back to article Research: Microsoft the fastest growing maker of tablet OSs ... by 2019

Enterprise adoption of Windows-powered computing slabs will make Microsoft the fastest growing tablet computer maker by 2019. That’s according to Strategy Analytics, which reckons Microsoft will hold 18 per cent of the global tablet operating system market in four years – up from 10 per cent now. Android will remain top dog, …

  1. graeme leggett Silver badge

    first tablet?

    Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

    2002 (and SP in 2005)

    More accurate to say MS had tried and given up before the iPad?

    1. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: first tablet?

      I actually saw one. It seemed to work for the sales droid using it. It appeared to be a laptop folded backwards with a stylus for input. And technically, you are correct, MS tried and gave up due to poor acceptance. Funny how that works.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: first tablet?

        I remember RM Computing produced a range of dismal tablets for the education market. Slow, at least an inch thick, with poor quality screens and running a copy of Windows XP for tablets.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: first tablet?

      However as usual MS didn't have a clue and their politburo design philosophy fucked it up. However you have a short memory, the Apple Newton was around long before Microsoft's pitiful efforts so it's more accurate to say Microsoft gave up trying after Apple dropped the Newton.

      1. Mage Silver badge

        Re: first tablet?

        Apple Newton was a PDA killed by Jobs, but helped jumpstart ARM, not a tablet. There were earlier ones based on CMOS 8 bit CPUs.

    3. Richard Plinston

      Re: first tablet?

      > 2002 (and SP in 2005)

      Actually a decade earlier:

      http://haverzine.com/2013/12/20/microsoft-mobile-part-1-the-birth-of-pen-windows/

      1. PhilipN Silver badge

        Re: first tablet?

        Don't forget GO and it's Pen OS.

        Very promising, which is why MS stomped on it.

    4. Charles Manning

      Much longer than that

      MS did a touch add-on for tablets for Windows 3.11. In 1995 I needed a portable platform to do some MSDOS field testing and used one of these, thoush I just used it in MSDOS mode and never fired up the WIndows 3.11 or used the touch.

      Tablet was Bill Gates' obsession. Every Comdex he waved around a new tablet that was supposedly much better than the last one and was going to be the "killer platform". One of them was the UMPC.

      Nothing significant came from any of them.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: Much longer than that

        Windows 3.1? MSDOS? Not even close...

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_tablet

      2. John Doe 6

        Re: Much longer than that

        I have a Compaq Concerto from 1994, it came with Windows for Pen Computing 1.0.

        You can see the Concerto here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto

        It is the same concept as Surface Pro: Desktop Windows OS with touch/pen features and a detachable keyboard (quite good), performance was also as a laptop and weight was acceptable also as a tablet.

    5. Bob Vistakin
      FAIL

      Re: first tablet?

      Sounds great!

  2. BobChip
    Big Brother

    5 years is a long time

    5 years to rebuild customer confidence? Starting from what is now a very low base? I wonder who will remember this prediction five years from now. I'll believe it when I see it.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: 5 years is a long time

      Customer Confidence in that everythnig you do on an MS Tablet will be slurped and sent to the Motherships in Redmond and Virginia/Cheltenham.

      I see businesses really jumping on that bandwagon.

      Don't forget the Advertising that MS will make sure that you don't miss out on at all times.

      Cynical? Moi?

      Come on MS do the decent thing and stop all this tracking/data slurping. Then you might have a chance to get a decent market share.

    2. SuccessCase

      Re: 5 years is a long time

      "I wonder who will remember this prediction five years from now. I'll believe it when I see it."

      Indeed this is the same Strategy Analytics as about 4 years ago claimed Samsung were about to surpass Apple in handset profit...

    3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: 5 years is a long time

      "I wonder who will remember this prediction five years from now."

      What predictions for 2015 were this soothsayers making 5 years ago?

      1. Richard Plinston

        Re: 5 years is a long time

        > What predictions for 2015 were this soothsayers making 5 years ago?

        http://www.pcworld.com/article/230151/idc_windows_phones_to_overtake_iphone_ios_by_2015.html

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: 5 years is a long time

          "http://www.pcworld.com/article/230151/idc_windows_phones_to_overtake_iphone_ios_by_2015.html"

          I wonder why they didn't remind us of their previous predictions.

