Microsoft's Killer Tablet Opportunity 282
snydeq writes "Advice Line's Bob Lewis sees ripe opportunity for Microsoft in the tablet market: Forget about outdoing Apple's iPad and give us the features that finally improve the way we work. 'The game isn't beating Apple at its own game. The magic buzzword is to "differentiate" and show what your technology will do that Apple won't even care about, let alone beat you at. One possible answer: Help individual employees be more effective at their jobs,' Lewis writes, outlining four business features to target, not the least of which would be to provide UI variance, enabling serious tablet users to expose the OS complexity necessary to do real work."
Been there, done that. (Score:1, Insightful)
So this bloke is saying we need a full featured tablet that will allow us to do real work with a big screen and lots of CPU cycles.
What kind of power source does he suggest for these tablets, so we can work uninterrupted for hours on end? Nuclear? Cold fusion?
Haven't we been there before?
There's a reason tablets (well, iPads) are specc'ed the way they are. If this idiot knew the secret formula, he'd be making money off it (a la Steve Jobs), not writing stupid shit.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, with a move to more web based applications you can now easily access your data from a device like an ipad...
Plus since the ipad doesn't store any data locally, it's less dangerous should it go missing.
Why Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Reading the article I get the impression that this guy would like emacs org mode. Very similar ideas. The added bit is that he wants to embed other files in the document. And to top it all off instead of using a file as an outline, he wants to use a file system. That way you don't have to embed anything. It's just a normal file.
In spite of myself, I think it's a brilliant idea. I'm not sure why he thinks Microsoft will understand it. This is a Un*x idea through and through. Use the file as the lowest level metaphor in the system. Build tools that allow you to operate efficiently on files. I don't think it would be very difficult to implement. And I don't think it has anything to do with tablets. It's just a good idea period.
"Real work" ? (Score:5, Insightful)
enabling serious tablet users to expose the OS complexity necessary to do real work.
Isn't the "real work" stuff like the "true Scotman" ?
Re:Been there, done that. (Score:4, Insightful)
I wholeheartedly agree. I believe the merits of these new table devices are their simplicity and, well, lack of thunder underneath their case. That's not to say they are inferior; they are well capable to fulfill their users' needs. But they probably pale if I compare their hardware to my full-featured convertible I bought four or five years ago. I should point out that it was heavy as hell, and its batteries barely survived the three hours mark.
I've also skimmed through what the article proposes. Well, actually, it doesn't propose that much. It's rather vague and I think, the author is oversimplifying many aspects. The devil in the detail might come to bite the author's ass if he ever tried to build such a system. For instance, what's up with the Triple UI approach he described? I don't know how he envisioned the details here, he's a bit light on that, but if it's anywhere near where I suspect he's trying to go (and I'm really guessing here): It may sound good on paper to empower the user with everything, but overconfidence may lead to people breaking stuff.
Microsoft's killer phone opportunity (Score:5, Insightful)
You could say the same thing about their handset opportunity, or their MP3 player opportunity, or before that their PDA opportunity.
They have no special advantage here, they're late to market, they have a sort of half baked touch / non touch solution coming out, their software is generally badly regarded, their prices too high, second class maps, second class webmail, second class search.
Anyone of those could be a disadvantage, but to have them all in one package.
Put it this way, I wanted to track my stocks, I am normally a Visual C++ programmer, but I decided to write it in Java for android. It's just easier runs more stable for longer and the interface is better with touch. I would previously have written that for Windows, but there's too much C#, Silverlight, god knows what garbage on Windows. So Microsoft will go away soon enough.
But not yet, because it was still Eclipse on Windows that I wrote the app in, there isn't a good Android PC yet, big screen keyboard, port of eclipse. All of these would be trivial to do, but they haven't happened yet. So the end result is inevitable, it will just take time.
Uneducated advice line guy... (Score:5, Insightful)
Advice Line's Bob Lewis needs to learn about computers. There has been windows tablets available for over 20 years. he has been able to go out and buy a Windows Tablet for years.
Hell right now even the new Fujitsu Stylistics are nearly the same price as ipads.
So what is this guy whining about? the fact he has not even bothered to look?
