Microsoft raises an army

[Soleron]

kain_kusanagi said:

Soleron said:
I think Microsoft stands to fall quite a lot, because they are no longer the only option for PC OEMs and trying to compete with them with Surface deters them from further supporting you.

MS can only be hurt via Windows and Office. If tablets become serious laptop replacements they stand to lose a lot there.

Except for the fact that the only viable desktop/laptop replacement tablet is the Surface Pro or one of the other Windows 8 Pro Tabs coming out. iOS and Android are great for quick stuff on the go, but for serious computer you need a real computer with a full desktop OS and right now Apple and Google don't have anything as kick ass as Windows 8 on a tablet.

 

--Sent from a Windowsw 8 PC.

Well it's more that, people used to buy a desktop+laptop, now they'll buy a laptop+tablet, that's one less sale for MS even though everyone will still need access to Windows for now.

What is keeping people on Windows is i) every computer from Dell or HP offering it - I think we will see non-Windows ARM devices creep up to the cheapest PC categories, ii) games - well if Steam is serious about porting and supporting all the big games that's huge, and iii) offices, which will eventually use a completely cloud service,which might be Office 365 but it might also be Google Docs, again any marketshare reduction from 90% is bad.

I'm saying MS will become the largest player in a merely competitive market to fulfill customer needs with different devices, rather than the ONLY option at present. 

I think Win8 on a tablet is competent but it is not exciting and we will see none of the Win8 family of products make any splash.

I do think I'm being realistic here, I would never have predicted this a year ago when MS looked unassailable.

Edit: I was just about to write that Blizzard might be a sticking point on the games part but:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI2ODE

I don't even