This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The (Very Near) Future of Microsoft Windows Is Here, Now!
I have warned many a BoomBustBlog reader not to discount Microsoft in the mobile computing wars (Don’t Count Microsoft Out of the Ultra-Mobile Computing Wars Just Yet).
Their recent tech, whether it be mobile OS, cloud-based or interface
related is impressive and represent clean starts and breaks from the
past hegemony. May I introduce the future of Microsoft Windows?
If you think that is a little far fetched, it is currently running on a Microsoft OS at MIT using the Xbox Kinnect interface. MIT’s
brain labs cobbled together the hand detection system that has been
pretty much fantasy up until now, and has used Microsoft’s Kinect
accessory for the Xbox 360 to do it. The clip below illustrates a
demonstration using a makeshift picture-scrolling UI.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is the only game console increasing sales growth
rate this season, and there is little wonder why. From a technical,
applied, innovation and user experience perspective, it literally
obliterates the competition (Sony’s Playstation and Nintendo’s Wii) and
is obviously the future of gaming. This is all run on 6 year old
hardware, at that! For those wondering how this is related to mobile
tech, just think of how many times people have complained about having
to little real estate on their smart phone screens…. There Is Another Paradigm Shift Coming in Technology and Media: Apple, Microsoft and Google Know its Winner Takes All
Of course, there are some things that even technology can’t compensate for…
For more on the race to win the mobile computing wars, see:
- There Is Another Paradigm Shift Coming in Technology and Media: Apple, Microsoft and Google Know its Winner Takes All
- The Mobile Computing and Content Wars: Part 2, the Google Response to the Paradigm Shift
- An Introduction to How Apple Apple Will Compete With the Google/Android Onslaught
- Don’t Count Microsoft Out of the Ultra-Mobile Computing Wars Just Yet
- This article should drive the point home: An iPhone 4 Recall Will Hurt Apple More By Opening Additional Opportunity for Android Devices Than Increased Expenses
- A First in the Mainstream Media: Apple’s Flagship Product Loses In a Comparison Review to HTC’s Google-Powered Phone
- After Getting a Glimpse of the New Windows Phone 7 Functionality, RIMM is Looking More Like a Short Play
- RIM Smart Phone Market Share, RIP?
- Android is gaining preference as the long-term choice of application developers
- A Glimpse of the BoomBustBlog Internal Discussion Concerning the Fate of Apple
- Math and the Pace of Smart Phone Innovation May Take a Byte Out of Apple’s (Short-lived?) Dominance
- Apple on the Margin
- RIM Smart Phone Market Share, RIP?
- Motorola, the Company That INVENTED the Cellphone is Trying to Uninvent the iPad With Android
- Android Now Outselling iOS? Explaining the Game of Chess That Google Plays in the Smart Phone Space
- There
Goes Those Fancy eBook Aspirations from Apple, Barnes
and Noble, and Amazon: 100,000’s of FREE eBooks from the
Public Library - How
Google is Looking to Cut Apple’s Margin and How the
Sell Side of Wall Street Will Enable This Without
Sheeple Investor’s Having a Clue - Empirical Evidence of Android Eating Apple!
- More of the Android Onslaught: Increasing Handset Revenues and Growth
- Many More Black Eyes for the Blackberry? A Complete Forensic Analysis of Research in Motion
- The BoomBustBlog Multivariate Research in Motion Valuation Model: Ready for Download
- The Complete, 63 pg Google Forensic Valuation is Available for Download
- iSuppli Continues to Validate BoomBustBlog’s Original Thesis: Android as the Viral Game Changer!
- BoomBustBlog Research Hits Another One Out the Park! Google up nearly 10% after hours, true blowout earnings unlike JPM
- As
I Warned in June, DO NOT DISCOUNT Microsoft in This Mobile Computing
War! Their Marketing Campaign is PURE GENIUS! and it Appears as if
the Phone Ain’t Bad Either - Reggie Middleton Wasn’t the ONLY Openly Apple Bear in the Blogoshpere, Was He?
- A Quick Peek Into the REAL WORLD Logic That Went Into Building the BoomBustBlog Apple Model: It’s Called Compression!!!
