Surface RT = another Microsoft epic fail

Perhaps you know by now about the nearly billion dollar Microsoft failure known as Surface RT.  Yup, almost a year since it was introduced, Windows Surface RT has become a dog that no one wants.  So much so that even Asus, a prominent computer device manufacturer, recently announced that it was throwing in the towel on Windows Surface RT.

The explanations as to why Surface RT failed are varied – ranging from the design of Windows 8 to the inability of Surface RT to run regular Windows programs.  Accordingly, the pundits have been all over the place with the aforementioned explanations.  Also accordingly, and to the credit of the pundits, all of the reasons why RT failed have been right – except for one.  The one critical mistake Microsoft made was to try to push users into the “post-PC” zone.  The “post-PC” zone, much like “The Twilight Zone,” only exists in the minds of people that don’t want to deal with reality.  In the world of reality, there is no “post-PC” zone and there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to computing.

Microsoft, however, was not alone in this blunder as many of the pundits agreed with the tech giant in this assumption.  Indeed, even in light of Microsoft’s massive failure, there are pundits who still believe that a “post-PC” era is occurring.  And Microsoft is not the only tech giant who is now pushing the “post-PC” era as Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, is also beginning to steer into that zone as well.  Incidentally, IMO, this is a big mistake that Canonical is making, given the issues that Microsoft is experiencing with Surface RT.

In any case, Microsoft now has a lot of inventory in terms of unsold Surface RT tablets on its hands.  Which, I expect that there are going to be some deeply discounted or even free RT tablets going out the door as the tech giant tries to unload them.  Hopefully, in the process of unloading all those RT tablets, Microsoft will see the error of its ways – because again there is no “post-PC” era.

How do you feel about Surface RT in general?  And are you going to get a Surface RT device now that Microsoft has begun slashing prices on them?  Leave a comment.

News sources: Mashable, Windows IT Pro and ZDNet.
Photo source: PCWorld.

Again, the PC is not dead…

A few days ago, the research firm IDC put out a forecast that 2013 would mark the second year of declining PC sales.  This dismal news came on the heels of a really bad first quarter overall down tick for the PC industry as a whole.  Consequently, the Net is all abuzz, again, with doomsday prognostications for the PC.

Even though the news is bad for the PC industry – it is not the end of it.  And those who are forecasting the end of the PC industry are wrong.  Which, there are some simple answers to why these prognostications are wrong.  First, the most obvious reason is that the tablet, the supposed successor to the PC, still cannot do what a PC can do horsepower wise.  Even tablets like the Windows Surface Pro are bested by a decent PC when it comes to horsepower.  Second, tablets do not offer the flexibility that PCs do.  For instance, most tablets come with a fixed memory size and limited storage options. PCs on the other hand offer better options both in terms of memory and storage.  Third, the PC runs circles around a tablet when it comes to display options – hands down.

But perhaps the most obvious reason why the PC industry is not dying is that the IDC forecast is based upon flawed data.  Indeed, PC sales are trailing off and conversely tablet sales are increasing, however the study that resulted in the IDC forecast did not take into account certain factors.  For instance, the IDC study did not go into detail as to why PC sales are down.  Which, some of those factors are the current economy, consumer dislike in terms of Windows 8 and consumers having to replace cheap tablets.  Starting with the economy, most consumers either don’t have the money to purchase new systems or don’t see the need to upgrade what they currently own.  Just like with the auto industry, consumers are hanging on to older PCs much longer because they still get the job done.  Moving on to Windows 8, Microsoft did a lot of harm to the PC industry when it created this OS. This is because consumers generally hate Windows 8 and are voting with their pocketbooks by not buying PCs with the loathsome OS.  Finally, the study did not cover the amount of cheap, off brand tablets which consumers had to replace due to premature failures, etc.  I could go on and on – but again, if one was to drill down and look at the underlying trends in the study – a completely different outlook would have been found.

In short, although sales are way down, the PC industry is not on it’s death bed.  Until a tablet can fully replace a PC in form and function – there will always be a need for the PC.  As well tablets are years away from replacing PCs – a fact which is hard to ignore.  And a fact that all the naysayers should take into consideration while rethinking their prognostications about the PC.

News source: WIRED.COM.

 

Who shot the PC industry?

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the PC industry and how near to the death bed it is. Indeed, in the view of some pundits the PC industry is on life support, just waiting for someone to “pull the plug” so to speak.  And just like the infamous “Who Shot J.R.,” Dallas episode – people are wondering who shot the PC industry?

First, let me say that the PC industry is not dead and I don’t think it will be dead for a long time to come.  There will always be a need for PCs (desktops and laptops) because of the power and flexibility they still offer.  But to be real about things, the PC industry is in serious decline due to numerous issues.

The first issue is the economy which is affecting not just the PC industry but all sectors of manufacturing.  Because of the poor economy, there is now an overall tendency with consumers to hold onto items longer rather than replace them on a regular basis.  For instance, consumers are generally holding on to old cars for longer durations (in some cases up to 10 years) instead of purchasing new cars.  The same can be said with the PC industry – consumers are holding onto old PC gear for longer periods and just not purchasing new units as often.

