{"id":2465,"date":"2011-04-07T14:00:16","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2465"},"modified":"2015-04-30T21:14:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T20:14:00","slug":"first-signs-of-a-tablet-strategy-at-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/04\/first-signs-of-a-tablet-strategy-at-microsoft.htm","title":{"rendered":"First signs of a tablet strategy at Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been pretty critical of Microsoft’s tablet strategy. As recently as last October they didn’t appear to have one and Steve Ballmer publicly ridiculed customers using a competitor devices<\/a>. Whenever I mentioned this, the ‘softies would switch into sales mode and say something like “oh but we’re the software company, we don’t make devices” to which I’d point out that they do have a mobile operating system (Windows Phone 7), and an application store, but that they don’t allow OEMs to use it on a tablet form factor.<\/p>\n

But it seems that things are changing in Redmond. Or in Reading at least.<\/p>\n

Ballmer got a kicking from the board<\/a> (deservedly so) for his inability to develop Microsoft’s share of the mobile market and it seems that Redmond is open to ideas from elsewhere in the company to develop a compelling Windows-based tablet offering. A few days ago, I got the chance to sit down with one of the Slate vTeam in the UK subsidiary to discuss Microsoft’s tablet (they prefer “slate”) strategy and it seems that there is some progress being made.<\/p>\n

Whilst Windows 8 (or Windows vNext as Microsoft prefer to refer to it) was not up for discussion, Microsoft’s Jamie Burgess was happy to discuss the work that Microsoft is doing around slates that run Windows 7. \u00a0Ballmer alluded to work with OEMs in his “big buttons” speech<\/a> and there are a number of devices hitting the market now which attempt to overcome the limitations of Microsoft’s platform. The biggest limitation is the poor touch interface provided by the operating system itself<\/a> (with issues that are far more fundamental than just “big buttons”\u009d<\/a>). \u00a0There seems little doubt that the next version of Windows will have better slate support<\/a> but we won’t see that until at least 2012 –\u00a0and what about the current crop of Windows 7-based devices?<\/p>\n

[At this point I need to declare a potential conflict of interest –\u00a0I work for Fujitsu, although this is my personal blog and nothing written here should be interpreted as representing the views of my employer.\u00a0For what it’s worth, I have been just as critical of Windows slates when talking to Fujitsu Product Managers but, based on a recent demonstration of a pre-production model, I do actually believe that they have done a good job with the Stylistic Q550, especially when considering the current state of Windows Touch]<\/p>\n

Need to do “something”<\/h3>\n

Microsoft has realised that doing nothing about slates does not win market share –\u00a0in fact it loses mind share –\u00a0every iPad sold helps Apple to grow because people start using iTunes, then they buy into other parts of the Apple ecosystem (maybe a Mac), etc.<\/p>\n

Noting that every enterprise user is also a consumer, Microsoft believes enterprise slates will sneak back into the home, rather than consumer devices becoming commonplace in the enterprise. That sounds like marketing spin to me, but they do have a point that there is a big difference between a CIO who wants to use his iPad at work and that same CIO saying that he wants 50,000 of those devices deployed across the organisation.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was because I was talking to the UK subsidiary, rather than “Corp”\u009d but Microsoft actually seems to acknowledge that Apple is currently leading on tablet adoption. Given their current position in the market, Microsoft’s strategy is to leverage its strength from the PC marketplace –\u00a0the partner ecosystem. Jamie Burgess told me how they are working to bring together Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), System Integrators (SIs) and device manufacturers (OEMs) to create “great applications” running on “great devices” and deployed by “great partners”, comparing this with the relatively low enterprise maturity of Apple and their resellers.<\/p>\n

Addressing enterprise readiness<\/h3>\n

I could write a whole post on the issues that Google has (even if they don’t yet know it) with Android: device proliferation is a wonderful thing, until you have to code for the lowest common denominator (just ask Microsoft, with Windows Mobile –\u00a0and, to some extent with Windows too!) and Google is now under attack for its lack of openness in an open-source product<\/a>. But the big issue for the enterprise is security –\u00a0and I have to agree with Microsoft on this: neither Apple nor Google seem to have got that covered. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n