- Rob Bushway

People are definitely letting their voices be heard with regards to Microsoft and Tablet PC marketing, this time coming from Steve Hanson, CEO of InPlay Technologies, makers of tablet pc capacitive touch technologies:

I too am frustrated. The potential short term advancements in pen technology could and should revolutionize writing and use of the pen to replace the mouse and key board. I can tell you first hand that the cost of tablet pen implementation is less that $30 today.
Remember when you could not buy a cell phone with a camera? Now it is difficlut to buy one without a camera. The pen in a tablet solution should move down the same path. If every PC incorporated the technology at a $30 (or less) price tag and no predatory mark up by the OEM, we would see the momentum increase for Tablet. That being said, Microsoft needs to backup their beliefs with a firm commitment to the technology providers such that the cost, performance and ease of implementation progress rapidly. Microsoft is a black hole when it comes to stepping up to shape the industry.

- Rob Bushway

Hilton Locke, a former Microsoft Tablet PC team member, posted a very interesting response to Craig's Microsoft Tablet PC Marketing article. He offers some unique observations, especially from someone who used to work on the team.

Here is what Hilton has to say regarding Microsoft, Tablet PC, and marketing:

I don't have any inside info on Windows marketing, but here are some of my observations.

1) The SKU shift to Tablet would be net positive, because Tablet features are only available on the higher-priced SKUs, but the volumes of machines sold is small. So marketing here might not be a good return on investment. Classic chicken-or-egg.

2) Volume growth has been in consumer/entry level systems and that area is terribly price-sensitive. The extra $50-$100 bill of materials costs tends to remove opportunities here. Business and professional users love Tablet (insurance adjusters and healthcare for example) but it's hard to convince the ISVs to Tablet-enable their apps. Without custom app support, the $50-100 cost difference for Tablets is an unnecessary expense. So the most common usage in business is still notebook with pen as "super-mouse". Not terribly compelling.

3) Tablet is part of the larger Windows organization. As such, it's limited in what it can do for marketing, since every message must be vetted at (large number) different levels, and must add to the overall Windows strategy. For an innovation group like Tablet, this is the kiss of death.

4) Microsoft is not the leader in defining pen and touch input interface standards. Pen and touch digitizers have been around for a lot longer than Tablet, so the digitizer technology is relatively mature. A variety of niche solutions in this space has yet to be molded together into a larger standard. Standards again cost a little more in the beginning, as existing drivers and software are rewritten to the standard. Why isn't MS investing here?

As you know, I blogged about Tablet marketing in Dec07 http://blogs.msdn.com/hiltonl and took a lot of heat. It's also widely known thanks to the "Vista Capable" fiasco, that no marketing decision made inside of Windows is done in isolation.

IMHO, Tablet is likely to die a slow and ignominious death within Windows as it is absorbed into a larger "Natural input" movement. Note how touch, speech and visual recognition are the new darlings. Touch input is the only Windows-team-owned "darling". Microsoft's big challenge will be to figure out how to get Windows developers excited about NI as a whole.

- Rob Bushway

We still have not heard from Bill Gates regarding Tablets and the community, but PC Magazine recently did an "exit interview" with him, and covered the perceived hits / misses.

On Natural Interface technologies, like vision, speech, and ink:

M: Over the years,
you have also talked about a number of technologies that you thought
were going to be successful but haven't reached mainstream appeal as
much as I think you thought they would: SPOT, tablet PCs,
speech recognition, stuff like that. What do you think it is: a
software or hardware problem, or just society? Why did some things
become incredibly popular and some things stay more or less as niches?

B: Look what was written down from when Paul and I started
Microsoft. Half the things we dreamed of as scenarios for software to
solve are still in front of us.

Natural interface including speech, and the kind of inking that
comes out on the tablet. My prognosis, you can call it stubbornness, is
simply that it is not ready for the mainstream yet. We have to keep
improving the software and hardware. But I have no doubt that the
current way we interact—which is overwhelmingly a keyboard and mouse
way—in the next decade will be changed deeply. Not that it will go
away, but it will be supplemented by speech, vision, ink-type things.
And this is the kind of issue where Microsoft gets to put billions of
dollars behind those beliefs.

The tablet: it's taken off in some niches. There are millions sold a
year, but not tens of millions. My belief is that we will get to
hundreds of millions. So we are a factor of 100 away from what I wanted
to happen and I believe will happen, where every student instead of
having paper textbooks has this great device connected to the Internet
that allows them to edit, create, record voice, browse, in this very
deep way.