- advertisements -
@jmc
"How long does Steve Jobs have left? Once him and some early pioneers are gone, and they are already mostly gone, what's left? The wall street machine fucking games up like they do everything else."
True, there are a few people at Microsoft and Sony who could move their companies forward, but they are held down or kicked to the curb by the guys at the top.
I like Reggie. I just think he's overestimating the impact. Kinect is eventually (without FED in mind) a $49.99 priced part. Just because someone buys an additional controller for their 360 doesn't mean MS is huge. Motion controlled things can ease some use, can improve some efficiency in business applications, but not nearly as much as previous jumps in tech. At this point it should be obvious it's foolish to expect anything similar to previous leaps in jump, because it just isn't that much of a leap.
Laptops and Kindles and all these intertwine so that in the end that and a phone will probably remain. So it's really just cannibalization of what's already out there in many cases. I don't see that as be bullish unless they can convincingly persuade us to buy a gadget at every 2 inch length from 5 to 60 with a MS OS license cost to pad it's revenue. I will obviously be getting a Kinect, and always planned to, forgot to mention that earlier but overall it's just not that much of an improvement to what's already out there with current user-interfaces. There will of course be improvements, but this really isn't revolutionary. It's just evolutionary, and at a much slower rate. Without consoles coming out for a few years, Sony has already said ps2 and ps3 were on a 10 year plan, this 50 dollar part will be their bread and butter additional revenue spike that has to hold them over until the next console, and are depending on a casual gamers with $$$ issues to buy ever increasing like games pumped out serially after jumping into the motion control business a few years late.
If someone doesn't buy Win 7 or 8 because they buy their Mobile OS version, is that really a positive? I don't think so.
Eventually someone will come up with a can't miss reason on an updated kinect 2 version to be included with Win 9 or 10, but that isn't now.
Finally we have The Bernank, which puts everything into question.
Motion controls, while fun, can also be bothersome. Can you hold your arm out in an FPS for 10 hours for any of the 3 kinect, wii, or move? Fuck no.
Can you with a regular controller? Hell yes.
There are two different answers there. If you think gamers don't care between the two answers, then you wouldn't know gamers. Which is who will be around when the casual crowd becomes, well casual.
Even then most motion controllers are SHORT games, with SHORT stretches. Because people get tired from playing. With a controller you can play through any game if you want to without stopping, pretty much. Don't forget this WHOLE thing is about CASUAL GAMERS. Good luck following that one. They'll leave you like at the altar.
So before everyone goes balls in on motion gaming, just remember, these controllers are in no way EASIER to control your character. There are some serious drawbacks. But that said, I love my 'move'. MAG is fun with it. I suck a whole lot with it, but I'm getting better and I can see advantages. I've used joysticks for decades, thus I'm alot better at it...for now.
Actually reggie, and I'm no fanboi of either, but the MOVE is a much more PRECISE controller. The kinect is a lot more fudgy. MOVE has a mm response potential, which is why when you play the table tennis, IT ACTUALLY PLAYS LIKE TABLE TENNIS. Put whatever spin on it with a millimeter flick of the wrist forwards or backards or forwards-sideways, etc...and the fucker picks it up. Kinect CANNOT do that. Not nearly as precise. Which in games is THE KEY.
Good to see the minority report everyone uses when talking about this, lol. But then again, there is no better demonstration. But don't let this little tech nothing seem so big. It isn't. It's just motion controlled windows, SO??????? Not like it's as big of a leap from no computers to Apple II. That was a MUCH BIGGER LEAP. Another bigger leap? Text based Dos to GUI. THAT WAS BIGGER.
I wouldn't say obvoiusly obliterates anything, nor is it obviously the future. Be careful here, this will make alot of people, a lot poorer potentially. Because it ISN'T TRUE. When you don't know the tech, and hope for such a big thing, you sometimes cloud ones own opinion.
Now, the other aspects are better, since MOVE and WII doesn't have facial recognition. Then again, only Microsoft is going all 1984 by targeting ads based on your face, and who knows where that record might end up. (like body scanners lol) Oh we caught you because we had your kinect data and just matched up the street cams with your kinect. Lots of privacy problems here potentially...sony and nintendo don't have to worry about that as of yet.