          When these firms trot out their press releases I wish the media would ask them for their previous predictions for now. And if they don't provide them, just dig out a few from the archives.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: 5 years is a long time

            "I wonder why they didn't remind us of their previous predictions."

            Indeed, Windows phone sales world wide 2015Q3 1.7% fallen from 3% 2014Q3. Not the 20% they predicted.

            http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3169417

            1. Otto is a bear.

              Re: 5 years is a long time

              The thing about percentages is that you can grow your market share even in a falling market. In fact you can make less product than previously and still grow market share. Not that the tablet market will be falling in five years, now will it.

              The trouble with analysts is that they rarely show the base numbers, that these predictions are made on. I'm sure Apple will grow their market share of my domestic tablets by 25% in the next year and that Android's share will drop to 50%. Now guess how many tablets I have in my household.

      2. Michael Thibault

        Re: 5 years is a long time

        Given the uncertainties we all must face with imperfect foresight, Mr. King, we envision that you will (probably) be able to pick up your pay cheque for this week in early 2020. In such case, you will, of course, have to sign for it.

        Thank you for your contribution to Strategy Analytics, and for being such a good a team player.

      3. Charles Manning

        Re: 5 years is a long time

        Microsoft were saying "within 5 years" about pen tablets in 1995.

        When the released a few Windows CE devices a few years later they said: "See, we told you!"

    4. Daryl @ Emerset

      Re: 5 years is a long time

      MS doesn't lack customer confidence in the enterprise space. Most businesses run on a Windows platform which is why high end Windows devices are predicted to excel.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 5 years is a long time

        >>> MS doesn't lack customer confidence in the enterprise space.

        With respect, I'm not sure I'd agree with that. We all know microsoft produce sh*te - and I'm no great fan of the competition - but FUD keeps us with them. I wouldn't say people have any actual confidence.

        Look at it from a CIOs perspective... they buy the latest version of windows, they keep their jobs, even if it's some mess like 8/8.1/10. They switch to linux and something, anything goes wrong and someone will be stabbing them in the back and taking their job in seconds. "They did what????"

        It's like "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" again.

        But credit where it's due, MS are a much better company now Satya's in charge.

        1. ADRM

          Re: 5 years is a long time

          "But credit where it's due, MS are a much better company now Satya's in charge".

          As Dr. Sheldon Cooper would say sarcasm?

          As all I see is a monopoly company lurching from one missed opportunity to another and always doing the wrong thing.

          Windows 8 don't need a start menu, Windows 10 tracking and invasion pf privacy and you will upgrade by hell or high water.

  3. Steve Todd

    Were chicken entrails or tea leaves used for this prediction?

    Given that analysts consistently fail to predict what's going on in the current quarter who here thinks they stand a chance of getting anywhere close to correct in 3-4 years?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Re: Were chicken entrails or tea leaves used for this prediction?

      Yup. Pretty certain that entrails of something or other formed this "prediction"

      Quietly confident it was those of a bovine male.

  4. Sr. Handle

    The same as IDC predictions?

    I remember IDC telling "by 2012 Microsoft will be the second smartphone platform just behind Android" they see MS taking 23% of the market, oh surprise it didn't happen.

    1. Planty Bronze badge

      Re: The same as IDC predictions?

      These research forms say whatever you want them to say. Microsoft has very deep pockets

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The same as IDC predictions?

        Never marry a statistician.

        https://xkcd.com/605/

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Analysts strike again...

    Their predictions are about as reliable as weather forecasts. Nobody would attempt to forecast the weather for a 4 year period, though.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Analysts strike again...

      2019 will be warmer than that year's annual mean in the summer and colder than the annual mean in the winter (northern hemisphere, probably)

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Analysts strike again...

        "2019 will be warmer etc"

        A down vote? Maybe someone can't read properly.

        An alternative forecast for 2019: 2019 will have weather.