- Warner Crocker

In the days gone by in the history of my business, the theatre, it used to be common practice for plays to post up showbills with “Limited Engagement,” then “Last Weeks,” “Final Performance,” and then “Absolute Final Peformance.” Of course if the box office was good, they’d be followed by “Extended by Popular Demand” and the cycle would start all over again.

The Life and Times Windows XP is a grand saga that seems to be returning to those days of yore. Users and OEMs just can’t seem to let go. Earlier this week, Dell had started charging extra if you wanted to downgrade to XP, now it looks like they’ve reversed course on that until at least June 26 on select configurations. 

via Gizmodo.

- Rob Bushway

The big news over the past day has been the $511.6 million patent lawsuit brought by Alcatel-Lucent. A federal judge recently ordered that a previous jury decision stands regarding Microsoft's infringement on two patents.

In addition to the Outlook / Windows Mobile calendaring part of the suit, the jury found that Microsoft and Dell had infringed a Alcatel-Lucent patent related to the use of a stylus on tablet pcs. Microsoft must pay $10.4 million, while Dell must pay $70,000.

- Warner Crocker

Origami Experience 2.0 was released on Friday and jkkmobile has already put up a video review. He walks through the major features of the application and explains the ins and outs quite clearly. Like a lot of folks who are taking a look at this, jkk asks the big question about this software release for UMPCs. OE 2.0 requires Vista, but then so many prefer to run Windows XP on UMPCs. Why isn’t there version for Windows XP?

Check out the video review here.

 

- Warner Crocker

Brandon LeBlanc on the Windows Experience Blog tells us that Origami Experience 2.0 has finally been released and is available for download.

The Origami Experience 2.0 has been released for download on the Microsoft Download Center today!

Download: Origami Experience 2.0

The Origami Experience 2.0 is designed for Ultra-Mobile PCs that run Windows Vista. To run the Origami Experience 2.0, a UMPC with the following specifications is recommended: 

• Minimum 100 MB of available hard disk space
• Minimum 1 GB of system memory
• Touch panel display (required for Origami Picture Password)

The Origami Experience 2.0 requires the following software installed: 

• Windows Internet Explorer 7. Origami Experience 2.0 requires Internet Explorer 7 for its RSS platform.
• Windows Media Player 11. Origami Central requires Windows Media Player 11 in order to manage and play media.
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. The calendar tile in Origami Now works only with Office Outlook 2007 Calendar. The mail tile in Origami Now works with Office Outlook 2007 Mail and Windows Mail.
• The Windows update available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932406 . This update is highly recommended if you use the mail tile in Origami Now with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

- Warner Crocker

Microsoft has released Windows Search 4.0 which updates desktop search on Vista, XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Home Server.

Microsoft says that 4.0 offers performance and reliability improvements (isn’t that phrase becoming a cliche?), that queries are faster, along with speed improvements for indexing. Although as far as indexing goes the caveat is that it depends on the speed of your machine and the volume of your data. 4.0 also extends remote index discovery so if your network’s machines are all running 4.0 Vista to XP, or Vista to Windows Server 2008 searches are now possible.

This will eventually work its way to Windows Update, but if you’re anxious to give it a whirl you can download it the following links.

• Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x86)
• Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x64)

You can check out more on the Windows Experience Blog from Brandon LeBlanc.

- Warner Crocker

Do you ever feel like the world is shifting under your feet? Things moving so fast that focusing on the road ahead is a challenge? That’s how things feel these days in the crazy, mixed up world of mobile computing. We’ve got name and branding issues that are causing some level of confusion in the marketplace (as well as the publications that cover the scene). We’ve got more and more options on what chips and operating systems are running things. Price points seem to be decided by throwing darts at a board. And, to top it all off, we of course see announcements that are then followed by the inevitable delays due to everything from legal squabbles, FCC issues, supply issues, and who knows what else.

Well, Qualcomm just fired a salvo into the mix that will, if nothing else, muddy the mobile waters up even more. Qualcomm’s now saying that their Snapdragon chipset will be a good fit for the tiny portables, especially if they are running Windows Mobile 7. So, add another player to the ultra-sub-mini-portable-notebook-netbook roster. The claims here do make sense, because they are focused on longer battery life while offering 3G connectivity. Qualcomm is now showing off an ultra-portable from Inventec targeted at a $299 price range.

