Quote:
Originally Posted by wizwor
I don't agree with this. MS was the first to try to sell a tablet. This is a return for them.
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A return? They never left.
They still sell Windows TabletPCs by the million.
(I own several, myself, going back to the first-gen Compaq TC1000.)
MS can compete in any market they choose, yes; but they *can't* compete in *every* market. Nobody can.
The trick is leverage their strengths to get the best return to their stockholder, not go stumbling into every market in sight or picking needless fights with other industry leaders.
Win8 tablets should be a nice extension of their existing X86 TabletPC business and supercede their existing WinCE on ARM tablet platform, just as WP7 superceded WinMo 6.x Phones.
MS is going to do fine and I'm looking forward to a Win8 ultrabook-class tablet. But they down have to go to war with Amazon to do so. They just don't overlap enough for it to be worth it. Remember, Win8 Tabs will start no lower than $399 and odds of a Kindle FIRE higher than $299 are near zero.
There's room for coexistence there.
MS didn't even have much of a beef with B&N until their hissy-fit.
Now, though, all bets are off.