Microsoft Store's Alternative Agenda(pcmag.com)
pcmag.com
Microsoft Store's Alternative Agenda
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2412890,00.asp
5 comments
> By giving visitors a $5 coupon or some trinket, it could pull aside potential customers and ask them questions about the store, the products, and the experience.
So, yeah, they could do that. Thanks for the insight John C. Dvorak, though there's no indication at all Microsoft is actually even considering this 'alternative agenda'!
So, yeah, they could do that. Thanks for the insight John C. Dvorak, though there's no indication at all Microsoft is actually even considering this 'alternative agenda'!
All of this presumes that MS has a five-year runway to figure out the consumer market at their leisure. Do they though? If neither Surface and Windows Phone have any traction through the holiday season, I don't see how they'll find it in 2013.
They can't reprice these too much without causing a huge issue, so they'd might need to do yet another product, but a surface pro at, say $299, with the keyboard bundled, would do well.
That's a price point where a lot of corporate people can get one to test, without needing approval (under $500 vs > $1000).
"But they'll lose money!"
They've already lost the money (it's already spent). It's a matter of whether they can get marketshare with the money that's been spent, or whether it will go down in flames.
Look at HP TouchPads. They were doomed at $499, but flew off the shelved at fire sale $149/$199 prices, even when people knew it was an 'end of life' product with no hope of a long term ecosystem in the future.
I guess I don't understand why it's acceptable for xbox and game consoles to lose money on hardware, but make it up in game sales, but for tablets, it's not acceptable to lose money on the initial hardware, and make the profit on software. Seems a double standard at the very least.
That's a price point where a lot of corporate people can get one to test, without needing approval (under $500 vs > $1000).
"But they'll lose money!"
They've already lost the money (it's already spent). It's a matter of whether they can get marketshare with the money that's been spent, or whether it will go down in flames.
Look at HP TouchPads. They were doomed at $499, but flew off the shelved at fire sale $149/$199 prices, even when people knew it was an 'end of life' product with no hope of a long term ecosystem in the future.
I guess I don't understand why it's acceptable for xbox and game consoles to lose money on hardware, but make it up in game sales, but for tablets, it's not acceptable to lose money on the initial hardware, and make the profit on software. Seems a double standard at the very least.
Because the attach rate isn't high enough for tablets. As far as I'm aware, even Apple's not making a ton on their app store (I mean, it's profitable, but it's a pittance compared to their hardware profits).
I don't understand your emphasis on market share. Sure, there are some network effects (more users <-> more developers), but what's the point in losing money to gain market share, especially if you set an anchor on a price point that won't ever make you money? Apple's losing market share to Android, but I doubt that fact keeps them up late at night, because they're making most of the profits anyway.
What evidence is there that Surface is losing them any money? Maybe it's not selling as well as they'd hoped, but that doesn't mean it's in the red - maybe it's not selling well because of supply chain issues, or the lack of channels through which they're selling.
I don't understand your emphasis on market share. Sure, there are some network effects (more users <-> more developers), but what's the point in losing money to gain market share, especially if you set an anchor on a price point that won't ever make you money? Apple's losing market share to Android, but I doubt that fact keeps them up late at night, because they're making most of the profits anyway.
What evidence is there that Surface is losing them any money? Maybe it's not selling as well as they'd hoped, but that doesn't mean it's in the red - maybe it's not selling well because of supply chain issues, or the lack of channels through which they're selling.
even so - the current model is not working for anyone but apple. how many more touchpad/surface/playbook attempts do people need to go through (losing billions in the process) before people try something else?
MS is well-known for developer tools. With enough installed base for MS/win tablets, the ecosystem around developer tools might help make up the difference in some measure.
Something's gotta give, and continuing to charge at the iPad market with "hey, we'll charge $499+ for something with 0 ecosystem around it (surface RT)" is bordering on fiscal negligence.
MS is well-known for developer tools. With enough installed base for MS/win tablets, the ecosystem around developer tools might help make up the difference in some measure.
Something's gotta give, and continuing to charge at the iPad market with "hey, we'll charge $499+ for something with 0 ecosystem around it (surface RT)" is bordering on fiscal negligence.
Page fails on iPhone :
http://i.imgur.com/MQ0IU.png
http://i.imgur.com/MQ0IU.png
Impressive. It takes serious effort to screw up that badly.
Also pressing desktop version just takes you to the desktop homepage.
Relevant XKCD http://m.xkcd.com/869/
Relevant XKCD http://m.xkcd.com/869/
Looks like it is time to re-write some code
I got so tired of hearing the "Gateway already tried retail stores!" 'insight' back when Apple first opened stores. You could not buy a computer and take it home that day from a Gateway store. It wasn't a retail store - it was a showroom - there's a massive difference, and it was lost on pretty much every pundit at the time.
As for MS using retail stores as a big focus group, good on them. I would desperately like to see MS get more involved in creating better total end to end experiences for users; if that means by passing previous hardware partners and doing it themselves, so be it. I don't pretend MS wants to get more in to hardware, but we've seen with MS and with Android, when you let anyone put out your software on any hardware they want, you end up with a lot of bad experiences which ends up tarnishing the software brand more than the hardware brand.
I remember reading somewhere (here?) that Asus (or Acer?) wasn't too happy about MS getting in to the hardware tablet game. So what? What is Asus going to do? Stop selling Windows? They're not doing a great job in the tablet space anyway - 'lost sales' in that area won't be a big deal. And where are they going to go for an OS? Linux? Great! Let Asus/Acer/others start investing in Linux on laptops/desktops (finally).