Microsoft Writes Off $900 Million on Surface Tablets

Microsoft's real mistake was in dumping an operating system paradigm that just worked! The start button was never the real issue. No - the real issue is that the Metro interface never worked for tablets as intended. And Microsoft still isn't listening to customers after having to take a $900 million write off on its Surface tablets! That says it all.

 

maybe it's the tablets themselves that sucked and not Metro.

someone i know had an iPhone and traded it for a Windows 8 smartphone.

he says he likes it much better than the iPhone.
some other people like the iPhone better.

i tried his Win 8 smartphone and i think it was indeed pretty damn good.

 

Are you honestly trying to peddle a start menu for tablets? Sorry, they didn't dump "a system that worked". It would never have worked in the tablet space, at all. The entire UI is designed around point and click not touch and hold.

The write off is simply down to awareness, app ecosystem, and above all, price. They need to realize that the way into the tablet market is price, just like Nokia has realized the way into the smartphone market is price. It's no coincidence that as soon as they slashed prices due to the write off they started selling more.

 

I'm for a clean and intuitive operating system regardless of the device it runs on. The start menu or the lack of it isn't the real issue.

Windows 8xx was the wrong system for desktops and its not selling well at all in the mobile market - which was the reason Microsoft created it in the first place.

Google and Apple must be doing something right. Microsoft still hasn't figured out to beat its competition.

 

Windows 8 existing at the wrong time or on the wrong platform no longer matters. It's here, they aren't letting go of it. Their tablet failures have nothing to do with Windows 8 nor Ballmer (though the guy is poison to the company, imho) and everything to do with the fact they thought they could charge a premium for a lesser (apps mostly, but RT had some weak hardware too) experience. They thought wrong, and now they're eating 900 million. It also has to do with their way too late jump into the tablet wars and mobile in general.

Apple has done it right because they have always put usability first and then worried about the hardware. They've had some slip-ups, but every good company does. Google has always been able to do it more cheaply or free because they make money off data, not Android or its devices. What does MS come with? Absolutely nothing that no one else already has done, and they bring that nothing to the table with higher than Apple pricing. It's really just a matter of it being a gigantic marketing failure.

 

Yeah, I believe this is the truth, and pretty much sums it up.

 

Yup - I agree with you - if it was up to me, I'd ditch Windows 8, listen to customers and work with them to give them an operating system that's usable to them and work with hardware vendors to translate that into reality. Whether Microsoft is willing to swallow its pride and start afresh remains to be seen. But you can only be profitable if you give people what they want and need. That is the place for Redmond to begin figuring out how it can gain a presence in the mobile market without alienating further the millions of desktop PC users who love their traditional Windows interface.

 

They can't just throw 8 out and start over. Throwing out a device line and tossing out the entire OS is two entirely different worlds. They can't just worry about the desktop experience anymore, it's terrible business. I honestly don't think they'll get any further without app developers behind them..and they just aren't behind them enough. Pricing and apps are the only way to turn things around for MS, dumping 8 isn't.

 

Yeah, I agree. However... I think they will continue to do whatever they feel like doing, whether anyone likes it or not, for at least 2-4 years, maybe longer. The reason is, they don't have to care. Monopoly is monopoly in the desktop market. There are no (few) real other choices for most people. And since they don't have to care, they don't, and won't, until they are ready to abandon their current agenda and try something else. Honestly, I don't see anything changing for years to come...

 

I don't think the desktop market is as bad as many make it out to be. Don't forget, there is still the business/corporate market for desktops, which is big, and won't change for a long time for serious work.

 

There are more than just a few who would argue that Windows 8 is partly responsible for the decline in the PC industry. But yes, that's true, the PC will be around for as long as there is a need for specialized software that mobile devices can't deal with. I'd expect at least a few hundred million PCs to go out per year even in this "dead" industry.

 

The PC will live on for a very long time as long as things like PC gaming live on. You have to remember that the ONLY reason the PC industry boomed was the internet, now it will start sinking back down to previous levels as people who only care about the internet move to tablets and phones instead of large laptops.

 

I personally think the heavy duty design industry will keep the PC afloat long after PC gaming is dead (and I feel that time is coming sooner rather than later..ever check out some of the shooter games on Android/iOS? Some of these things look spectacular and play very well). The worst mistake in mobile was the exclusion of officially supported Flash. We as users might be ready to embrace a Flash-less world (I certainly am), but the web clearly is not.

 

I've seen Surface tablets advertised on the telly for well under 300 quid a piece. I still wouldn't buy one.

 

I have a friend that came to visit me a few weeks ago, i showed him my desktop with Windows 8 . . . guess what, he didnt like it.

 

I have folks that took to tolerating it, but I've yet to see any "Wow..do want!" expressions on faces. Not that that has anything to do with the failure of RT, lol.

 

I might consider a Surface if I were in the market for a device, but I am not. I would not do RT though, it isn't going to make it.