Microsoft Is Copying Apple's Strategy, And It Will Work

[Kujako]

Great more hardware makers will go out of business while the giants will only get bigger.

To be fair, PC notebook makers have kinda been sucking recently. This also will not really effect their sales much, as they don't do a lot of business in the 2,000$ notebook range.

[Deleted]

Great more hardware makers will go out of business while the giants will only get bigger.

Go capitalism. One day we'll have just one corporation left like in wall-e.

Well for top end workers notebooks the only real choices for a long time have been MBP or Google Pixel.

Most of the smaller brands seem to chase the gamers market for some reason, if other brands actually made some decent hardware for the segment I'm sure there'd be more competition.

[ZenX]

I am already pissed off at Apple for not upgrading the MBP 15" GPU to a mobile 980 with at least 4GB of VRAM along with 32GB of DDR4 RAM configuration. Additionally, they have used a crappy AMD GPU that not only have a measly 2 GB VRAM but goes off into a fan speed frenzy unlike the previous one. In the meanwhile, they release a tablet supposedly for the "prosumer" with no proper software support outside the watered-down office and creativity apps. In the meanwhile, the estimated delivery time for the actual components that are supposed to distinguish this overgrown toy from its smaller predecessor are 4 to 5 weeks.

Now Microsoft comes up with a device claiming that is supposed to replace not only iPad and MB/MBA but MBP aswell aka the Surface Book which not only lacks cellular connectivity but has a measly discrete GPU with only 1 GB of VRAM at the same price point as a full spec 15" MBP.

Now, although seeming totally irrelevant Samsung, the company who had spear-headed the charge in introducing the first group of devices (Note series) that had brought the concept of proper productivity devices with styli to the market has all but forgotten about them within the tablet context. To think that they are staying so much under radar when the demand has steeped up after people had witnessed what Surface Pro 3 was really capable of, is simply mind boggling.

It is hard to not wonder about what these companies are smoking...

[Easo]

Copying Apple? No, not this time.
World started to copy from Microsoft, the Surface Pro 3 to be specific, all the big manufacturers - Dell, HP, Lenovo.
Apple did something halfassed, "pro" tablet" with mobile OS in it, the iPad Pro. (WTF Apple???)

[caervek]

This is a bad move IMO, the main reason Windows Phone failed was because Microsoft bought Nokia and became a phone producer themselves, this put them in direct competition with the phone manufacturers they were dependant upon in order to drive sales and increase Windows Phone popularity, the result was that everyone stopped making Windows Phones and it died. And to make matters worse the Lumia range turned to junk under Microsoft's leadership, still to this day they haven't released a worthy Lumia 920 successor that isn't a phablet, hence why I had to replace mine with a Sony Xperia Z3c (great phone, would be even better with Windows but Microsoft burned that bridge).

I see this ending the same way, Microsoft are now competing not just with laptop manufacturers but with computer manufacturers in general and this will only help the rise of chromebooks, steam machines, etc.

[Kurioxan]

Wow, I had to stop 1/2 way though that love letter to Apple.

Apple doesn't innovate or create anything new. They do what has been done in the past, slap an Apple logo on it, and the masses lose their minds to gobble it up.

Pretty much.
Also apple has not been in any sort of hardware engineering for decades now, or do i misunderstand what they define by hardware engineering?

[Eats Compost]

The Surface Pro, from my perspective, is a productivity device without any straight competitor from Apple. The iPad Pro doesn't even get to play in the same ballpark because of the refusal to at least provide OS X as an option.

[Slant]

Most of the smaller brands seem to chase the gamers market for some reason, if other brands actually made some decent hardware for the segment I'm sure there'd be more competition.

Which I never understood to be honest... laptops are shit for gaming on so many levels, which gamer worth their salt really buys a laptop for gaming? Everyone I know builds their own rig with components bought somewhere. And it's like... half the price with hardware that you actually know, instead of some no name high latency memory shitting up your entire system, including the shiny gtx 980 and so on.

[Kurioxan]

This is a bad move IMO, the main reason Windows Phone failed was because Microsoft bought Nokia and became a phone producer themselves.

Nah, it failed because it has windows instead of android or ios.
No dev wants to bother supporting it, meaning theres far less apps for it as there is for the others. The market is already heavily established by samsung, and apple. The closest competitor is htc at 6% market share.

[caervek]

Nah, it failed because it has windows instead of android or ios.
No dev wants to bother supporting it, meaning theres far less apps for it as there is for the others. The market is already heavily established by samsung, and apple. The closest competitor is htc at 6% market share.

Nope, it was because Microsoft became a manufacturer, it was receiving decent support from loads of manufacturers up until then. And from an O/S vs O/S pov Windows is far superior to Android, if I could hack Windows to run on my Sony Z3c it would be a dream come true as it just works so much better.

[Jessicka]

I thought it was Apple copying Microsoft with the new tablet and pen?

[SodiumChloride]

I once had a zune. They decided to go with a standard HDD over a flash drive for that device. It broke after 2 years. White spots appeared on the screen and then it just died.

I once owned an xbox 360. It died after 6 months. Obtain new xbox 360 this time with a warranty. Died after 6 months. Trade it in for a Xbox 360 Elite.

This is my experience with Microsoft Hardware.

Brought the original Xbox ... it was DOA ... had to haul it's heavy ass back to the store for a swap. @#$%

When I heard 360 were failing in record numbers, the only thought that came to mind was, "Typical.".

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Pretty much.
Also apple has not been in any sort of hardware engineering for decades now, or do i misunderstand what they define by hardware engineering?

They have quite a few hardware patents related to batteries, LCD screens, and software stuff if I'm right. They also design their own ARM CPUs. /shrug

Apple doesn't talk about this stuff much because they know their target market doesn't care - their target market really only cares about what they can do with the product; seriously the only ones that care about the nitty gritty are the geeks.

[Flutterguy]

As long as desktops can still be built relatively cheap, I don't really care.