    2. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Analysts strike again...

      Correction - Less reliable than a weather forecast fours hence.

    3. Tom 7

      Re: Analysts strike again...

      In 4 years time people will be sticking RaspberryPi zeros in old tablets by the billion.

  6. Zippy's Sausage Factory

    So in three years, they'll still be number 3?

    Such a great prediction...

  7. phands

    Yeah, yeah, yeah....and windoze phone was the wave of the future...

    Despite many predictions by these waste-of-space companies, windoze phone is at 1.7%, down from 7% when it first came out. Essentially, it's dead. This "prediction" sounds like it was paid for by a very desperate microsoft.

  8. a_yank_lurker

    More Clueless than a PHB

    This "analysis" must be the result of a few too many pints at the local pub. Tablets and 2-in-1s are not laptops. Laptops are reasonably practical, mobile devices for office staff because they are completely self-contained.

  9. Joerg

    By 2019 Microsoft might have gone the RIM route...

    Windows8 sucks.

    Windows8.1 sucks.

    Windows8.2=10 sucks.

    The whole Metro/ModernUI childish unusable nonsense crap sucks.

    Surface sucks.

    Surface 2 sucks.

    Surface 3 sucks

    Surface 4 sucks

    Surface Pro sucks

    Surface Pro 2 sucks

    Surface Pro 3 sucks

    Surface Pro 4 sucks

    Surface Book sucks

    They even managed to make a mess on their server OSes. Windows Servers 2012 even thanks to the atrocious Metro/ModernUI is way worse than the excellent Windows Server 2008 (which was the server edtion of Windows 7 practically).

    Windows Server 2016 is going to be a huge mess with the whole hypervisor/virtual machines nonsense they came up with along with more of their cloud crap forced on users even at the enterprise level.

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: By 2019 Microsoft might have gone the RIM route...

      I have a Surface Pro 3, and I love it. It's a fast, lightweight desktop replacement which can easily drive a 24" LED screen at maximum resolution. The battery life is also phenomenal compared to a bog-standard laptop.

      For that matter, I also like Windows 10. I thought 8.1 was decent, once you got rid of the Start screen, and Windows 10 deals with the Start menu issue in a much more elegant way. It's also fast, stable, and generally intuitive, especially compared with Windows 8/8.1. The data slurping allegations are troubling, but I've turned off most of the telemetry anyway.

      Now, I expect the usual accusation of fanboyism to be leveled at me, so let me be clear that I started as a Surface skeptic, and I had a number of choice criticisms of Windows 8 when it came out that yielded significant vitriol from the true Microsoft fanboys.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: By 2019 Microsoft might have gone the RIM route...

        can easily drive a 24" LED screen at maximum resolution.

        So it fucking should at that price!!! Especially when you consider I've got a 50 quid Chinandroid doing the same.

        1. Geoffrey W

          Re: By 2019 Microsoft might have gone the RIM route...

          RE: ...I've got a 50 quid Chinandroid...

          Probably got a few other things you're unaware of and wouldn't like if you were.

      2. Mellipop

        Re: By 2019 Microsoft might have gone the RIM route...

        You might have the latest toy, sir. Enterprises will still give their serfs the cheapest corporate deal from the likes of Dell or HP.

        If staff were free to choose their own devices Microsoft would lose the enterprise market, too. Administration in my company works on a browser.

        The only thing Microsoft has left to control are the hobbled 'open source' office file formats.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who paid for the survey, Microsoft ?

    Well I do suppose selling 10 tablets per year instead of 2 between now and 2019 does give you stellar growth.

    1. Anonymous Bullard

      Who paid for the survey, Microsoft ?

      I doubt it.. the report isn't exactly glowing - they're still a minority in 4 years time, only just broke out of the "Other" category.