Re:Oh, please.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple doesn't build devices for businesses, but for consumers. Therefore Apple doesn't care about employee effectivity.
Re:Any Tablet that can offer features wins (Score:4, Insightful)
"Too many people are "STATUS" oriented, so they pick iPad.
It is the APPS that make the system!"
I love how you contradict yourself.
People pick iPad because it has the apps. android has almost nothing right now in apps. It's why you see businesses with iPads on the hands of everyone and NOT galaxy Tabs.
The android devs are getting there, but they only recently have had decent hardware to work on as android tablets from a year and a half ago were garbage.
But right now it's not "status" like you trollishly proclaim, but its the APPS.
Call me when I can send the display output from my android tablet wirelessly and effortlessly to the plasma on the wall in the board room. Because that is another killer feature of the ipad in business.
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Any Tablet that can offer features wins (Score:3, Insightful)
Android devs have only had something decent to work with for the last 12 months, and there are already many times more useful business apps on the android market than in the apple market, despite there being far less apps in total and having had less time to develop them.
The iPad is a status toy, anyone who thinks otherwise is just trying to fool themselves.
Real work? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:2, Insightful)
Out of all the users in my company, I can think of only 1 or 2 who even understand what a file structure is, much less make use of it. Almost everyone throws everything into the a pile in the My Documents folder. No subfolders. Most users want to be able to get to Excel, Word or any job specific app, and want it to open up to their most recent documents. iPads with keyboards would work great for 99% of them.
Re:face meet palm (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple makes gorgeous meticulously designed products that make people's lives easier.
To combat this, apparently Microsoft needs to produce something that will make employees more effective at their jobs.
No. You're making the same mistake that Steve Ballmer often seems to make. This isn't about "combating" Apple. It's about market opportunities for Microsoft. Following Apple into the consumer market probably isn't a good move for Microsoft. Producing something targeted at business needs probably is. That isn't because targeting business needs will lead to them reducing Apple's sales, or even to them outselling Apple, it's because it is likely to lead to more sales and profits for Microsoft than they would otherwise have.Talking about "combating" someone else's success is hideously stupid.
Re:Oh, please.. (Score:5, Insightful)
All of the Apple employees that come to enterprise business meetings paired up with Verizon and AT&T talking about mobile device management solutions, and how to better integrate iPad and iPhone into your corporate IS infrastructure seem to disagree.
You see what I did there? I alluded to something that is actually happening in the real world, rather than just spouting some one-liner that may have been true 5 years ago, but most definitely isn't the case today.
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:5, Insightful)
unless it has automated access to every single aspect of your life.
Like every iPad I have used...
Re:Oh, please.. (Score:5, Insightful)
True, but I did talk to one head of IT recently... he loved his tablet, but hated how to integrate anything Apple into their systems. So you might say it's happening almost despite Apple rather than with Apple. In my impression it's exactly opposite of the PC where people used Windows at home because they use Windows at work. Now they use iDevices at home and want to use iDevices at work.
Re:Oh, please.. (Score:2, Insightful)
You didn't get it, did you?
Apple cares not a hoot for the IT manager trying to integrate Apple devices into their infrastructure. They care about the end user of such devices, whom feel empowered and more productive using them.
So this integration is not happening "in spite of Apple," but precisely because Apple devices help the end users be more productive. The integration is the result of this adoption.
You can say that the integration is not Apple's focus. They don't care if you figure out how to integrate the devices into the corporate work-flow or infrastructure--because consumers are buying using the devices, and therefore it's happening whether you integrate or not.
-dZ.
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:0, Insightful)
And once again. Monopoly has closed others out from corporate data. And we only can wait when MS will deliver tablet that can access the data. Why can't we require MS to open the data so that we can make tablet compete?
Re:Oh, please.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Where do you work, some bring your own hardware startup or academia where the user gets what the user wants? Like hell no I get to put corporate information in places or devices the company don't approve, no matter how sweet I think that'd be. Apple does not give one shit about making Apple products usable in a corporate setting, it's all but accidental or incidental to making a good consumer product. They not only don't give a hoot about the IT department, but they don't give a hoot about people trying to use it as a business tool at all.
