Friday Evening Links > Ballmer: killing the iPad is a "job one urgency"

Ballmer: killing the iPad is a "job one urgency"

That's Uncle Fester to you.

Bill Gates was able to defeat the Mac because John Sculley gave him an opening. Steve Ballmer will see no such opening with the iPad.

Baldy can do it if they redo the Windows 7 GUI specifically for a single style of tablet device and then get 3rd party devs to write specifically for the device.

IMO, Windows 7 tablets don't move well because there is very little "tablet" software for them. They're regular Windows machines with some pen abilities tacked on. The OS is not a "tablet" OS. It's a desktop OS.
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"Our goal (was to make) a billion phones Flash-enabled by 2010...We're actually going to get 1 billion Flash-enabled phones by 2009." -Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch in Nov 2008.

reply to Z80A
iPad-like tablets have been made long before the iPad, and they include a much better feature set: USB, PC Card, video output; without buying an expensive add-on from a sole provider because it can only use their connector so can charge whatever they want.

HP Slate 500 has USB.. you can add almost anything to USB and you can buy that USB device from whatever other company you wish, and if you lose your cable, go buy a replacement for a couple of bucks.

And all the iPad-like tablets have been an abject market failure. It's because their software was a complete joke.

Hardware features are meaningless without good software designed for it.

reply to Z80A
I agree with you.

They need to develop the open standard for such a slate like they do the desktop version of 7... they need to make it more compact and leaner to run on a smaller piece of hardware, allow it to integrate between the desktop and multiple smart phones, and then think more "app-like" in the sense of programs that run on it rather than, as you said, making a different piece of hardware running the same ol' programs on it. I think that's what frustrates netbook users, such as myself. Running office on a netbook isn't a pleasant experience for me to say the least.

Personally, one reason I've also not liked M/S is that the mobile devices I've owned, be it a netbook or phone, HAS lacked the software built around it, and in regards to my WM phone I had, the "apps" were $20+ a piece.. I just couldn't justify spending that much on an app so small.

If M/S wants to "kill the iAnything" they need to actually think MORE like the iDevices.. I can say that many users here would like an apple-like experience that isn't locked down. If MS did this, I think that it would either prove or disprove the point, once and for all, if apple would be a swinging company if they'd just open up. And, too, MS really needs to not try to also reinvent an entirely new way to do something JUST to be different. If there is one thing I do like about the apple platforms, is they get the user interface/experience down pretty well.

reply to Z80A
honestly i think our best hope for a non-Apple pad device will be running Android. I cant see MS being able to shed its desire to make its software work in Consumer and Enterprise markets.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports