Under the Surface: Windows OEMs say Microsoft spied on their products while developing a tablet in secret
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PC OEM consultant Patrick Moorhead spoke with several Windows hardware vendors, and they are apparently not pleased at all. According to Moorhead:
Think about that for a second – Windows OEMs, already smarting from the lack of touch-based updates on Windows 7 (not to mention the sales that were lost after Windows Vista bombed), just found out that not only is Microsoft becoming a competitor, but they used their position as software vendor to peak at everyone’s devices (not once, but twice). And then they turned around and announced a product they had clearly been developing the whole time in secret. What sort of precedent does that set for your new “competitor”?
What will be the result of all this unrest? Ultimately, if the Windows 8/RT/WP ecosystem takes off and there is money to be made, Windows OEMs will continue to make Windows products, although it’s likely that they will no longer share their hardware designs with Microsoft in advance. This might actually lead to Microsoft having to adopt the Nexus-like approach that Google has with Android, creating a hero machine that sort of “shows OEMs how it’s done”, since manufacturers are unlikely to partner with Microsoft during development the same way they have in the past.
If the new Windows ecosystem isn’t a smashing success, however, it could have more serious ramifications. According to Moorhead, many of the OEMs he spoke to now plan to double down on Chromebooks and Android devices to hedge their bets against Microsoft. If Windows 8 flounders in the market there will be less reason to stick around in an ecosystem that is changing rapidly and is suddenly a lot less inviting than it was for the past decade. Google gives away their operating systems, they don’t compete at all with Chrome OS manufacturers, and their new multi-vendor Nexus strategy seems tailor-made to ease the minds of OEMs over their acquisition of Motorola.
Google will still have to walk a tightrope of its own if it’s going to court OEMs that feel jilted by Microsoft, and they will also have to demonstrate that Android tablets and/or Chromebooks can be a market success before a mass exodus could materialize. But at the least we imagine that Windows OEMs may be very interested in what gets announced at Google I/O this week.
source: Forbes via Cnet
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51 Comments
34. denied911 posted on 5 5
they say what super windows rt is
I say free os and F*** M$ restrictions
13. Birds posted on 4 0
I understand the fact that competition is everything but double crossing is just wrong. When you own an open source operating system and OEMs are courteous enough to lend you pre-production models of their beloved products and the open source operating system owner turns around and reverse engineers there OEM partners products so you can build the ultimate product is just wrong.....Well reading over what I just stated, I don't think so anymore. But I have a question. Wouldn't this only be with windows slate devices? I just can't see how they can bee so ruthless about a PC when OEMs generally make great PCs or even cellphones because all the windows phone 7 devices seldom got reviews lower than a 7. Can some one explain it because this is stomping me.
24. sprockkets posted on 0 0
But not unexpected. Just walk down memory lane with "partners" like IBM or DEC. Or Apple with Office.
3. BuckeyeCadet86 posted on 4 3
Didn't Microsoft do something similar with Apple and the Mac when Windows originally launched? I'm not sure why everyone is surprised. Microsoft - if you make a quality tablet I will buy it, I don't care where the ideas came from.
5. networkdood posted on 9 0
Apple and Microsoft are really not much different from each other.
28. haseebzahid posted on 5 2
except for the FACT Apple is much greedy and dont even release its software to others and work on full profit
25. sprockkets posted on 0 0
Would you refuse to buy apple products for the crap they pull on android OEMs but not for MS for how they were convicted for abusing their monopoly?
I don't give them a dime to support their BS.
4. networkdood posted on 2 5
What? Did you think you could trust microsoft? The company with the swiss cheese OS and crappy internet browser?
6. Sniggly posted on 6 11
Wow, Microsoft. What a s**tty move.
Give me a fully functional Android laptop, with DVD drive, a fast processor, and large hard drive, and I'll be done with Windows for good.
15. Sniggly posted on 4 4
Doesn't matter how many people dislike my stance. I've only stuck with Windows because there have been no other widely compatible/affordable options.
Google has the money and sway to make Android into a desktop/laptop experience, complete with peripherals, simply by partnering with OEMS like Samsung, Motorola, ASUS, and HTC. Hell, Samsung and Motorola already make good laptops, and Samsung dabbles in printers. It can be done.
19. Sniggly posted on 5 3
This "crap of an OS" performs better over a longer time period than any Windows computer I've ever owned.
My first laptop, which cost me 2000 dollars, by the way, had to be sent back to the manufacturer three times. My second laptop overheated all the time (and had Vista, which doubly sucked) and died in less than two years. My third laptop has been slowing down consistently, and just died on me last Saturday. Again, this took less than two years. Now, granted, all it needed was a new hard drive, but still.
My complaints about Microsoft and its products are numerous. I could write an entire post about them. I have few complaints about Android, my main one being the length of time manufacturers and carriers take to put out updates. Otherwise, I have a grand old time with the OS.
21. CX3NT3_713 posted on 1 1
You can't compare a mobile OS , too a full PC OS... and yea I agree, in time computer do become less functional,, I really want too see this W8 PC tablet make it.. so I can replace my desktop compac PC...oh and I hate using my girls HP mini.. ugh. I generally don't like laptops... js my opinion
32. haseebzahid posted on 0 0
well that is gona be way to expensive Pc is much more powerfull with no limits to resources Tablets cant be of that much resouces you know "Price"