Again though, for the time being, if you like FPS, you need a controller. You want fighting games, you need a controller. You like any of the REGULAR games, that have BEEN SELLING FOR DECADES, those GENRES, need controllers. These controllers are for casual gamers who don't play much, AND WON'T. If the go too much for this and jump the shark, it could lead to a focus away from their core constituency and towards those who won't play or buy much. What does that do for their stock and earnings?
For now only gimmick or sports games seem to make the most sense with these controllers, and there is no guarantee they'll be able to polish it for ease and tone it down for more lengthy game sessions. Just in case you don't know, gimmick games, can only break a company who relies too much on it. See Nintendo.
Yes 6 year old hardware, which in todays world means shit. Just remember reggie, we had 3.6 ghz computers in 2000, what do we have now as the top? 3.8 ghz. Now there's lots that goes into this, dual, tri, quad, hyperthreading, memory banthwidth and latency, etc, etc. But really a 360 was a Geforce 8800 in it (or the ATI of the same generation). While 6 years should produce something 10x faster and better, it hasn't. 6 year old hardware is still good enough when you compare it to the latest. You could play 1920 then, you can play 2560 now (and then too btw). Other than that, no change except the small dx10.1 and 11 changes, which is motion blur and a few other small things....not big enough reason to build a new console.
Windows with a kinect sounds fun, might even help some people do more, but overall it isn't the big leap you think it is. IT JUST ISN'T.
Go compare an ATI 5800 model with a 360, the games are mostly the SAME.
Why do you think they are adding these peripherals and not a new console? Well besides that it's a depression, and no one wants to spend the huge money on it, there IS NO TECHNICAL REASON to build a new one. I've been saying for YEARS now, 2013-2014 is the EARLIEST they'll make a new one. There just isn't the same leap between generations now anymore. It's like baby steps compared to Neil Armstrong types. You used to see a tangible difference, I should know, at 32 born with an APPLE II, I've watched THE WHOLE FUCKING THING. Apple II and Atari graphics to Commodore to Nintendo/SMS/Atari 8bit, Amiga/16 bit pc/Genesis/Super Nintendo to 32/64 bit Nintendo/3d0/sony/saturn/jaguar to Ps2/xbox/dreamcast to Ps3/360/wii...which is really a generatio old to ????? We still haven't reached the next leap yet. 6 years on and we haven't reach 1/2 of the leap necessary to launch a successful next generation console.
Also, it's up to the software makers, and they're just wall street tools at this point, pumping out crappy product after crappy product in search of a repeatable crappy product division. Let's be Activision...we want to only make games where we can make a sequel every year. ROFL get ready to be bankrupt as that's not how you make games dipshits. You see their lineup. It's CRAP. No wonder they're taking a hit. Meanwhile they do stuff like spin off successful one time games because IT'S NOT a FRANCHISE they can make EVERY YEAR...uh oh. The wall street model has fucked up the best game companies. YEP. WITHOUT ONE FUCKING DOUBT. I KNOW.......DO YOU?
Other than a laptop and a phone, the rest of the gadgets will fade. Fuck a kindle, I want paper, if I want electronic I'll use a regular computer or laptop thank you. Internet tablet? Please, see above.
This doesn't mean gadets using unlimited 4G broadband won't have uses, they just haven't been put into products yet. Again, Laptop through your phone broadband, and why use a fucking tablet. Seriously. Tablet or Laptop = same thing, except one sucks more. I'm sorry I don't want to buy something good, and then pay hundreds of dollar for it's kid brother version because it's a couple of inches smaller and weighs less. What a salepoint, crappier, but lighter and smaller.
Reggie, don't get ahead of yourself. Minority report style gui will come, motion gaming will survive. But the future isn't as rose colored as you imagine, especially when the people driving it are showing that they are constantly getting stupider and more captured by wall street money interests. They are forgetting their bread and butter, and are actively ditching good games for bullshit reasons. How long does Steve Jobs have left? Once him and some early pioneers are gone, and they are already mostly gone, what's left? The wall street machine fucking games up like they do everything else.
