Steve Ballmer hints Microsoft plans to build more hardware

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 62

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post


    As the CEO don't you think he should know not believe, Either how know or does not know, obviously he had no clue or no faith in what his engineers are doing. He has no balls, either come out and say M$ is going to screw the partners or not. 



     


    He's floating a trial balloon... If the market goes 'meh,' he'll not commit.   He's a CEO of a 'legacy' company... all his balls are used to scare off competition, not seek new markets.  (think bull in a herd vs a 'rogue bull'  yeah, I'm a farm kid.)

  • Reply 22 of 62
    After decades of screwing consumers microsoft turns to screwing OEMs. Looks like cival war in PC land. OEMs built bad hardware. Microsoft built bad software. Here is to their long awaited demise.
  • Reply 23 of 62

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    "Apple should get rid of its hardware business and license Mac OS to clone makers."

    That was the prevailing wisdom of the tech industry during the 1990s, when Windows ruled the world. When copying Microsoft's play book was the template for success. Even Steve Jobs believed it after NeXT failed and turned itself into a software only company, selling NeXTSTEP for Windows (OPENSTEP for Enterprise). He clearly reversed course when he returned to Apple.


     


    It was the market he was selling into (professional/corporate workstations where procurement was seeking one HW vendor), and the price of building a computationally intense piece of hardware to run his state of the art software experience (even then, a NeXTstation was pretty price comparable to it's niche competition).  'White' Hardware could run MSOffice, and OPENSTEP,  'Black' hardware could not (at least not very well).


     


    He didn't so much reverse course, but stopped sailing to the same port as everyone else.  Consumer electronics was all about experience at a 'don't need finance committee approval' price point.  

  • Reply 24 of 62
    Did he also send an email to Nokia, Dell, Asus, HP, etc of his middle finger saying "F-you you're on your own!!" Since they plan to get into making phones and computers (etc) if true, not good for partner relations.
  • Reply 25 of 62


    As long as MS has to write it's software for multiple OEM's they will never bo able to tune their software and hardware together. It will always be a bloated mess of code.

  • Reply 26 of 62
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post



    Exactly. Microsoft's 'partners' are in a deep bind.



    People licensing from Google/Motorola are likely to find themselves in the same boat.


    At least it is a level playing field with Android since there is no cost for the OS. If MS charges a license fee for each Windows OS, the OEMs will find it difficult to compete on price with MS hardware.

  • Reply 27 of 62
    When a company takes 30 years to figure out the obvious, I don't have much faith in their future.
  • Reply 28 of 62
    joshajosha Posts: 901member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    "Apple should get rid of its hardware business and license Mac OS to clone makers."


    Apple took the first step in that, by selling MacOS to clone makers.   It didn't work out.


     


    Now M$ is following that same path in reverse;  to survive MS needs to control the hardware like Apple.


    Apple should get a business plan royalty from MS !

  • Reply 29 of 62
    Royalty? Sue due to copying!

    Seriously, they don't have it in their DNA. If they did, they would've tried out their own software, found it to be poorly designed, and decided they needed to get that right first before starting to produce their own hardware as well.
  • Reply 30 of 62


    Glad I'm not the only one who is amused by the irony of all this.


     


    I remember back in the 90s and the early 2000s when Apple was constantly criticized for making both the hardware and the software. Steve Jobs gave a quick but memorable interview to MacAddict Magazine shortly after he returned to Apple (during his iCEO days) where he insisted that the best approach to computers and tech products was to make the "whole widget" and he was confident that this would become apparent to the rest of the industry soon enough. Amazing how indisputably that point has been made now.


     


    Even I was doubtful of Apple's approach back then. It seemed unwise given Microsoft's dominance. The entire tech industry was in such a rut at the time and it seemed the inevitable approach to any new product was to follow Microsoft's example of making one part of the whole thing and letting others handle the rest. In retrospect, it's obvious how that really only worked for the circumstances of the time and was necessary then. But needlessly holding on to that single obsession probably did more harm to the advance of personal computing than anything else in the industry's entire history. 


