apple back into the school rooms -- because schools like the easy to manage device that can look at their servers for updates -- and NO KEYBOARD is actually a plus in environments where you pass things around.
A STERILE interface has GOT to be the Killer Application for hospitals. Where this iPad will reign supreme before a real competitor can get in the market. And while they play catchup -- Apple is going to be integrating more really useful things. Interesting times.
Full-blown Win 7 OS = poor battery performance. Multiple manufacturing partners = clunky, obtrusive hardware. Ballmer's comment that some will have keyboards = no longer a tablet device.
Apple's plusses in this category...keep it simple, keep it affordable, keep it easily expandable.
Comments
interesting. I just got an e-mail yesterday from Microsoft on my college e-mail account about an one-hour phone survey, and one of the pre-screening question was "do you own an iPad?". Hmm, sounds like the same stuff here... except I got a personal invitation.
I'd feed them false information. If they ask if you would be willing to trade a thin & light tablet with a long battery life for a thick & chunky brick with a short battery life and a noisy fan, and software that requires pervasive right-clicking and function keys, say "yes"
sounds like they want to push the "Courier" full speed ahead and add all the features that fanboys/girls are griping about in the current iPad.
If i were to take the study, I would suggest that whatever they produce, or propose to produce, they better make it feel as good as the ipad. It really does feel good to hold and the quality of the materials is top notch. That would be number two on the list of top features to emulate about the iPad. The number one would be User Interface. It has to be as easy to use as the iPad. Without those two, you don't even have a comparison, it will be doomed to fail, like the Zune.
I think the only other issue MS has if they are going to go ahead with the Courier is the marketplace. They need to tap into an existing MS environment. Like the XBox market for apps. Something people know and trust. That would be really smart and start to tap into the MS universe, rather than having consumers required to buy into some unknown marketplace they don't trust and have to learn all over. Could you image doing streaming live gaming from you courier or Faux-Pad to a friend's Xbox playing "insert-game-title-here"? Or, watch a netflix movie on the go in an airport waiting for a delayed flight? The current Xbox marketplace is the perfect way to launch a Faux-Pad. Google has already done it with Android too.
You do know the courier project has been dead for a while now? http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/m...ne-fell-swoop/
So Microsoft is going to run Windows 7 on a tablet like the iPAD. Given the CPU power, memory and energy consumption of Windows 7, the tablet they are looking at is going to be re-packaged laptops and a crappy touch interface and a 3-4 hour battery life. They really don't understand what Apple has created. On top of that, for the cost of a single program for Windows 7 you can get dozens of paid apps for the iPad and about 100,000 apps and games for free. Microsoft is grasping at thin air and broken straws at this point.
They will create something to appeal to all those people who criticized the iPad - it will have 2 cameras, front and rear with video, it will have USB, it will have a VGA connector, probably DVI and HDMI too, and they'll throw in a parallel port for people with old printers. Oh, and of course it will have to have an optical drive, preferably blu-ray to go with the ever-essential floppy drive. It will weigh about 3 - 4 pounds, run really hot on your lap and be about an inch thick to accommodate all the extra stuff.
It's probably not a bad idea for Microsoft to see how people from a variety of walks of life use the iPad, not just Microsoft employees.
There are probably some unusual applications/uses for the device that might not be easily identifiable from a relatively homogeneous survey group such as your own employees.
That's an understatement. It's not only not a bad idea it's their only hope. That or hire someone with a sufficient vision for such a large company. I think surveying their own employees is a mistake unless that is their target audience. Sort of a snake eating it's tail. I'm sure they have smart employees that can contribute good ideas though.
What Microsoft lacks is vision and balls and that can and will prevent them from effectively using their smart employees ideas.
The iPad broke new ground with no effective predecessor to study, except what not to do. Apple is very good at this. Microsoft is not.
Yep looking good.
I think something is still missing here, like two hundred small buttons with obscure looking symbols on them and one very large button labelled "HELP!".
You do know the courier project has been dead for a while now? http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/m...ne-fell-swoop/
well, thanks for the update. however i do mention "whatever they produce" since it's just speculation that this research has anything to do with a new product by MS in the first place.
I think something is still missing here, like two hundred small buttons with obscure looking symbols on them and one very large button labelled "HELP!".
Where are the Ctrl Alt Del keys? For that matter where is the ON/OFF button. Need to restart....where are these damn keys! <Ov@>
Microsoft recently offered owners of Apple's iPad a "gratuity item" in exchange for participating in a survey later this month ...The original posting, from the Microsoft User Research group, noted that the Windows maker wanted to talk to iPad owners for two hours, to find out how they use the device. Specifically, Microsoft was interested in speaking with students who own an iPad...
Sounds like one of those real estate schemes.
Yep looking good.
>> Heh, I couldn't help myself.
The fanboy clip cartoon that I put on the chalkboard comes from here;
http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/07/11/f...rgue-about-it/
>> But seriously, I think that there are SOME fanboys for Apple -- but mostly those are NEW fans. The people who get defensive were people who got picked on by the Herd of MS fanboys for years. That trait of "not listening" seems to be widespread.
I wish Microsoft good luck -- because competition is good for consumers. However, like always, they announce the "great new product" before they've got a working one -- and use their reputation to make people hold off so they can get almost as good from Microsoft -- unfortunately, their Halo in the consumer/education space isn't that useful.
The iPad is letting Apple back into the school rooms -- because schools like the easy to manage device that can look at their servers for updates -- and NO KEYBOARD is actually a plus in environments where you pass things around.
A STERILE interface has GOT to be the Killer Application for hospitals. Where this iPad will reign supreme before a real competitor can get in the market. And while they play catchup -- Apple is going to be integrating more really useful things. Interesting times.
Apple's plusses in this category...keep it simple, keep it affordable, keep it easily expandable.
Mainly because I could use a good laugh.
They're so desperately not getting what a tablet is all about, it's almost touching.
They're so desperately not getting what a tablet is all about, it's almost touching.
Like "point and click"?
...but more like "stuck on stupid". Not touching. Pathetic.