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I think it all comes down to demand generation for Windows 8/RT and the broader Microsoft ecosystem. Case in point, Apple.. People don’t queue up for a launch waiting to get their hands on iOS, they want the iPad! It’s the device that interests people and gets them invested in an ecosystem, not the other way around. What Apple has always had, and what seemingly all its competitors have lacked, is a focus on developing and marketing products that people really, really want (and the ability to actually do it). Doing so gives ultimate mindshare.. You may not have an iPhone and may not even want one, but I’d bet you know more about it and all its iOS goodness, than any other phone out there (bar the one in your pocket, maybe); the average consumer certainly does and that alone provides for a significant lift to Apple's ecosystem. That’s what Microsoft wants, and why we have Surface. Windows Phone is awesome (my opinion), but no one knows about it; the launch of the Nokia’s Lumia phones are helping, but not really in a big enough way. Microsoft can’t let that happen with Windows 8/RT tablets going up against the iPad; because, and I think rightly so, they see that the market is heading towards convergence between what we traditionally think of as PC’s and tablets/smartphones. And I’d add that it’s certainly not about increased profitability here.. Microsoft’s margins are the highest in the industry and one of the highest of any Fortune 500 company (Apple ranks 24th on the list by this measure) [1]. I don’t think Microsoft wants to be in the hardware business, it wants to be in the platform/ecosystem business, and part of that business is having devices that drive adoption. Simply put, it’s about getting people to want a device, a device that runs Windows. [1] http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/perfo... |