All that cutting edge technology to make white people look like they have rhythm.
Clearly the Xbox team has written an ass-assist algorithm into the code of Dance Central (now there's a powerful and no doubt closely guarded bit of intellectual property). Watch the game player and the avatar he's controlling closely.
Bill Gates is no fool.
Just wait until the porno guys take a crack at this tech. Mother of God.
I hit the floor when I read this one. You've got jokes!!!
Reggie - thanks for the analysis..
have you come across this technology at all: http://www.youtube.com/user/gamestring1#p/a/u/0/zRwaPxBz2jk
could be interesting.
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/26852/page1/
Pretty cool. I've been following this space closely.
I am a senior developer/architect and have to +1 this.
With VS 2010, C# 4.0, and TFS, Microsoft really is breaking new grounds.
I used to do Weblogic and Websphere J2EE Java projects, but the latest tech from MS is just out of this world.
Heck the R&D investment gone into WCF must have been enormous and we are still scratching the surface.
MS Office may be their cash cow, but the latest iteration of .Net + the IDE is imo head and shoulders above the rest.
I don't know if they are making money off of it, but ... heck, as a developer (and I used to be a java fanboy and as anti M$ as they come) *nothing* comes remotely close to the tech coming out of richmond now.
I'm interested in what your idea of "breaking new ground" with the latest iteration of .NET is?
"I used to do Weblogic and Websphere J2EE Java projects, but the latest tech from MS is just out of this world."
Oh, I see. You moved up from 1990's tech to early 2000's tech and are amazed. Now it makes sense.
Why is it that the F/OSS development stacks routinely kick .NET's ass in pretty much every arena? Do you see any of the big boys using the .NET stack these days? Facebook? (No.) Twitter? (No.) Last.fm? (No.) Netflix? (Other than silverlight - which is actually technically 'better' than flash, no.) Craigslist? (No.) Google? Yahoo? Nope. Zynga? Nope. Reddit? No. You get the idea.
Name any popular web application and chances are very high that it does not use any MS technology. You think any of those HFT algos are written in C#? They're not.
In other words - if you think *nothing* comes remotely close to the tech coming out of Redmond (especially in the development arena) then you simply aren't looking around very hard. Erlang, clojure, nginx, varnish, memcached, redis, rabbitMQ, lift, riak, nodeJS, etc...etc...etc...those are the things that will run the future - it sure as hell isn't anything MS is releasing these days.
I'm not biased against MS, I'm biased against mediocrity. MSFT is so far away from the future of development that it's not even funny anymore.
Earth to Reggie, earth to Reggie, you're drifting into uncharted zones, is your oxygen supply OK?
Microsoft still gets over 80% of its earnings from cash-cow legacy products, OS/server licenses and sales of MS Office. Steve Ballmer lies awake at night worrying about sales trends in those areas, and the new WP7 dud. Microsoft spent $100M on marketing and their multiple "partners" have sold only 400,000 WP7 handsets in the first month.
Somebody's goin' to the bone yard Reggie, and I think his name is Steve Ballmer.
Not so sure about that.
First MS has cash and not worried about market share yet. If they put out solid tech, company adminstrators would adopt an all-MS handheld shop in a second. Keeps payroll costs down from hiring specialists.
Look at BlackBerry. They are getting trounced in the mobile device market after dominating it for so long. They are closer to dead than MS, in my opinion. It did not take long for Android or Apple to push them out.
Reggie the orcale, MS fanboy on the side.
Guess this explains your dislike for Apple.
Excellent analysis, interesting info Reggie. Thanks.
Ditto to the observation about how any mention of the obvious advantages MS has over its 'competitors' makes geeks heads asplode. Pretty funny. I'm still chuckling at the "Ummm no thanks my superior brain and I will stick with ubuntu" comment above as if shit that is arcane even to engineers is somehow relevant to the consumer computing conversation. It's just funny when raw, visceral emotion is presented as unassailable logic.
