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Wrong reasons | 408 comments | Create New Account
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Wrong reasons
Authored by: ailuromancy on Sunday, February 17 2013 @ 01:50 PM EST

CPU's are much faster, but few people need to render cinema quality visual effects or simulate a jet engine. The big changes in a modern PC are an SSD that lets the CPU run full speed more of the time, lower costs and no need for a fan. The new hardware does not require any changes in the software to show its advantage, so Microsoft had to find a reason for people to upgrade. The thing they chose was a touch screen. Microsoft have given touch such a huge priority in the user interface design that doing things with a mouse works differently - or badly.

Manufacturers have not put touch screens on desktops or laptops. I can understand why Microsoft is so peeved with them. This is where we get to why Microsoft are in trouble. Manufacturers know their customers are price sensitive, so they do not add the cost of a touch interface. Microsoft want to price their software as if it were massively popular. The reviews of Windows 8 on non-touch devices killed that plan stone dead, but Microsoft have not got the message yet.

The big selling point of Windows is legacy software. The transition to touch would wreck that, so the plan was to assume that bridge was already burned and have everybody re-write all their software and distribute it through Microsoft's App store. Distributors make very little profit on hardware, but get the money from selling software on new machines so they are peeved. Developers are not exactly thrilled by the idea of all that re-work just to let Microsoft take all the profit in their App store.

Next up, Microsoft talks to all the manufacturers about their plans for new features, then puts those feature into Surface. Surface comes out first with ARM CPU's, so no chance of any legacy software working. Add an empty App store and the reviews cannot justify the premium price.

The Surface Pro is here with a CPU for legacy software, snubbed manufacturers, starving distributors, no developers, a poisoned brand name, a premium price and supply shortages.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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