Microsoft denies WP7 for tablets: 'we view a tablet as a PC'

Microsoft denies WP7 for tablets: 'we view a tablet as a PC' (electronista.com)

10 points by davidhperry 14 years ago | 8 comments

This is suicide. Goodbye MSFT. They're losing out on an entire generation moving to mobile devices, which increasing do not require a Windows license (iOS, Android, WebOS, QNX/Blackberry).

Impossible 14 years ago | |

If anything it seems like Windows 8 will be a better fit for tablets than WP7. I'm not sure if porting Windows 8 "down" to tablets or porting WP7 "up" to them really makes a difference.

There is currently no reason why they can't have apps written for WP7 running on Windows 8 tablets, or at least make it easy to port existing XNA and Silverlight apps over. WP7 might have a nicer UI, but it seems like MS is giving Windows 8 full touchscreen support.

smhinsey 14 years ago |

One thing that I have learned from Microsoft over the years is that this kind of statement is worth about as much as the ink it takes to print it. It may be true for WP7 in the immediate future, but it has no bearing on WP vNext or whatever they choose to do when they ultimately panic and reorient, which they will, because that's how they have always reacted to change in consumer tastes.

lotides 14 years ago |

I'm very surprised by the reaction here. I always viewed this community as open platform advocates. Windows 8, which seems to have a new touch UI layer and ARM support, is far more open than Windows Phone 7. My prediction is the Windows 8 tablet will see widespread business adoption leaving the iPad and Android tablet to fight over the consumer market.

bradleyland 14 years ago | |

What do you mean by more open? I'm guessing that you mean "open" in the sense that it can run more Windows applications, provides more access to the OS, and is generally a more "full blown" operating system of the type that we (geeks) are used to.

I get what you're saying. I really do. But we should talk. In order to understand the broader market (outside of geeks buying gadgets for themselves), you have to see past your own interests. There are plenty of people for whom hacking on their computer is a pastime. This can mean any number of things like building your own computer or building your own software. The key is, hacking on the computer is an end, not a means. In the broad market, the computer is a means, not an end. Full stop.

Most business users want to accomplish a goal. In the business space, it's about accessing, sharing, and manipulating business data. The reason everyone (outside of geeks) says they want a full blown OS on a computer is because they want access to the tools they're used to using for accomplishing these tasks (hello, Excel). As Henry Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." In essence, Microsoft is breeding faster horses while everyone else is designing cars.

I'm not sure what it means to be an "open platform advocate", but when I hear that term, I think open source software, and to use Windows in that same sentence really blows my mind. That's why I'm left to assume that you're talking about open in the other sense (open access to the system). For my part, I'm an advocate of open platforms in this sense, but I have a sense of scope. I realize that the tablet market for business managers doesn't overlap entirely with the tablet market for hackers.

I think that as the computing market continues to mature, devices for hackers will become a niche. This is a natural consequence of the fact that hackers are a small group. We are not in the majority. Be thankful for that, because the demand for hackers is high and the supply is limited.

smashing 14 years ago | |

I could have sworn reading many, many statistical models which show that the consumer market (for tablets) is driving the enterprise (business) market. In fact, I believe it is so overwhelming that the Blackberry, the business staple, is loosing out to iPhone/Android and iPad.

The days of the enterprise market leading the consumer market appear to be over.

That is, unless Microsoft comes out with a radically new version of Excel which every business just has to have. ;)

ratsbane 14 years ago |

Is Microsoft even trying any more?

pablospr 14 years ago |

They STILL don't get it.