Anyway, I wouldn't count Sony out. The PS3 got a late start, but it has a MASSIVE install base, very strong development crew, and a huge market advantage in the Pacific Rim. I like the Kinect, but I'll be very surprised if the PS3 doesn't wind up pwning this generation just like the PS2 did last time around.
Thanks again for the info.
You're quite welcome. Like the comment below, to much of the geek crowd (but not all), all decision making comes down to fan club you're in, or what company you like or dislike. Here's an update, companies are inanimate constructs of paper, ex. C corporation and are not deserving of your undying loyalties nor eternal hate.
I said in a video once, if you are pessimistic or optimistic, you will probably end up being broke. Realistic is the only way to be in the succcessful investing world.
Its a swim and sink world. I swim because I opt to recognize superior tech, and MS has it in spades.
I agree, no company deserves complete devotion.
Same as your views or anyone elses.
The development tools Mr Softie has been working on for the past ten years are really coming into their own. First half of 2011 with the release of Silverlight 5 and upgraded XNA gaming tools watch out competitors. Their mobile apps are now all cross platform and can run on any device, quite impressive.
How about Kinnect hacked to perform multitouch in HD... The potential is ridiculuous!
Reggie, you expect a rational discussion about MS on the web? The mere mention of Microsoft in any positive fashion brings out the rabid penguinistas and Mac fan bois. Best keep that analysis for your subscribers who can probably better see past such built-in biases.......maybe.
Anyway, thanks for the information.
Now, that's funny!!!
Why are there only black people in the video game in the 2nd clip posted?
what kind of freaking question is that? do you ever ask whey there are only white people in a video?
dup
Ever see a white guy dance?
You guys keep slamming Reggie. MS Kinect is probably one of the more innovative items to ever come out of Microsoft.
You have THREE dimensional tracking of the operator without special gloves, suits or visors.
This and a 46" monitor at the desk for 500 bucks and a few more years development could REALLY change the way people compute.
Will MS be the one to do it? Nope, their management sucks. Are they the precursor to something revolutionary? Yep.
It's a nice gimmick and (more importantly) it works, so it may be the way some people will game and browse. But I can't imagine I'll be filling in my excel sheet by waving my arms about.
How about being able to type on a virtual keyboard, full sized, using your cell phone? Imagine having each and everybit of the computing power of your desktop availalbe through your cell phone, including the full size keyboard, limitless storage and graphics crunching power in your pocket, avialable everytime, all the time.
Or would you rather run back to your cubicle to type numbers on a plastic keyboard staring into a 20 inch screen? See what i mean?
who in the fuck would want to access a computer via these interfaces? It'd be slow and make your arms totally tired.
This was the substance of the first professional gamer reviews of the Kinect...it was a nice gimmick and pretty cool but as far as a machine-human interface? It's a joke.
The Kinect does nothing to realize the dream of having a cellphone be able to do all of these things. Meanwhile, the CBE is being placed into TVs and other embedded applications as people have finally gotten their heads off of the standard CPU/GPU architectures. The Cell can decode 48 SD mpgs simultaneously, even the Air Force is buying PS3s to build their own supercomputer. If you want a technology revolution, seriously, you need to focus on technology and not gimmicks with graphical tigers.
The wetware last mile interface is not solved by gimmicks like Kinect.
I was commenting on what we have now, not what we might have in the future.....But...
I do see what you mean, and it is not beyond current tech to enhance the resolution of the ui to the extent of detecting minute finger movements, as well as expecting dependably fast mobile network infrastructure I suppose. Hmmm. You sold me - these gadgets you describe are not available yet, let alone tested in the real world, but judging from the working xbox sensors and extrapolating, it could be the way of things to come. Yes.
(I also have concerns about MS, but I won't argue the point of the potential for this type of tech. Thanks.)
Wow! practical agreement derived from a logical argument. I'm speechless.... Well, almost :-)
The tech actually is available now. You an get a small cigarette lighter sized device that projects a laser keyboard on a flat surface for less than $60. Its a bluetooth laser keyboard. Now, every phone can have a full sized virtual keyboard. The real innovative companies will build that tech directly into their phones, and with the Kinnect tech, you can go virtual 3D.