     


    And so here we are. The tech world seems to have done a very slow 180, and now people are starting to recognize that Microsoft's past example may not be the best one to follow and not one word about how foolish it is to "build the whole widget." Crazy how things change.

  • Reply 31 of 62

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JoshA View Post


    Apple took the first step in that, by selling MacOS to clone makers.   It didn't work out.


     


    Now M$ is following that same path in reverse;  to survive MS needs to control the hardware like Apple.


    Apple should get a business plan royalty from MS !



     


    The MacOS licensing history is much more complex than "It didn't work out" and going back there will not make any sense for Apple business where value is in its products and ecosystem around it and not only the software. 


     


    Problem is because of Google's free Android OS, Microsoft business plan of making money with the OS doesn't work anymore. So Microsoft is going plan B: coping someone else success.

  • Reply 32 of 62

    Quote:


    "It is absolutely clear there is an innovation opportunity on the scene between hardware and software," [Ballmer] said



     


    What the hell is that even supposed to mean? The "scene between hardware and software"? Scene?

  • Reply 33 of 62
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by igriv View Post


     


    #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }

     


    Not necessarily. Notice that the Google Nexus is never the flagship Android phone, more of a reference design. Maybe that's the MSFT plan?!


    #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }

     



     


    Well that works for Google because the Android market can sustain multiple devices as it's so large. Windows 8 has a tiny slice of the market and it could be devastating to partners who aren't making any money as it is.

  • Reply 34 of 62
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member


    If they continue to build hardware for another 20 years or so they will *almost* be up to the same level of skill at it as Apple has today (of course by that time Apple will have a further 20 years of experience itself).  


     


    I don't see this plan working out for Microsoft at all. 

  • Reply 35 of 62
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anonymouse View Post


     


    What the hell is that even supposed to mean? The "scene between hardware and software"? Scene?



     


    Balmer speaks in that empty, baffle-gab, business-speak, buzz-word style.  


    It is rare to find a single sentence from an interview with him that actually makes grammatical or logical sense.  


    He is also the King of BS.  

  • Reply 36 of 62

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by bullhead View Post


    Microsoft continues to slowly turn the knife in their "partners" backs. What is <insert generic clone maker> going to do as Microsoft competes with them and eats their lunch?  Nothing they can do.  too funny these Microsoft "partners" are meeting their fate and there is nothing they can do since they sold their soul to Microsoft years ago.  Why any company would ever do anything with Microsoft is beyond me.



     


    No knife!  No back-stabbing!  Rather... Each of the partners is responsible for bending over and shoving the MS umbrella up his own ass...  All that's happening now is that Microsoft is opening the umbrella!

  • Reply 37 of 62

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff View Post




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post


    As the CEO don't you think he should know not believe, Either how know or does not know, obviously he had no clue or no faith in what his engineers are doing. He has no balls, either come out and say M$ is going to screw the partners or not. 



     


    He's floating a trial balloon... If the market goes 'meh,' he'll not commit.   He's a CEO of a 'legacy' company... all his balls are used to scare off competition, not seek new markets.  (think bull in a herd vs a 'rogue bull'  yeah, I'm a farm kid.)



     


    Mmmm... Farm kid, eh... Speaking of balls and bulls... Did you ever hear of a device called the AG60?

  • Reply 38 of 62
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member


    There goes Ballmer, making threats again.  Please Ballmer, another Zune isn't a wise decision.  The Surface RT is another Zune, and you want to make more Zunes?  


     


    Next thing we know, they'll be putting a kickstand on a smartphone and calling it a serious computer.

  • Reply 39 of 62


    Originally Posted by drblank View Post

    Next thing we know, they'll be putting a kickstand on a smartphone and calling it a serious computer.


     


    image

  • Reply 40 of 62
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    If they think that the lack of success of WP8 is because of bad hardware, then they'll be trying to solve the wrong problem.

    As yet, the OS hasn't proven to be a big draw, its UI is a derivative of the Zune HD, I don't think it really helped.

    It seems to be mostly that their brand is damaged, and that's harder to fix than building your own hardware. I don't think competing against your own OEM customers is a good idea.
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