Mobile
Microsoft Rejects Windows Phone 7 Mango on Tablets
At the Worldwide Partners Conference in Los Angeles, California, Microsoft’s Andy Lees reiterates what the company had said in the past that the Windows Phone 7 OS, and its Mango update, will be reserved strictly for phones and will not be deployed on tablets. Lees says that Microsoft views tablets as PCs, and having a consumer OS on a tablet is not in line with Microsoft’s vision for the product. The company says that consumers expect to do more with their tablets rather than just consume content.
Although Microsoft remains true to its original vision of a tablet as being a fully functional PC, the company’s tablet PC idea was no more than a niche market in the market place that was quickly eclipsed by the iPad despite the more limited features of iOS. When Steve Jobs announced the iPad 2, the Apple CEO mocked the tablet PC market by saying that in 9 short months, Apple had outsold about a decade worth of tablet PC sales.
The company has recently introduced Windows 8 tablet as a preview, but it remains to be seen whether or not Windows 8 will be well received in the market place. The new user interface of Windows 8 borrows from Windows Phone 7’s Metro UI with the live tiles, so elements of Windows Phone 7 will make it to the tablet, but for now Microsoft is reserving its mobile OS strictly for phone use.
Via: Electronista
Feralboy
07/13/2011 at 2:43 pm
Very smart move on Microsoft’s part. Everyone was moaning and groaning about them jumping in with their Phone OS. Of course, if they had, the same people who were deriding them for not doing so would be complaining that they don’t have the ecosystem, the OS isn’t ready yet, etc. I was listening to the pundits and thought Microsoft should do the same. We now have a billion Android options, WebOS, and Blackberry tablets out there, and none of them have really found a reason to purchase them over the iPad. Windows 8 on tablets, whether successful or not, offers something more, and therefore, provides a real option rather than just a me-too device. Apple may have sold more tablets than MS parners, but McDonald’s has sold more burgers and fries than Buffalo Burgers, and I’m here to tell you, I’ll choose a Buffalo Burger over a Big Mac any and every day (:
I work in a company that VERY Apple friendly…most of the engineers use Macs, in fact. Many of them purchased iPads and for a while you couldn’t go to a meeting without seeing an iPad or two. But a funny thing happened. As the weeks went on, the number of iPads showing up in meetings dwindled until you’d be hard pressed to find someone using one to take notes in a meeting. In fact, in most meetings I attend, I’m the sole tablet note taker, and I’m using ink on my HP TM2. People see me inking and are beginning to see the power in it.
Anonymous
07/13/2011 at 3:39 pm
That’s the thing. Once people see you writing/drawing on a tablet pc, they are super interested. Then shocked to find out that they have been out forever, can be found helluva cheap on ebay, and are easily upgradable to Windows 7 in most cases.
Steve S
07/13/2011 at 3:47 pm
I’m OK with Microsoft sticking to their vision, but how about an update NOW to Win7’s touch performance based on that new Intel shell? Why do we have to wait until late next year to get iPad-like performance that we could have now?
ChrisRS
07/14/2011 at 12:16 am
It’s MS.
1. A UI overlay might actually slow things down.
2. A new UI would be great, but MS wouls be hugley critacized if it was not perfect.
3. Fixing problems now would interfer with future revenue streams. MS generally undervalues it’s existing user base. TabletPC users were treated even worse than most.
4. MS has apparently determined that it can take over what will be a matuer tablet market whenver it decides to do so. We’ll see. They chose to give away the tablet market after they started it.
All that said, I agree that MS needs to release a Metro overlay (MS Labs?)
WIN 8 IS TOO LATE!