    2. David Walker

      NO KIDDING

      No kidding. Five years - yah and there won't be any disruption or other technology that will come along during that time.... from vapour-ware to vapour-norm. Five years ago it was we'll have a phone any day to kill iPhone. So they have the phone. Few want it but that's ok, because soon we'll all crave it. Compelled by the amazingly similar features that all vendors are already producing. We'll all have one - in five years - what's the hook: well its really much the same as what we have now but with a different logo than android or iOS (robots and apples are just SO passé when you can have ... rectangles) and we'll all be driven to buy it because it's so 'enterprise'. After all consumer gadgets just reek enterprise.

  11. fishman

    Monkeys throwing poo

    Monkeys throwing poo tend to be more accurate than these anal-cysts.

    1. Geoffrey W

      Re: Monkeys throwing poo

      RE: "Monkeys throwing poo"

      That's no way to talk of your fellow commentards in this thread

  12. The Average Joe

    2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

    Will normal users even care about a Windows PC/Laptop/Tablet/Covetable?

    99% of the computers used at home are just for tasks that an iPad or Android tablet can do.

    Before tablets I was always suggesting that home users pick an OS that was easy to manage and one that was not complex. I told them to buy a Mac...

    Now that ChromeBooks, ChromeBoxes, iPads and Android tablets exist there is NO reason for ANYONE to buy a PC anymore. Sure businesses can because they have a LARGE amount of commercial software, in house custom software and PC management tools purchased to herd all those cats(PC's).

    So what can PC do? Nothing but get replaced by something less complex and less expensive.

    You could say Microsoft will die a death by 1,000 cuts, none of us who experienced the abuse from them will shed a tear....

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: 2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

      "99% of the computers used at home are just for tasks that an iPad or Android tablet can do."

      Citation? Or was this one of the 80% of statistics on the internet that are made up on the spot.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Windows

        Re: 2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

        "Citation? Or was this one of the 80% of statistics on the internet that are made up on the spot."

        Yes. Now all we need is an anecdote ...

        ... ah yes: I run two client server DBs (MariaDB + PostgreSQL) and a web server on my laptop. Plus a Win 2012 R2 VM in KVM when desperate for a fix of IE so I can configure certain switches and SANs. I am also at this moment running a fairly hefty array of pen testing stuff and a kernel compile in the background. My lap is getting quite warm BTW.

        Made up stats and an anecdote - now that's proper scientific like.

      2. Mellipop

        Re: 2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

        Picky. You want a citation? Next time you are at home (or someone else's home) look around you. Do you see people pick up a laptop or go to a desktop to chat to their mates, see what's on telly?

        Microsoft tools are rarely used in the home unless people need compatibility with their work.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

          Do you see people pick up a laptop or go to a desktop to chat to their mates, see what's on telly?

          God, no! Their laptop/desktop they bought last year because their XP one died now takes 5-10 minutes to finish booting up. It takes another minute or so to click past all the "Your computer is slow/infected" fake warnings.

          Tablets aren't just popular because of their form, but because they're not Windows!

        2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: 2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

          > Next time you are at home around you. Do you see people pick up a laptop

          Yes.

          Next question?

          (PS: It isn't running Windows. But I do have two VMs running Windows Server..)

    2. TheOtherHobbes

      Re: 2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

      >there is NO reason for ANYONE to buy a PC anymore.

      Let me know when I can render a 4K video in a non-insane time on an iPad or a Chrome<Anything>, and we can continue this discussion then.

    3. David Roberts
      FAIL

      Re: 2019.... bye bye Microsoft! LOL

      Back in the day I used to run NT Workstation with an Exchange Server (5.5 I think) on my (work) Toshiba laptop. Very useful when supporting Exchange and also testing various bits of Outlook add on software.

      Now my current Android tablet is very nice but it doesn't have the breadth or depth of software to do anything like that.

      I bought it as a netbook replacement but it just doesn't cut it. Great for most things but not for serious email wrangling or Usenet. Word Processing sucks as well. We now have a small HP laptop to do these things. Came with Windows 8.1 and hasn't behaved badly enough to be Linuxed.

      So tablets won't replace PCs until they can run full fat Linux or Windows and use the decades worth of mainstream software which is available to PCs.

      At which point they will be just like a Surface Pro (with added Linux).

