Why did Microsoft do it?

Why did Microsoft make such a risky move by releasing Win 8?  An article by Goldman Sachs may explain the main motive for this.  I had no idea that Microsoft's market share of the "consumer compute" was so low.:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2412997,00.asp

Also John Dvorak weighs in very strongly about what Microsoft must do to recover.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2412796,00.asp



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I wise man once told me that "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect "
Kevin

They want - and will get - thousands parting with hard-earned dosh to keep up with the Jones'.

Just like many camera manufacturers who release (or does it escape?) a new model that is basically the same as the last but has some "go-faster" stripes on the body.  Plenty will buy the new model - even if they have only juist bought the previous.  Happens all the time.

It's called being commercially viable and wanting to make profits.  Always plenty of mugs about - meaning ones that don't get used for holding tea or coffee. 

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There is a huge migration from desktops and laptops to tablets and smartphones where Microsoft held no serious market position. Apple/iOS and Google/Android were poised to make Windows irrelevant in huge segments of the market.

This was an act of desperation to slow those two competing trains.

The Windows 8 UI will be Microsoft's downfall in the desktop market.  At one time it seemed that no one could topple Microsoft from it's dominant "desktop" position but who would have guessed Microsoft would do it to itself. (Note that I said "desktop".  I'm not bunching tablets and cell phones with desktops).

I bought a copy of Windows 8 and can say that I would NEVER use the Win8 UI on a desktop computer.  Never, ever, ever!  It is just too clunky and I really, really

• hate not having a minimize button with variable application display sizes that I can control. 
  
• I hate that Microsoft is forcing me to only use full screen or 3/4 screen size for my application displays. 
  
• I hate that there are no user control buttons at all, no taskbar, no quick launch, no notifications area (which means no clock, no battery status, no volume control, no nothing!!!).
• I hate that there is no menu bar if I want one.
  
• I hate that I had to spend 5 minutes just to learn how to shutdown...Yes, I had to do a Google search just to learn how to shutdown or restart.
• I hate that I have to search all over the place just to find things that I've been using in Windows forever.
• I hate the Win8 UI period.  I would abandon Microsoft if that was the only UI.
  

But wait, there is hope for Windows 8.  I think I got Windows 8 working like Windows 7.  I have to install more applications and use them to be sure, but so far using the Classic Shell I got Win8 working just like Windows 7.  I'll just forget about the new Win8 UI and hope it doesn't pop up ever. There is hope.

Sky

Microsoft has got a lot of catching up to do.

An article in The Economist last week referred to "The four giants of the internet age—Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon". Each leads on their own part of Internet activity. Microsoft got barely a mention, except in the past tense, or a runner-up to one of the top 4 in one activity or another.

Microsoft thinks it can out-Apple Apple by becoming the computing client platform of choice again (this time hardware as well as software). The idea is presumably to provide much tighter integration across all clients, benefiting from the move to small, hand-held clients.  And of course, move into the business where they take a cut from all software running on Windows.

The danger is that they lose every which way; customers decide:

1. that the Apple or Android interface is better than Metro/Windows on a hand-held,
   
2. that Metro/Windows interface is not very good on a large screen keyboard/mouse interface,
   
3. and that there’s no benefit in a common interface anyway.
   

The jury's out on (1), (2) is a racing certainty, and I reckon (3) is a pretty good bet. After all, people have been pretty happy with different interfaces on their phones/tablets and laptops/desktops for the last few years. A common platform makes it a bit easier for developers, but what the heck – they’ll cope with what they’re given. Most developers want their apps to be multi-platform anyway.

It doesn't look like a smart move to me, but let's see where their stock price goes over the next couple of years. I'm not sure Microsoft can afford to lose. Not and survive, anyway.

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Simon

ow.

the first article shows why PC Mag was best unsubscribed to a decade or more ago.  Convoluted, contradictory article of market projects.  The only intelligent part was remarking that tablets and phones are not pcs, no matter how clever the invented phase (consumer compute) is. Until businesses start dropping full computers for tablets, or Apple releases an alternative to the mail server, Windows + office will continue to be the dominant force.

And the Dvorak again shows himself to be a man of the 90s, if not 80s.  Complaining about hundreds of rebates yet applauding Google's (not really their's) versioning schema for Android is a perfect example of talking without thinking.  And how many people here run an application (pick your photo editor) in full screen mode?  How many don't?

.1 releases don't solve the problem at hand here.  Microsoft used the RCs and freely available betas to course correct before going GA.  They got more than enough feedback about Windows 8 and choose to go forward anyway.

MS's motivation for win8 is obvious - they saw the ecosystems around IOS and Android and the billions of dollars in development effort going there.  This used to be spent on wintel, and they want some back.

I often wonder if 90% of the complaints about windows 8 would disappear if they gave you back the start menu and made it easier for desktop users to avoid metro.

Seriously.  What does it matter ?

They have released it.  Why they did it doesn't matter any more.  All that matters is when they're going to "fix" it for the desktop. ( Ah, yes, Windows 8 DT or whatever they'll call it when they want more money ).

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StephenG

more nonsense.  Microsoft has more users than any of the 4.

FB can be disqualified for relatively pointlessness.  It's an app, not a tool.

