Text 18581, 86 rader
Skriven 2007-06-08 18:57:10 av mike (1:379/45)
Ärende: Kaffeeklatsch PC
========================
From: mike <mike@barkto.com>


http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&article
Id=294264

===
 And now, the Microsoft coffee table. Don’t kid yourself; Microsoft is
going into the furniture business. The product that Microsoft unveiled last
week under the name “Surfaceö isn’t a technology, a reference design, a user
interface, an application, a PC or an appliance. It’s furniture. And yes, that
really is the business Microsoft intends to get into.

Why? Maybe because after years of bleating about “Microsoft innovation,ö
someone in Redmond finally understands why that’s an oxymoron. The IT industry
hates real change — and big and powerful as it is, Microsoft can’t move the
entire IT industry.

But move furniture? Now that’s a possibility.

In case you’ve somehow missed hearing about it, Surface is a 42-by-21-in.
coffee table with a large touch screen built into the top. Several users can
work on it at once, without an external keyboard or mouse in sight.

Yes, it runs Windows Vista, and it has Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
connectivity. But as a PC, it’s a terrible idea. Giant touch screens are
miserable to use for office applications. And that’s what PCs are for, right?

In a nutshell, that’s the Microsoft innovation problem. As long as Microsoft
only sells software, the rest of the IT industry has to make the hardware for
it. But everyone knows what hardware runs Microsoft software: PCs. And PCs are
optimized for office applications. So to play to its installed base, Microsoft
can’t stray far from the same old stuff.

And Microsoft can’t get into the PC hardware business either, because that
would risk alienating its biggest customers. High-end mice and keyboards from
Microsoft? Sure — but not PCs.

Thus, the Xbox game console — Microsoft hardware that doesn’t antagonize
Hewlett-Packard, Dell or Lenovo.

And thus, the Microsoft coffee table. Like the Xbox, Surface is built and sold
by Microsoft. It isn’t a reference design that Microsoft will license to other
vendors so they can add in Microsoft software. That’s the business model for
Microsoft’s cash-cow products, but that business is slowly running dry.

True, Microsoft will have to come up with applications that are tailored for
furniture. But because Microsoft controls the hardware, that’s not so hard to
do. If something needs a big change, Microsoft doesn’t have to get the whole IT
industry and its entire installed base to go along.

Weird as it sounds, in the IT business, Microsoft is an 800-pound gorilla
chained to a million-ton mountain. But in the furniture business, Microsoft is
just one more little guy — and the master of its destiny.

If all this seems a bit removed from what corporate IT does, it is — at least
for now. Only a few casinos, hotels and retailers will get Surfaces this year,
and their IT staffs will doubtless treat these coffee tables as the specialty
items they are.

And there’s no guarantee any other IT people will ever have to worry about
them. At $5,000 to $10,000 per table, Surface could wind up being the wrong
furniture at the wrong price, and another expensive dead end for Microsoft.

But don’t get complacent. Microsoft plans to push Surface as a consumer product
eventually, once it gets the price down. (Adjusted for inflation, Surface
actually costs about the same as an IBM PC when it was rolled out in 1981.)
That could drive Surface into our reception areas and executive offices.

And what Microsoft learns from Surface could well show up in other Microsoft
products we use, both software and hardware. That makes it worth keeping an eye
on.

Maybe most important, Microsoft’s coffee table business might be the first
clear sign of a very different, much less predictable Microsoft. A genuinely
innovative Microsoft, yes, but also a Microsoft with even more control over how
fast it can move to change its products — and how fast we’ll have to move to
keep up.

Which could mean that very soon, we’ll be needing a lot more coffee.
===

 /m

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