      Many (most?) users will require a bit of heavy lifting at some point.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Useless prediction

    Since the tablet market stopped growing, the current incumbents (iOS & Android) aren't going to grow. Microsoft is starting from a low bar with near zero enterprise acceptance for a product designed to appeal to enterprise customers, so if they get a lukewarm reception from them it will see SOME growth. So yeah, lukewarm growth versus no growth would make it is the "fastest growing". That's like being the tallest person at a midget convention.

    That also assumes that Apple's iPad Pro and their deal with IBM doesn't cause them to end up getting that enterprise acceptance that Microsoft seeks. I don't think Apple/IBM will beat Microsoft in their own backyard, but you can never underestimate Microsoft's ability to shoot themselves in the foot, so they may yet do something stupid to turn those customers off from Surface.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Childcatcher

      Re: Useless prediction

      That's like being a young midget at an OAP convention.

      FTFY

      O:-)

    2. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Useless prediction

      Indeed. "Fastest growing" within a filled market is damning with faint praise.

      Even if the prediction is true, they aren't notably touching the incumbents or expanding the market.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't consider the Surface a tablet

    Yeah, it can be used as a tablet, but it is not marketed with that type of usage in mind, nor is it used that way by those who buy it. I've seen a few in the wild, all being used as laptops. That's what people are buying it for, not to run tablet style apps.

    1. Richard Plinston

      Re: I don't consider the Surface a tablet

      > Yeah, it can be used as a tablet, but it is not marketed with that type of usage in mind,

      From Microsoft's website:

      """Surface Pro 4 NEW

      The tablet that can replace your laptop."""

      """Surface

      Daring. Original.

      Get productive with the tablet that does so much more."""

      My emphasis.

      Given that the keyboard is an optional extra, it seems to be made to be a tablet.

    2. abit

      Re: I don't consider the Surface a tablet

      There are one fingered, two-fingered, three-fingered, four fingered and of course five-fingered Surface Tablets. I consider one-fingered Windows, two or higher fingered Androids. None of course considered six-fingered which is myself, to be such an ass to breath and still exists among fine gentleman such as yourselves.

  15. stephanh
    Facepalm

    the joy of significant digits

    "iOS will grow, but only from 22 to 23 per cent."

    Well, glad they can predict what happens in 2019 down to 1% accuracy. I don't believe they can even measure current market share that accurately.

    Have these people ever heard of error bars?

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: the joy of significant digits

      "Have these people ever heard of error bars?"

      Of course they have. They think they're the ones with lots of mirrors so after a few drinks people make the error of arguing with their own reflection.

  16. The Godfather
    Angel

    Codswallop...

    by 2019, it will be all academic....and possibly quite a different world, more so in tech. Why do crystal ball gazers come up with this rubbish.

  17. talk_is_cheap

    2 things

    To become the " fastest growing tablet computer maker by 2019" you just need to make very few devices at the moment and then double your output. The result is 100% growth, which is hard for any major player already in the market place to match.

    As for Windows 10 shipping on tables I think that will depend more on Intel's luck with their Atom chips than anything MS does. Most Chinese manufactures seem very happy to dual boot their Atom based devices with Android and Windows 10 as MS is currently giving away Windows 10.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    haha!

    Yeah right... piss off Microsoft, I've had enough of you already. Your relevance is greatly exaggerated.

    The Surface has already peaked - and only because a few geeks have bought one out of curiosity wondering what the fuck everyone was laughing at, and a load of them given for use on the TV.

    Microsoft will have to be giving them away in cereal boxes to break the 10% mark!

    1. a_yank_lurker

      Re: haha!

      I doubt Kellogg's, General Mills, or Post would stoop that low put a Surface as the give-away.

  19. W. Anderson

    Before dominance emphasized, now good rate of growth. What is the point?

    The company doing research paper on Microsoft Tablet growth has not articulated any "real life" significance as it releated to sales/ profits, or on significant impact on growth of other tablet based systems powered by Apple iOS and Android.