Reggie Middleton
Yep I certainly want ALL my files, applications, games on some distant server out of my personal control. I'm looking forward to the slowdown from massive traffic and the normal skips and jumps from point a to point b. I am thrilled at the idea of giving someone else the ability to pull the plug on MY property on whatever security whim they have that particular day.
All you need to do, my sarcastic friend, is to make your best home PC your personal cloud. Isn't that easy?
If it's on my personal computer, kinda defeats the cloud computing idea
doesn't it.
Only if you don't understand the cloud. Turning your PC into a cloud makes your data, and your computing power, available everywhere you are. All you need is a capable thin client, such as a strong smart phone with a hacked up Kinnect interface and you will never have to visit your PC again.
Get it yet?
Cloud computing, as in the Chrome OS on a cheap net book? That development alone is going to cost Microsoft a billion a year in earnings starting next Summer.
The problem with Chrome is it is all web based. I have yet to find (including google docs) a web app as good as MS Office. Or MS Outlook.
And how do you install proprietary apps on Chrome? Has google figured out a 'Market' concept on Chrome similar to Android, or will it lack that type of functionality?
You see, I can purchase a netbook with Win7 or XP and do just about everything I would on a tablet (Apple or Chrome OS), cheaper, without proprietary OS limitations. Until they do this, Apple and Chrome are not going to take market share away from netbooks with limited pads.
"The problem with Chrome is it is all web based. I have yet to find (including google docs) a web app as good as MS Office."
It's because that smelly rotten turd of a browser that MS passes off has been holding web development back for a decade now. Run some actual modern web applications inside a proper browser sometime (like Chrome).
"Or MS Outlook."
It's called Google Mail. You might want to try it out. Outlook? Seriously? Nobody who isn't forced to use that bloated, insecure piece of shit thinks that it's a good piece of software. Hell, I'd rather use Lotus Notes. Talk about proprietary, hah.
"And how do you install proprietary apps on Chrome? Has google figured out a 'Market' concept on Chrome similar to Android, or will it lack that type of functionality?"
They're called browser extensions. You obviously don't know dick about the bleeding edge.
Of course - with HTML5 most of these "proprietary apps" (which aren't "proprietary" at all) will just be web apps - no installation needed. The client/server paradigm has returned and it wants your Javascript engine's blood. (and Chrome's - V8 - is hands down the best and most secure JS engine.)
"You see, I can purchase a netbook with Win7 or XP and do just about everything I would on a tablet (Apple or Chrome OS), cheaper, without proprietary OS limitations."
Wow, just...wow. That statement is so laughable. "Without proprietary OS limitations" on your Win7/XP box? Funny! Cheaper after the MS license? Doubly funny!
are you talking about the cloud with flying hackers and Operation paybacks?
My data flying around everywhere?
No thanks!
So I guess you don't email your data, or talk on a cell phone, or fax document? The cloud is already here and is already deeply ingrained in most user's lives.
It is interesting how that is so hard to see for so many. It is like the inability for any to see Apple's weaknesses. I suggest all simply take a step away from your preconcieved notions and prejudice and look at things for that they are.
Xbox 360 is the leading game console and got there without a major hardware refresh in 6 years. The Kinect puts it so far ahead of the competition as to not even be measurable (look at Sony's offerings and Nintendo's update, and you'll see what I mean).
MSFT's management is not but so bad, it is still the most successful software company in the world and probably the most relevant tech company, albeit far from the most popular. Will they be the one's to fully monetize this tech as an OS interface? I believe so. For one it is their patent, and number two they have little choice or they will lose their Windows franchise hegemony to the Chromes and iOSs of the world.
Part of MSFTs mangement issues stem from their sheer size. As much as everyone loves Apple, if Apple becomes as large and as diversified as MSFT, expect the same big-company-itis to emerge. Notice how MSFT management was considered admirable 20 years ago.
isn't xbox the leading console because they sold them at a loss for years?
and really, how long will it take Sony or Wii to match Kinect but better?
but by then game consoles may be a thing of the past.