Hang on to your hats. It is going to be an interesting time ahead.

Via CrunchGear

- Warner Crocker

Give me a break.

Microsoft and HP are announcing that beginning in 2009, HP’s consumer line will ship with Microsoft’s Live Search Toolbar preinstalled in the browser. The toolbar is Silverlight based, which is cool, but c’mon folks don’t shove this down our throats.

The HP tx2000 model I’m evaluating already has enough CRAPWARE built into the machine and the browser to make you want to pull your hair out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I realize the supposed benefits that this offers from a marketing and cost perspective, but here’s the deal I’ll make. If the HP brass and the big brass at Microsoft will use this for one month before releasing it, and document their usage for all to see, I’ll quit complaining about this as CRAPWARE.

 

- Warner Crocker

When there is an absence of information it creates a vacuum. After last week’s declarations from Steve Sinofsky that Microsoft won’t be talking much about Windows 7 in the ways it has talked about Windows Vista, Microsoft officially created the vacuum, with the exception of the tid bit of news that Windows 7 would incorporate a multi-touch UI. Well nature abhors a vacuum and so do geeks.

The intrepid Loren Heiny is adopting natures’ role and filling that information vacuum with a very funny new post that chronicles 7 ways Windows 7 will outdo Apple. You have to read this.

 

Tags: Windows+7

- Rob Bushway

Much to chagrin of the mainstream press, Bill Gates has been nothing but persistent over the years with regards to the Tablet PC and his belief that natural input technologies, like ink, will one day be common place. Gates will enter his "retirement" by spending much of his 20% Microsoft time on pet projects like Research, Tablet PC, speech, vision, touch, and such. Gates doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would waste some of his most valuable resources, like time, on technologies that don't have long term viabilities. We happen to agree with him about the long term potential that natural input technologies have.

In many of the speeches that I've heard Gates give, including last year's MVP Summit, he frequently mentions the Tablet PC form factor. Lately, as Gates has been traveling the world, he has been spending a lot of time talking about putting a Tablet PC in the hands of every student. Tablet PC and touch was also a major talking point at this year's D6 conference. It is quite ironic, though, that the community which gives life to his passion has never heard from him directly in the almost six years that Tablet PC has been around. I can't recall seeing any interviews with Mr. Gates from TabletPCBuzz.com, TabletPCReview.com, TabletPC2.com, and yours truly, GottaBeMobile.com.

Mr. Gates, the community that is in step with your passion needs to talk with you - we want to hear from you directly about the technology we both care about, are concerned about, discuss, and believe in. Comments like these are indicative that there are some real issues that need discussing.

I'll be in Redmond in a few weeks meeting with your Surface team. I'd be happy to extend my trip by a day or two in order to spend some time talking with you about Tablet PC, touch, and mobile computing. Your Tablet PC team knows how to get in touch with me if you'd like to talk.

- Rob Bushway

Wow. I always knew the mainstream press hated Tablet PC's from the day they were announced, but the last few days have been pretty rough. With Bill Gates and Steve Balmer demoing Windows 7 multi-touch capability at the D6 conference, and Bill talking about his pursuit of a Tablet PC in the hands of every student, the Tablet PC jumped back in to the hot seat and has become quite the punching bag (just one example of the many stories floating around the past day or two).

From a marketing perspective, no one can argue that Microsoft has not done its fair share to trip up an otherwise awesome computing platform. We've been quite vocal about how Microsoft doesn't put its dollars and marketing effort where Bill's voice and passion is. Were it not for the active communities that rally around the tablet and natural input technologies, there would be no tablet platform at all.

What I don't understand is why the mainstream press continues to choose to hate the Tablet PC. I know the tablet platform isn't for everyone, but is there a reason to point to the Tablet as another one of Microsoft's failures? Is it a failure? You tell me, Tablet PC community? Talk it up amongst your sites, blogs, forums, etc.

- Warner Crocker

From the Windows Vista Blog

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Update: This seems to be playing fine in IE but not in Firefox.

 

- Warner Crocker

More as it comes, but here’s a picture of what Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are demoing at D6. Multi-touch in Windows 7.

Pictures via Engadget

- Warner Crocker

Here are some thoughts and reactions to some software and updates I’ve been working with lately.

