Why? Probably because Microsoft is rapidly fading into an irrelevant computing has-been, and Windows 7 is good enough that most people no longer feel the urge to abandon the Windows ship.
Why? Probably because Microsoft is rapidly fading into an irrelevant computing has-been, and Windows 7 is good enough that most people no longer feel the urge to abandon the Windows ship.
Either that or they want to focus their ad campaign resources on the iPad.
I suspect they’ll simply replace the ads with a new campaign.
Maybe, but they sure are ignoring the Mac this year at WWDC.
A dangerous path to take. Smartphones and pseudo-tablets are sexy right now, but I don’t buy the hype that they’ll make full-fledged computers obsolete. If anything, I think they’ll just serve as extensions of full computers, for most people. At least until they get the equivalent of the far larger displays and full keyboards that real computers have… which is coming, but not in the foreseeable future.
You can hook up a full keyboard to an iPad, Apple has that as one of its accessories. That having been said, it’s not a stand-alone computer – you have to have a real computer to sync to your iPad, in classic iPod/iPhone fashion.
The problem is that computers are becoming commodities, and Apple isn’t in the commodities business – hence the focus on the iPhone and iPad.
Cell phones are commodities too, and tablets like the iPad — but with a lot more power — are headed that way as well. I’m sure there’s plenty of money to be made in the iPad and iPhone, especially since no one has yet been able to even match them, but that won’t last.
Phones only appear to be commodities, most smartphones, with the exception of Blackberry curves or low-end E-Series Nokias which are hardly better than my Palm Centro other than the enterprise features, cost more money than a computer when you don’t count the subsidy – even when free or cheap on contract. (I’ve seen blackberry curves unlocked new for under $300, but you get what you pay for, though if I was a heavy-duty texting and mobile email fiend I guess I could want one for the famous Blackberry keyboard. Other smartphones run more like $500-$700 unsubsidized…)
As I said, they’re headed that way. They aren’t there yet, though they’re picking up speed toward it.