Ballmer Says That Microsoft is 'Obviously' Going to Make More Hardware Discussion

[Grant Hatchimonji]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed that the company plans on releasing more of its hardware in a recent interview with the BBC, once again sparking speculation about a Surface smartphone.

Read the full content of this Article: Ballmer Says That Microsoft is 'Obviously' Going to Make More Hardware

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[Varjak]

Here's an article at the Times with an interview b/t Ballmer and Dell:

Ballmer and Dell Talk Windows 8 and Surface Tablet in Joint Interview - NYTimes.com

They certainly play nice over the hardware competition issue.

[Mitlov]

For the most part, on the Windows tablet and smartphone fronts, I think a rising tide lifts all boats and the OEMs (besides Acer) get that. The only way a Surface tablet or Surface Phone would really screw the OEMs was if it was at a price point the OEMs couldn't match (like how the heavily-subsidized $199 Amazon, BN, and Google Nexus tablets have basically killed OEM Android tablet sales). The Surface is a nice product, but it's not very aggressively priced at all, nothing like the $199 rumors we were hearing for a while. So I don't think that it, or other products like it, are a threat to OEMs at all.

I would love to see a Surface Phone.

[Adama D. Brown]

The Surface is a nice product, but it's not very aggressively priced at all, nothing like the $199 rumors we were hearing for a while. So I don't think that it, or other products like it, are a threat to OEMs at all.

I think Microsoft has screwed themselves with the Surface tablet pricing, to be honest. It's a new platform, which is already hard to sell; more complicated than an Android or iOS tablet; and from a company with a fairly dubious history of loyalty to their products. The right place to put it to try and break in to the market would be to start it at $300. At that price, you're out-competing the Android offerings, and offering more than an iPad at less of a price. If that's too low of a price for the long term, make it an introductory one after a $100 rebate, returning to the "regular" $400 price in a few months. It might have given a real jumpstart to Windows RT.

Microsoft's efforts at making tablets have always been hampered by their inability to shake a PC mindset. They think a tablet has to be a mini-PC, rather than having it be closer to a smartphone the way Android and iOS have succeeded. So early on, you had Windows tablets that were supposed to be portable, but had weight and battery life comparable to a small laptop. And now you've got the Surface, sporting prices more comparable to ultralight laptops.

[Mitlov]

I think Microsoft has screwed themselves with the Surface tablet pricing, to be honest. It's a new platform, which is already hard to sell; more complicated than an Android or iOS tablet; and from a company with a fairly dubious history of loyalty to their products. The right place to put it to try and break in to the market would be to start it at $300. At that price, you're out-competing the Android offerings, and offering more than an iPad at less of a price. If that's too low of a price for the long term, make it an introductory one after a $100 rebate, returning to the "regular" $400 price in a few months. It might have given a real jumpstart to Windows RT.

Microsoft's efforts at making tablets have always been hampered by their inability to shake a PC mindset. They think a tablet has to be a mini-PC, rather than having it be closer to a smartphone the way Android and iOS have succeeded. So early on, you had Windows tablets that were supposed to be portable, but had weight and battery life comparable to a small laptop. And now you've got the Surface, sporting prices more comparable to ultralight laptops.

In all fairness, the Surface's pricing ($499-$699) is directly in line with the iPad, so I'm not sure I'd say it's pricing "comparable to ultralight laptops" unless you say that about the iPad as well. Actually, comparing 32 gb to 32 gb, the Surface is $100 cheaper than the iPad. And most 10" Android offerings are in the $400-$500 range, not $300 (except for subsidized-to-the-hilt e-reader tablets from Amazon and BN...I'm talking about Xperia Tablet S, the latest Transformer, the latest 10" Galaxy Tab, etc).

