The Loop: “During the question period, Ballmer said Microsoft’s tablet will be made with Intel processors and Windows 7, instead of its mobile Windows platform.
“We’re coming,” he said. “We’re coming full guns. The operating system is called Windows.””
Sigh. Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result? The reason the iPad is doing so well is that it’s an entirely new take on how to interact with a device in this form factor, from the UI, to the application provisioning, to the administration (or more specificaly, the lack thereof).
A Windows based tablet inherits all of the faults of the Windows desktop environment. It’s the user’s responsibility to manage security, to manage anti-virus, to manage a firewall and so on. This will definitely appeal to the enterprise market with complete mature device management based on Active Directory, WSUS and internal software distribution tools.
But this does not represent the requirements of the general public. Up until now, they’ve been following the IT direction for the simple reason that it’s what they were exposed to most of the time and learning how to manage an entirely new environment, be it OS X or Linux represented a serious investment of time and energy. The iPad does away with all of this with a UI that is immediately usable without any appreciable training requirement and zero management overhead.
The advantage of a Windows tablet environment is that it will be more “open” and flexible in that there is no gatekeeper on the software front, but for the general public, that’s not necessarily a good thing since most Windows applications will not be optimized for this form factor since the mass of the Windows market is about the desktop. Which will make for an even worse user experience than Windows on the desktop.
So it’s a given that there will be Windows and Android tablets for christmas, it’s going to be interesting to see just how well they will sell into the general public. With any luck there will be at least a few credible competitors to keep Apple on its toes and pushing the envelope.
Next gen iPad?
There’s been some rumors that Apple will release a new iPad with camera(s) for christmas, but unless another tablet maker hits one out of the park and forces Apple’s hand, I suspect that we’ll be seeing a repeat of the iPhone annual release model. iPads in the spring, iPhones in the summer, iPods in the fall seems to be a fairly solid structure at the moment that lends itself well to predictable internal development cycles and logistics development so that there aren’t multiple massive product changes hitting the market simultaneously.
So then : what mystery product does Apple have slotted for the winter release slot?