Amazon is pretty insignificant outside of the US/Canada/EU.  It's only so significant in those - I buy a good amount of stuff from them, but they're easily replaced.

Google is search domination + android + google docs/apps which is a tiny portion of Office currently.  I think their future is decent, but truth remains that most of their revenue comes from a single product - search.  And when you have that sort of market share, there's nowhere to go but down.  And the search market won't grow indefinitely.

likewise, Apple relies heavily on very few products with declining market shares - the ipod, the iphone, the ipad.  In computers their market share has never passed 10%.  They're relying on their lawyers to keep down the competition, and the hope of inventing new markets they can dominate.  The TV is said to be next, but so many have tried and failed here.  It also doesn't have the annual purchase cycle that it enjoyed with it's ipad/iphone customers.

Microsoft just doesn't appear to be able to use it's strength with Windows to dominate new markets anymore. Obviously, it did so with Office but there are freeware alternatives that just keep getting better. But, in more recent years, they have tried and failed in so many other markets:

* Games
* Search
* Database and CRM
* Photography
* Music
* Finance and accounting
* Online apps
* and more

Most new market initiatives have failed, badly. In fact, I'm having a hard time thinking of a single modest success.

The future of the PC as the dominate productivity appliance is more bleak than ever.  The fortune 1000 companies are moving back to the old days of mainframe/terminal environment.  The new version of this is very large network servers running host applications being accessed by smart terminals through thin clients or browser based clients.  Sun Microsystems would like for the PC and Microsoft to go away.  Some form of cloud based systems are the future of large and small business productivity.

I just hope that for "us" the PC and our favorite software will stick around.  I can't imagine working in a cloud version of PS CS7 or 8.  Cloud based systems will result in pay per use software and I will not like that.

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I wise man once told me that "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect "
Kevin

I can't imagine it ever going away.  A cloud solution may become so compelling (massive on demand cpu resources) that you wouldn't want to stay local, but it would never swing fully back to the thin client model.

Realistically, a fairly priced per use software model would be much cheaper for me.  I've bought a lot of full blown compilers and photoshop packages over the years for recreational use.  But often we see the subscription rates still too high for non work use.

I just don't under stand why they decided to force the UI on the desktop users and are so stubborn about it. It would take very little effort for them to include a classic option and it would eliminate a lot of critisim they have been getting but instead they are forcing it on you.

What is forcing you to use Win8?

Thank you
Russell

Consumer compute, what does that mean? Not much. Your phone while it does minimal tasks is not a computer. How many phones run photoshop, or word processing, or database. None.

Apple still has less than 10 percent market share for computers. So while they and Android are great for the phone, they still don't do what a computer does. Many models storage  compares to some computers ram, and speed is another thing.  Do you edit raw images on your Ipad? No. Android devices just recently allowed for external storage but they still lack the power to drive and external harddrive through the USB port.

The second article the guy has no clue and says...

"​I've already written about this problem, but to summarize, people do not go out and buy a 27-inch monitor (or two of them) to run any application full screen. Why would they? And why would anyone want to run any application full screen ever? The only time you do it is perhaps to watch a movie on the computer."

Is this guy stupid asking stupid questions? I am a photographer, I run several monitors and I quite a few who do as well and guess what, I run photographic software full screen. I am a musician, a DAW is run full screen and is better if you have 2 monitors. I view web pages, facebook at full screen.

Now I would agree that a low end consumer buying the bottom of the line 250 dollar laptop from walmart is not going to run dual monitors but I bet they run plenty of apps including the browser full screen.

The prices of large touch screen computers continues to get lower, you can get a dual core all in one 23" touchscreen with 4gb ram and 500gb HD levano for 640 dollars including windows 8.

I think Microsoft is looking to the future and trying to force an OS that is designed for touchscreen and it may be a little premature but if they don't someone else will.

Microsoft does not need to recover, except in the phone market, that would help them in the "consumer compute" statistic. But as far as computing, they still have it in the bag regardless what pc mag commentators say.

Well, you at least read the articles.  Don't shoot the messenger.

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I wise man once told me that "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect "
Kevin

I'm curious how you classify Microsoft failure in gaming.  The XBox 360 is the best selling game console world wide and it's market share is growing steadily.

Not bad for someone who didn't even have a seat at the table 2 generations ago if you ask me.

Beyond that, Windows is still the only truly viable option if you are a serious PC gamer.  Steam may have promised Linux support, but the developers haven't yet.

The Xbox division lost billions for years.  It might have gotten back to break even during that surge last couple years around the Kinect feature.

1. Wii – 97.18 million as of 30 September 2012[8]
   
2. PlayStation 3 – 70.2 million as of 30 September 2012[53][54]
   
3. Xbox 360 – 70.0 million as of 30 September 2012[55]
   

On a different topic, I do see MS wanting to move past touch screens to a future incarnation of Kinect so we can stop smudging the screen with fingerprints.  I wouldn't be surprised if touchscreen desktops prove as popular as 3D HDTV.

Halo ?

Bing ?

SQL Server ? Dynamics ?

Photosynth ?

Dynamics ?

Office 365 ?

So "Music" is only sector they dont have anything big ( that I know of ).

none of those were examples of domination.  Bing, like Xbox, has been a source for billions of red ink.