And if google is driving cars, maybe they will just have the software to do this on the web, just go by some hardware makers web camera kit, log on to google gaming and your off...
I'm sorry, Reggie, but you really have no idea of what you're talking about here, with all due respect.
So, prove it and tell us what company's tech is superior to Kinnect as an interface to its OS (ex. Windows) as a near term practical application? Is it Apple, GOOG, Nokia, RIMM?
Without your ability to answer this question, I probably have an idea of what I am talking about.
Reggie, your articles on the mobile world are good, but you missed the mark on MS. From someone who's worked in SW and HW for almost 30 years, and who lives in MS's backyard in Redmond, MS has "issues".
They have two profitable product lines -- Windows and Office. One has stumbled badly over the last few releases. Neither has added any significant new functions/features other than cosmetic for many years.
Their product process is broken. It's a combination of organizational structure, bad upper management (as much of an a-hole as he is, I'll bet on Larry Ellison any day over Ballmer), combative company (mono)culture, and more. (Combative is ok where you're selling/trading, not so much for creative/innovative enterprises). They can't compete where they don't have a monopoly or can't pay off distributors to bundle Windows with hardware.
Has the division that xBox is part of ever made money?
They have some very smart, talented folks in MS Research at several sites around the world. They have no track record of successfully transferring that technology out of research in to product.
MS's product "strategy" has always been "me too" -- wait for someone else to innovate, then either steal the idea bundled w/their monopoly, buy the poor bastards, or screw the innovator out of their innovation some other way. Wonder why no one wants to "partner" with them or lock a product in to MS technology?
For those of you who think that "patents == innovation", well, stick to finance. Though, like IBM, MS may be on the way to becoming the world's largest patent troll. Great for lawyers and bureaucrats, not so much for innovation. And you if think that China and the other Asian tigerettes give a damn about US or European patents, well...
As for management considered admirable 20 years ago... Ha. By the "financial press"? By the nitwits at CNBS? When you're riding the wave of a major shift in tech, it's easy to look good.
I'm hoping that they can get their shit together. My house price to some degree depends on the MS myth. But w/Ballmer running the show, and the broken company culture, not optimistic.
I discuss the success of a company and many tech types come back with "what has XYZ innovated?" Innovation doesn't equal success. I never said MSFT was innovative (despite the fact that Kinnect is innovative as hell) and the biz model of copying innovation and marketing widely is the most successful. That's were MSFT makes its money, and that's where Apple makes theirs.
Big companies are going to play rough, and that's the way it is. It doesn't make them good or bad, they are inanimate - and all of them do it if they want to succeed - yes that includes your favorite company, just fill in the blank. MSFT got too large and too unweildly to manage, as did IBM before it, and most likely as will the next company that knocks MSFT off of its perch. I doubt any company's management can successfully guide a global meal megalith through 3 paradigm shifts and remain on top. It has yet to happen.
the XB360 was #1 in the gaming space until the 1st and 2nd party Sony developers actually learnt how to develop for the CBE. Since then, it has been no contest in terms of technology. Now, even shops who'd sworn off PS3 are having to admit that to realize their visions, they are going to have to bite the bullet and come back to the power it has.
If you want innovation, the XB360 is about as cookie-cutter an architecture as there could be. Sony/Toshiba/IBM broke new ground with the CBE. As for the Kinect, it's a gimmick; independent reviews of its contect have shown that to be mediocre.
Stick to misusing words like "penultimate," seriously.
"MSFT's management is not but so bad, it is still the most successful software company in the world"
Looking for a job at MS.
It's called a Monopoly for a reason, only reason they have market share.
Give me a run down on their innovation.
The water is full of us MS bitten guppies.
They'll get their arse handed to them in the mobile world.
Regards.
Actually, MS lost out in the mobile world earlier this decade. They had a huge market share in the embedded space, which absolutely collapsed when the Linux embedded market came along. And this was before Android or Apple came out.
As an embedded platform, their solutions stunk, and they've been trying to play catch up ever since.
Their Cloud Computing solutions seem to be headed the same way. But this time they've got even more stiff competition from very big players.
But yes, the Xbox 360 is decent, I'll have to give them that.