Apple equipment = square peg
Corporations = round hole
Employees = the hammer
Sure, with a big enough hammer you'll probably get an awkward fit but I don't see why Apple should get any credit for that, because I can't see how they could possibly do less.
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:4, Insightful)
Hi, I used to be a complete skeptic when it came to tablets (not just iPads). Then, recently, I saw someone with an iPad + stylus + Notes plus [notesplusapp.com] in a meeting, just happily jotting down his hand-written notes on the iPad. And just watching the ease with which he could do that might just have sold me a tablet.
To elaborate a little: I dislike typing for note-taking, so I stick to the pen-and-paper approach but this means my notes are scattered across a number of notebooks (depending on which were lying around when I grabbed one for wherever the next meeting was). Being able to take hand-written notes that all end up on the same device, nicely browsable and printable - yeah, that can win me over.
Is there any trouble caused by the rest of the user's hand resting on the touch screen?
clueless advice (Score:3, Insightful)
This has to be about the most clueless advice I've ever read about how to build a better tablet. First of all, just about everything the author mentions already exists and has existed for years with Windows tablet pcs. Speech and handwriting recognition, having a filesystem, and the nebulous "The filesystem is the CMS is the PIM is the email client" already existed or could have easily have been built into the existing tablet pc ecosystem. If those are the features you really care about, why not just buy a laptop or netbook?
At no point in this article does the author acknowledge the importance of the defining features of tablets, namely that they should be portable, have good battery life, have a good screen and have a responsive and well designed touch interface. I consider these to be pretty much the essential basics when it comes to any tablet that hopes to be widely successful. Yet, going on two years later, almost no other company has succeeded in integrating these features into a compelling product despite having a template to work from. iOS itself is not that ambitious an OS. It's actually not the flashiest or most eye-candy-laden OS out there -- not by a a long shot. It doesn't even have the most intuitive user interface all the time. But for core tablet functionality, it is extremely good and is perhaps still unmatched in the industry.
You have to understand how the features of a tablet all work together to support the overall use-cases that you designed the tablet for. So if it is a tablet whose defining features are: (1) not having a keyboard, (2) probably held and used while standing up or lying down, (3) may spend prolonged time outside of the home or away from an outlet, (4) will be used under varying lighting conditions, then why do we see so many tablets these days that are bulky, heavy, have poor screens, and poor keyboards? I don't get that. This is working against your own best interest. Now, there are a lots of tablets that do more than an ipad in a technical sense but since they are such poor tablets they don't differentiate themselves sufficiently from a netbook or laptop to justify the costs.
I think if Microsoft or any company wants to beat Apple at making a better tablet then they need to acknowledge the unique constraints and opportunities of the form factor they are working with. Add features that truly leverage the benefits of a portable device. Aim for a battery life of 15+ hours. This is more than a whole workday because it gives you leeway in case you forget to recharge the device overnight from the previous 'whole day' of work. Find a good balance for security that sits somewhere between the locked down iTunes Appstore and the Android Market. Apps need not be rejected on silly grounds like conformance to a style guide or ease of use but they damn well better not be obvious malware or trojans. With the resources that these companies have it their disposal, how hard can it be to run each app in a sandbox with a monkey-like [android.com] testing environment and monitor for anomalous outgoing connections to China or some place?
Every one of the major competitors to Apple have lots of cash on hand, well into the billions. If one is serious about tablets, why not buy up or seriously invest in every company that is trying to build reflective screen technology? There are whole classes of use-cases related to the outdoors that are poorly served by any tablet today. Shit, at a minimum, whoever gets this right can crash the ebook market which is a pretty significant market in itself.
Perhaps, I am a fool and this is not as easy as I think, but I never said it was easy anyway. And yet, the problem can't be money since Apple did not have the billions upon billions of revenue that it has now when it was designing the ipad. They just had a very clear idea of the device they were working on and what its purposes were. To this point, Amazon with its
Re:Considering who most computer users are these d (Score:2, Insightful)
What many people forget is that language is defined by it's usage, if a false usage becomes common enough it enter language regardless of logic.
100 times NO.
Just because stupid people use an expression incorrectly doesn't make it mean something different.