    Most all Microsoft supporters and media dupes never cease to emphasize the total dominance of Microsoft's PC desktop market share, regardless of pace of growth of any competing platform. Now that Microsoft is an also ran in Mobile computing, the only accolades given by Microsofties, including company propaganda arms like Strategy Analytics are on growth rate..

    How does this unscientific statistic stack up against fact - for example, China - population 1.6 Billion people has banned Microsoft based end user technology going forward, which means hundreds of millions of Apple iOS/OS X, Android/ChromeOS and/or Linux based technology (Chinese government official OS standard) devices being sold and deployed.

    I suspect a bad marketing attempt effort in this article.

  20. W. Anderson

    meaningless statistics

    Microsoft already owns that title - about 20% growth of Tablet OS from 4% to 5% of overall marketshare. So What?

    Apple iOS and Android combined have substantially smaller growth rate about 1.7%, but control between 93% and 94% of Mobile /tablet marketshare, and still growing.

    What is the point, therefore of article on Microsoft's Tablet growth rate?

    1. Geoffrey W

      Re: meaningless statistics

      The point is to provoke and attract clicks from all the angry people who want to tell us how much they hate Microsoft

      1. agatum
        Happy

        Re: meaningless statistics

        > The point is to provoke and attract clicks from all the angry people who want to tell us how much they hate Microsoft

        Yes and it worked on me.

  21. Colin Ritchie
    Windows

    I'm with Trev on this one.

    Trevor_Pott's comment on the 2010 article still rings true today, seasonally adjusting the price ofc:

    "Too little, too late.

    Microsoft is the new Novell. Novell was once the 800lb gorilla of networking, and then along came Microsoft to relegate them to relative obscurity. Novell dropped the ball, stopped innovating, and Microsoft produced a good-enough clone with just enough added blue crystals to take the lead. (It didn’t help that Microsoft isn’t inclined to play fair, but what company playing at that level ever is?)

    Today, we are witnessing the death of the Microsoft client operating system. While it has the bulk of the market share in desktops and notebooks, this is largely a product of inertia. The constant game of “me too” and “catch up” has produced an impending death by a thousand cuts. Apple, Google and others, (Palm/HP for example) are simply out-innovating Microsoft while producing solutions that developers can live with and customers actually enjoy.

    Microsoft has already lost the smartphone wars; nothing short of divine intervention will change that. The war for the tablet might be over before it even begins; we are about to enter into the Christmas season with no evidence of either an Android or Windows tablet that doesn’t royally suck in sight. While I’m not 100% sure, I suspect that being allowed to go unchallenged for an entire year is more than enough for Apple to establish itself as the king of this particular hill, capable of fending off all challengers handily.

    So what’s left, the desktop? Traditional notebooks? I am sure there will always be a call for these, maybe even a fairly significant one. With VDI, cloud computing and a slew of credible alternative operating systems on offer, Microsoft stands to see a dramatic reduction in market share over the next decade. Apple has always been too expensive to realistically consider as a competitor for the desktop/notebook space, but Linux (in the form of Android, MeeGo, WebOS or ChromeOS) might finally be ready to start eating the low end.

    Do your thin clients need to run Windows embedded? Once your corporate applications are recoded as SaaS apps deliverable through a browser, can’t at least some of those desktops be some flavour of Linux? Does Aunt Tilly require a home PC with a 350W+ PSU running Windows to heat her living room just so she can use Facebook and Gmail?

    I don’t ask these questions or make these comments to attract flames, and I am not saying that this will all happen tomorrow. I am saying that in my opinion, over the next ten years, Microsoft will slowly fade out of the /client computing/ scene. I fully expect them to remain a server superpower, but I would be willing to bet that their desktop operating system versions will be used only by people requiring what we used to call “workstations” and by enthusiasts.

    The real problem is the bloat. Microsoft couldn’t make a competitive operating system even if they got rid of Ballmer. The new black are these operating systems that can run cheerily on a 500Mhz processor with less than 512 MB of RAM. They are thin, light, have their own app store and will give the non-power-user all the computer they want in a package that eats less than 5 watts fully loaded.

