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Microsoft to Give Us a Better iPad than Apple
Microsoft’s Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer, told attendees at Microsoft’s annual partner conference that Microsoft was serious about a Windows 7 tablet coming out soon. At the conference in Seattle, Washington, on Monday, Ballmer tried motivating attendees by telling them that the tablet is being constructed by about twenty manufacturers right now.
“New Windows-powered tablet or slate devices — small, hand-held, wireless computers — are in the pipeline from Acer Inc, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and a dozen other PC makers,”
Ballmer also claims that the Windows 7 tablet will be the most important product they come out with recently. The slate or tablet is probably their most important product because the iPad might seriously affect Microsoft’s PC desktop or laptop sales. In just about three months Apple has already sold 3 million iPads. However, Ballmer wants to take Microsoft in a different direction by playing up its board room compliance as well as fun multimedia features. CrunchGear reports that Bill Gates said the iPad was :not quite there yet.”
Microsoft didn’t say anything about the number one PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co., or their plans to build a tablet-like device running a Palm operating system. Nor did they acknowledge any of their own recent problems with projects like the Kin cell phone.
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Microsoft’s Newest Phone Cut After 48 Days
You probably saw a commercial or two for Microsoft’s Kin cell phone recently. Well, not too recently since Microsoft discontinued the phone after only 48 days on the market because of such low sales.
The Kin was geared toward young adults and teens who love social networking. The phone plays up easy social network access like Twitter, Facebook, even MySpace. It also featured a loop of friends that you are directly connected to, i.e. follow their tweets, status updates, etc.
I found it curious that I would see tons of commercials at home that made the Kin look decent (something appealing to social-media-crazy-teens) and yet never saw any articles or reviews on any of the big name tech sites. The phone regretfully did not catch the eye of enough teens or young adults either. All the advertising for the phone came from Microsoft’s large ad budget for the Kin. And that obviously wasn’t enough.
It probably wasn’t the best idea to release the smartphone right around the set release dates of the iPhone 4 and the Droid Incredible. While the Kin does have a unique look, it cannot compare to the iPhone craze and its huge apps store resource.
Even though discontinuing the phone may have been the best option for Microsoft, it is completely out of their character. Like the Windows Vista or Internet Explorer, Microsoft tends to hold on to projects (however awful they may seem) and improve them over time. But this time the product was cut off after only 48 days!
Maybe Microsoft was so okay with shutting down the new phone because the next Windows phone is in the works and could potentially come out by this fall. Microsoft said that all Kin employees would be reassigned under the Windows Phone 7 development.
Read MoreThe iPhone Prefers Bing?
Hopefully by now you’ve heard the news about Apple’s new iPhone (the iPhone 4), Apple’s latest contribution to the world of cell phones. It became available for preordering today on the Apple website. Something you may not have noticed at the WWDC presentation, but that has definitely caused its fair share of controversy, is Apple’s choice of Search Engine… Apple chose Microsoft’s Bing over Google for the phone’s default search engine.
Like anyone else, I cannot help but read into this decision – maybe a little too much. Apple is siding with Microsoft? Really? Does Apple’s choice mean Google has become a bigger rival to Apple than Microsoft? Aren’t Apple and Microsoft the Batman and Joker pairing of the computer/internet world? Computer tech blogs and magazines sure have made it seem that way. I can’t really talk since I have egged on the rivalry just as much.
Back in 1997, Bill Gates invested $150 million in Apple and made Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and some other development tools available to Macs (a huge shock at the time and a huge game changing move on Microsoft’s end). Gates could have sat back and let Apple be stifled out, but after the investment we saw some of the biggest “races” in the technology world. Laptops, gaming systems, smart phones, and the tablet are representative of just a few instances where Microsoft and Apple were neck and neck, racing to the top. Their competition is what has kept the Internet and technology field changing and evolving.
Were Apple and Microsoft ever at war? It’s hard to say no with “I’m a Mac,” “I’m a PC” commercials all over the place. And yet, it’s hard to say yes when Apple is promoting one of Microsoft’s larger products (Bing). I’d have to say they have something similar to a sibling rivalry. They compete for the top spot but they each know what the other’s strength is. They push each other in their rivalry but know when they need to be on the same team.
If you are still convinced that Apple and Microsoft are and will always be big enemies, then think of the iPhone with Bing as Apple letting only one little Microsoft product into their world. Out of the many products Microsoft has out there, Bing is one of the few not competing with an Apple product. I think that choosing Bing is smart on Apple’s part. They’re paying back Microsoft for that investment way back when, in a smart and strategic way. But using Google for your iPhone is still an option if Bing really bugs you that much.
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Google Runs from Windows
After Google experienced a major hacking in their Chinese operations, they have decided to kick Windows to the curb. The hacking, which happened in January of this year, compromised what was rumor to be Google source code.
One thing about operating systems that needs to be understood is that there are lots of different ones that take different approaches. Windows is more math-based and is definitely the most widely used OS. Because it is the most used, hackers have become better at, well, hacking into it. That’s why Google blames the Chinese hacking on the use of Windows OS.
Google is allowing its employees to choose any other operating system, including Mac OS and Linux. With Google’s own competing operating system, Chrome OS, you might think they would make Chrome the default OS and allow nothing else in the office. However, because Google handles such large data sets and algorithms, the math-driven search engine prefers a math-based operating system. CNET reports that some employees will still be able to use Windows OS but only with special permission. For everyone else, Windows will be disabled on any of the Google network’s desktops. Eventually, Google will start suggesting its employees use Chrome OS in the office, which they believe to be very secure because it takes an entirely different approach to the operating system being Internet based.
Telling their workers to not use a competitor’s product at work seems reasonable to me and maybe should have been done sooner. You wouldn’t use an iPhone if you worked at Verizon, at least not in the office, I hope.
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Apple & Microsoft: The competition tightens
When I think of the Internet, my mind automatically pictures a PC. But now I should really change my mental image to be both a PC and a Macbook. According to the stock exchange, Microsoft and Apple are pretty much tied in market cap at about $227 billion. And according to CNet, Cupertino has surpassed Redmond in total value! Isn’t this a little crazy? I wonder what Bill Gates is thinking… Even though he is no longer the CEO of Microsoft, he was the one who decided to help Apple out back in 1997 with a $150 million investment. Since his investment Apple has given us the iPod, iPhone, an operating system, and now the iPad. Apple is no longer confined to the computer market.
Another market they have successfully conquered is the digital music market with iTunes. iTunes has definitely changed the way people think of and purchase music. CDs (or cassette tapes for the older crowd) are completely inadequate when compared to MP3s and iPods. But apparently there has been some controversy over iTunes’ relationship with the music labels. The Justice Department is currently investigating if iTunes used their position as top seller of digital music to force music labels to lower prices. They are also investigating some allegations that Apple tried to keep music labels from participating in Amazon.com’s Daily Deals specials.
An article in The New York Times makes a the point, “Though the Justice Department’s inquiry is preliminary, it represents additional evidence that Apple, once the perennial underdog in high tech, is now viewed by government regulators as a dominant company with considerable market power.”
So maybe Apple is taking the investigation as a compliment?
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