The second issue is the tablet PC and how it’s being positioned as a traditional PC replacement.  Which, for some consumers the tablet PC can suffice as their primary computing device – while for other consumers it definitely cannot.  And it is this dichotomy of need where many PC manufacturers are making a tremendous mistake.  As it stands right now, a tablet PC cannot replace a traditional PC because of what it cannot do effectively.  Traditional PCs are better at multitasking, crunching numbers, video editing, programming as well as other intensive applications that require both computing horsepower and screen real estate.  Yet, PC manufacturers have focused so heavily on tablets that the traditional PC has begun to lag.  Apple, for instance, has not offered a significant upgrade to its Mac Pro line, a mainstay in professional imaging applications, in quite some time.  Again, this is a serious mistake on the part of manufacturers because there are still a lot of users (both professional and non-professional alike) who need traditional PC’s and laptops.

The third issue and perhaps the most critical is the desktops that traditional PCs run.  Right now there is a general trend (across all OS platforms, Linux, OS-X, Windows) towards a simplified desktop.  Although some would cite the introduction of tablets with the move towards a simplified desktop – it was actually Apple’s move from OS-9 to OS-X that started the trend – well before the introduction of the iPad.  Other notable simplified desktop moves came from the K desktop Environment (KDE), Canonical (Ubuntu) with its Unity desktop, Gnome with it’s 3.x series desktop and lastly Microsoft with its Windows 8 Modern UI.

Although all aforementioned desktops were met with some angst upon their introduction – it is the Windows 8 MUI that has received the most vitriolic criticism to date.  What’s even worse for Microsoft is that the Windows 8 MUI is being called a detriment to the PC industry because the desktop fails miserably when it comes to usability.  Which,  generally, I do agree with this assessment due to the Windows 8 MUI being illogical in its layout.  Another critical failure is that the MUI is also a touch based desktop environment which is more conducive to tablets rather than traditional PCs.  Again, even though there was considerable user angst against other new simplified desktop environments such as Unity, that angst abated about a year or so.  This was because desktops like Unity were logically laid out and therefore did not suffer from the usability problems that the MUI has.  As well, the angst and overall condemnation of Windows 8 and its MUI doesn’t appear to be abating but rather increasing.

All in all there are multiple strikes against the traditional PC at this moment – but nevertheless, the PC is still a viable instrument in the field of computing.  And although the PC industry has been shot several times – it can, just like J.R. Ewing, recover from its injuries and continue on with life.

The PC is not going to die – not yet at least…

Ever since the onslaught of tablets (whatever your flavor, Android, iPad or Surface) a lot of prognosticators have been predicting the end of the traditional PC. Indeed, these predictions have been so dire that they rival the 2012 Mayan catastrophic end of the world calendar event. But just as the end of the world didn’t occur – life will go on for the traditional PC.

The reason why traditional PCs will not die is short, sweet and simple. There are just too many users and applications that need them. On the user side of things, it ranges from professional (IT or otherwise), gamers, businesses and to the most casual user. The same goes for the applications that run on PCs – anything from the most advanced database out there to again the most simple of applications. Put it this way, you may be able to access a database from a tablet – but you sure can’t use a tablet as a database server. Nor can you use a tablet as a home media server which has all of your favorite movies stored on it. I could go on and on – but when you take an objective look at things – there are a lot of things a PC can do that a tablet cannot.

Now you may counter my aforementioned premise with the advent of cloud computing – which negates the need for localized storage – thus again kicking the PC to the eventual curb. But let me counter your cloud argument with this major fact – cloud computing is not entirely safe. Furthermore, it will never, ever be entirely safe. Yes it may seem great to have access to your files anywhere because they’re on a “safe” cloud server somewhere in the world. And yes, it may seem great that you can access these files with just a mobile device like a tablet – again from anywhere in the world. Let me, however, remove the silver lining from the cloud so to speak with just one word – hacking. To even further disperse the cloud – here’s another word – outage. Now do you get the picture? Don’t get me wrong – I’m not totally against cloud computing – what I am against is the notion that it’s an entirely safe alternative to having localized storage.

You may still want to argue that the user interface or OS is trending away from being conducive to PC use and more for mobile devices like tablets. And I would agree with you while at the same time I also consider it to be a dumb move on the part of software manufacturers. Again, plain and simple – there are a lot of users that still need a traditional desktop for their work. You may not have noticed, but there is a serious backlash among users against the dumbed down UI. Right now, Microsoft is getting a lot of heat from users because of Windows 8 and the now infamous Metro UI. A lot of the angst against Windows 8 are a result of the OS being so bizarre that users generally hate it. Another issue with Windows 8 is that Microsoft decided to prioritize the touch interface of the OS over that of traditional pointing devices – making the OS more difficult to use with mice, track pads, etc. Microsoft, however, is not alone in simple UI backlash, Canonical, which produces Ubuntu Linux, has been also taking heat for its Unity UI, for example.

You may still refuse to concede to the traditional PC being around for a while because of the social networking craze. Again, I would agree with you that mobile devices such as tablets do allow one to do social networking on the run better than PCs – but this is a feeble argument at best. Sure Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ may be all the rage right now – but what of the future? Let me put things in this context by asking you another question: do you remember Geocities or Myspace for that matter? If you don’t remember Geocities or Myspace – they were the social networking fads of their time which have now faded away into Internet history. Given time, the same thing will happen to – dare I say it – Facebook as well.

The traditional PC will most likely go through vast evolutionary changes – but it will never completely disappear. The prognosticators who predict otherwise are wrong and that’s the bottom line.