Mary Jo Foley speculates on whether rumors she’s hearing indicate that Microsoft will be releasing a Microsoft Tablet. Note, that’s tablet with a big T. The suggestion is that Microsoft is “remaking” the Tablet PC idea and going after something, you know, more Apple like, like an Apple tablet with a little t.
I’m skeptical. Microsoft wants to give up on its huge lead in handwriting and math recognition? Doubtful.
Rather than speculating on non-existant Apple and Microsoft tablets competing head to head, doesn’t it seem at least as plausible that Mary Jo is hearing about something more Surface like which Steve Ballmer described back in 2008:
“We’ve had more pushback to get a consumer version of the Surface in-market than you can shake a stick at,” Ballmer said. “We will follow our noses in terms of consumer interest and make a set of investments that try to take some steps toward making Surface a consumer product, and also scaling up the industrial design.”
Makes sense to me.
Now is a Surface Computer a tablet? That’s a good question. There’s definitely lots of opportunities for sharing between Tablet PCs and Surface Computers. There’s multitouch, for instance, both in Windows 7 and Surface. But that doesn’t mean a Surface Computer is a tablet, anymore than let’s say a touch smartboard means it’s a tablet.
It just seems like in part because of all the positive press the Apple tablet is getting that everyone seems to want to call their device a tablet with a little t. How funny. The press sure seems to eat it up.
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Rumores sobre tablet da Microsoft ressurgem: http://ow.ly/qhQ9 [inglês]
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[…] out what Loren Heiny has to say about this. AKPC_IDS += […]
“Alchemy Ventures” is a somewhat popular name, but I tracked down a promising lead: Baril Corp. has an investment arm called Alchemy Ventures that invests knowledge and resources from its manufacturing and design core into start-up firms. Baril’s area of expertise is material fabrication and machining, useful for engineering a chassis.
This comment was originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com
I completely agree with Loren’s analysis on the matter. Mary Jo, as much as I respect her on most matters, has always had an axe to grind against the tablet platform. She admits herself in several of her past tablet-related articles that she just doesn’t get the appeal or benefit.
Her analysis on the Zune/Pink is probably pretty spot on, although, I’m not so sure the plans to discontinue the Zune hardware in the future is very accurate. Zune would have to open up to other devices and platforms to successfully have a purpose if the Zune hardware were to disappear. On the contrary, I think it’s more likely to say that Zune and Xbox will become closer partners… better integration and better complementary functionality.
This comment was originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com
Rumores sobre tablet da Microsoft ressurgem: http://ow.ly/qhQ9 [inglês]
This comment was originally posted on Twitter