    Microsoft’s best embedded operating systems don’t even come close, nor do they get the kind of love or attention the flagship product does. If Microsoft wants to survive, then it’s time to say goodbye to the NT platform. NT is great for workstations, gamers or other demanding users…but until they can bring a credible lightweight operating system out as their mainstream they are cooked.

    They could front something based on Windows CE (or buy Novell and just birth a mobile Linux like sane people,) but it’s more than just the OS. If you look at the gong show that is Windows Phone 7 they are so culturally indoctrinated into the idea of “copy the competition” they are not only copying the positive aspects (such as an app store) but the brutal mistakes (such as lack of copy/paste, lack of full multitasking, walled gardens, etc.)

    If Microsoft want to play in so many different pools at once, they need to be capable of making products that are excellent on their own, interoperate beautifully with other Microsoft products but also interoperate with products from other companies. (Remember that they are competing not against Apple or Google…but the entire largely cross-compatible Linux/UNIX ecosystem.)

    They lack two critical elements to pull off all of the above. The first is someone with a grand unifying vision that truly has the depth of scope necessary to understand how all of Microsoft’s offerings contribute to each other and thus to the whole. The second is management capable of actually executing and doing so on tight deadlines.

    In the meantime, I will continue to wait around for a sub-$1000 tablet with 1366x768, SD card slot, USB and that either allows me to install whatever or want or can be easily rooted. Will Microsoft be capable of delivering, or will Android get there first?"

    5 years of delay and 5 years to recover.

  22. largefile

    If you want to look at some funny predictions, take a look back at how many of you said Microsoft would be dead by now. Funny, my Microsoft shares have performed pretty good the last couple of years and I'm laughing my way to the bank! Got another dividend payment coming up in another couple of weeks. :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      how many of you said Microsoft would be dead by now

      In terms of real world relevance, they where correct.

  23. Allonymous Coward
    Flame

    When I see a company name like "Strategy Analytics" I want to go hit something

    That's it. That's my sole contribution to this discussion.

  24. Tom 13

    With that headline I was expecting yet another Gartner report

    Guess I'll have to add a new name to the bought and paid for shill list.

  25. All names Taken
    Alien

    Patents?

    Hmmm it looks like MS cannot sell those patents after all.

    Patent backlog warning?

  26. abit

    Windows is NOT an Everything

    Unless of course IS.

    My last stab at the idea was the Windows acceptance license for perl, php, python,tickle-teekay... ANYTHING reasonable... Please, do NOT invent yet another BASIC for scripting...

    Microsoft should define how we first talk to extra-terrestrials

    Six-billion people cries kill-me before you bill-me

    Oh, never mind, what's the use, just fucking shoot me I hate you just the same

  27. abit

    Windows is NOT an Everything

    You need to look back long and hard at just how many ways Microsoft and Windows lost followers and audience.. I was MS customer with Visual Basic for DOS, and for Windows 3.1

    The fact that perl, php, python is NOT on Windows - BASIC is,,,

    The fact that Java is NOT C-sharp, Program Files is 32 (or 64 maybe?), NTFS - Bruhahah, hahaha, haaaaa! dEfrOg == defrog == DEFROG = Bruhahahah... I cannot speak intelligently, I AM terribly sorry.Windows, you see?

    It is human, it is business to miss chances and fuck-up here and there a few times. Then there is Windows. It is not Everything, but funny enough to be Something.

  28. riki

    Yeah... Windows OP going down fast!

  29. Jess

    It could possibly go that way

    but only because PC laptops all end up with detachable keyboards and touch screens.

    I think it highly unlikely that it would still apply if restricted to things people actually use as a tablet.

    If I had need of a windows pc and had to pay for something, I'd probably buy an £80 Windows 10 tablet, a plate stand and and a keyboard and mouse.

    (It would also mean Apple become bigger in laptops, because no-one else would make them)

    In 1994 apparently the EU initiated a tablet computer initiative. Acorn produced a thing called the Newspad a couple of years later. (Concept/prototype presumably). I can't help the suspicion that Tablet XP was a result of Microsoft pursuing the same initiative, and not finishing in time.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like