Vista SP1

• The install went fine. As expected it took several days before things really settled in after the install was complete. I’ve noticed a few quirks that I’m not sure I can pin any specifics on though.
• Outlook is the only application that seems to take longer to load under SP1 than it did before. I’ve noticed this with Xobni installed and not installed.
• Some times screen rotation is absolutely faster than it was before. Sometimes it seems like it will take forever to get the screen to reappear.
• Moving large files is noticeably faster.
• I’ve had more system hangs under SP1 than I had before installing it, and I’ve noticed that it takes much longer to get the system back to a state of running smoothly after a reboot, than it did before.
• Accessing other computers on our office network is considerably more hit and miss than it was before. Once a month or so, I would not be able to access the network prior to installing SP1. Now, sometimes this occurs several times a day. It often requires a reboot to fix it.
• My guess it is time for a clean install and then adding SP1 to that.

Xobni

I’m not sure if this Outlook add-in solves anything for me or not. While I like the searching functionality it provides and the ability to track conversations through various emails, I don’t find the search any more or less reliable than than Windows native search. Going back and forth I’ve been able to get less than reliable search results with both.

As mentioned above I’ve seen a slow down with Outlook loading since I installed Vista SP1. I’ve uninstalled Xobni to see if that had any significant impact and to be honest, I can’t tell one way or the other, but at various times, and in various scenarios, Outlook will take quite awhile to load.

EverNote

This is becoming more and more of an application that I rely on as I move between computers. While still in beta, I love being able to store and retrieve info between multiple platforms and devices. The Windows client needs to do some serious catching up with the Mac version on a number of things, most importantly:

• We need the same PDF support on the Windows side that we have in the Mac version.
• I want a thumbnail view in the Windows version. Now. Please.

The Mac version needs to allow me to view Inked documents sooner rather than later.

Windows Live Mesh

It is still far too early to tell if this will deliver on the promise it holds as a syncing tool and more. I do like what I see here so far, but so much hasn’t been implemented that commenting is really unnecessary. That said, I’d like to see those things start rolling out pretty soon.

- Warner Crocker

In the always on and always raging battle between Microsoft and Google (and I guess Yahoo depending on how that all turns out) over search and your eyeballs Microsoft is today launching a new attempt to grab your searching interest: Microsoft Live Search Cashback. The idea is to pay cash back to searchers who use Live Search Cashback to browse and purchase designated products. They’ve got a roundup of participating merchants lined up. Supposedly the cash coming back to users can range for 2% to 30% depending on a number of variables. You’ll have to sign up to use the service and once you do you can either search on the Live Search Cashback site, or hit a special icon on regular Microsoft Live Search results.

A user only gets his/her cash back if they make a purchase in what is being called Cost Per Acquisition, meaning the advertiser only pays when you plop down your dollars. Funds are put into an online account and pay outs can be via direct deposit or into a PayPal account. You’ll need to accumulate a $5 balance before the cash comes back to you.

Todd Bishop has a write up on this on his blog and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this as the day rolls on and the announcement is made.

Note: This is only available in the US and you need to be 18 years or older to participate.

So, here’s a question, GBM readers. Is this kind of incentive of interest to you? Will you sign up and use this kind of service for your online purchasing? 

- Warner Crocker

It looks like Microsoft might be trying to pump up the volume a bit on Vista’s speech recognition, even though news of this seems to be under the radar so far. They’ve recently released a technical preview of Windows Speech Recognition Macros, a package designed to extend Vista’s speech capabilities by allowing users to create their own macros. Lifehacker has an article on this along with a number of videos of this in action.

I’m wondering if this might give a boost to the often forgotten capability of speech recognition on Tablet PCs.

 

 

- Warner Crocker

For those using Windows Mobile devices, Microsoft has made Windows Live Mobile available for download. (Here’s the download link.) Windows Live Mobile allows users to sync up their Hotmail or Live Mail accounts and contacts. Curiously though Microsoft has dropped Windows Live Messenger client from the package for mobile phone users. The explanation is that Microsoft is doing this to support carrier’s plans for IM services on their respective phones. There is a browser based alternative though.

Read more from Brandon LeBlanc on the Windows Experience Blog and Stay Connected, the Windows Live for Windows Mobile Team Blog. 

- Warner Crocker

Last week came word that Microsoft had to delay the release of XP SP3 and Vista SP1 due to some complications with the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System.

Well, it looks like the issues have been worked out temporarily and the service packs will now be available again via Windows Update. Microsoft developed a filter that will prohibit machines running Dynamics RMS from installing either of the two updates. Microsoft is still working on a fix that will resolve the issue completely.

Via News.com