I think the Surface RT pricing makes sense more when you see it as a message to OEMs making Windows RT tablets. "Hey guys, if you're going to have inferior-quality RT tablets to the Surface RT, it needs to be priced substantially less than $499." Considering that Lenovo priced the IdeaTab Lynx at $600 (not including dock) and Asus did the same with the Vivo Tab RT, this message needs to be sent. OEM pricing of Windows RT tablets is insane, and the Surface RT is a wake-up call. The Surface is at the upper range of what I think is reasonable for an RT tablet, though justifiable considering the budnled Office RT and the the extremely positive reviews of the case and screen and keyboard cover. What boggles my mind is that the OEM Windows RT devices are all currently priced above it, not below it. If the OEMs fix the pricing of their Windows RT devices, RT stands a chance. If not, Windows RT will fizzle.

[LandSurveyor]

I suspect that as far as RT is concerned, MS will have some people buy them because they are early adopters. If sales drop off, or, as is likely, fail to take off, they will have to price them more aggressively or give up.

I think that after much thinking about it, not to mention some insights provided me by several BH members (thank you all), I will probably end up buying a conventional laptop with Windows 8, unless W8 starts getting such bad reviews that it begins to look like another WinME.

But the RT is really for tablet buyers.

[Mitlov]

I think Windows RT will be a short-term failure, long-term success. The idea of Windows for ARM has a lot of promise in terms of light, inexpensive, fan-free, long-battery-lasting devices. Someone needs to break the Intel monopoly, and if AMD can't with x86 chips, then perhaps ARM manufacturers will be able to via Windows RT.

But in the short term, app availability will slow early adoption. The app store will grow in time, far far FAR faster than Windows Phone's has. Come back in a year or so and it'll have an app store rivaling Apple's, because everyone will be writing Metro apps for Windows 8 (after all, Windows has 90% of laptop and desktop marketshare, so you'd be crazy not to make a Metro app if you're an app maker), and it's basically no more work to make a Metro app for Windows RT as well if you're making one for Windows 8 (x86). But for the next six months? Hell, I was wary about it myself, and I'm a big Redmond believer. That's one of the reasons that pushed me in the x86 direction for my first convertible tablet (see sig).

[Adama D. Brown]

In all fairness, the Surface's pricing ($499-$699) is directly in line with the iPad

Directly in line with the iPad--which has arguably the world's largest mobile ecosystem built around it, hundreds of thousands of apps already, accessories galore, and which is huge in both mind-share and as a status symbol. And which is still overpriced for the specs.

Yes, it's comparable to certain high-priced mobile tablets, but those are devices which have proven brands behind them and established market interest. If you're trying to break into a market against the big guys, "We have a less supported device for the same amount of money" isn't your sales pitch.

[Adama D. Brown]

I think Windows RT will be a short-term failure, long-term success. The idea of Windows for ARM has a lot of promise in terms of light, inexpensive, fan-free, long-battery-lasting devices.

I agree with this. But I don't think that Microsoft is quite on the right track with their first version. I think it's too tied to high-end hardware, and its vision doesn't go quite far enough. Windows Runtime is a solid idea by Microsoft, but it needs to go all the way to direct, cross-platform compatibility. With the increasingly limited role of desktop and laptop computers, I think that there's a huge potential for being able to build an ecosystem which crosses all the major classes of device. If you can take what amounts to one app, and run it on a smartphone, tablet, or PC, that changes the game of how people use their technology.

I also feel like Android is sort of inching in this direction--not so much because Google is looking at doing that (although they should) but because it's so flexible that you have third parties making what amount to Android set-top computers and all other sorts of things. I'm almost a little surprised that someone hasn't slapped Android on a full size laptop yet.

But sooner or later, somebody's going in that direction. Microsoft's best chance to stay relevant in the mobile tech market is to get there first.

[Mitlov]

It should be noted that Microsoft has already sold out of Surface pre-orders; the $499 model now has a 3 week wait and the $599 and $699 models now have a 1-2 week wait. That's promising, at least for the Surface itself and not other Windows RT devices (which will be DOA unless their price drops from $600ish to $400ish). Microsoft Surface RT pre-sales red hot; shipping dates pushed back