No matter how much reorganizing gets done nothing can stop the downward spiral!

Over the years Microsoft has always given us mediocre products such as Windows(yes this means all versions including 7). Yet for some reason consumers buy these products; to me this does not make much sense. Why buy a product that breaks and you constantly have to call your tech support team(this means your geeky family member or geek squad). Now don’t get me wrong most people use Windows and its family of software because they have to not because they want to.

Microsoft since its early beginnings came across a wonderful business concept(sarcasm) called vendor-lock in. Every single product this company sells has some type of vendor-lock scheme. From Windows servers and home operating systems to their office products all 100% vendor-lock. So what does this mean? That there is not a chance in the world that you can safely move to a different operating system without loosing some data or not being able to move it at all. Yes this utterly sucks I know.

So now the giant wants to reorganize its gaming and mobile divisions(http://tinyurl.com/36bpk25) to catch up with the current trends. Oh yes sure that expensive new mobile phone(http://tinyurl.com/y7ktelj) they recently launched will do the job. This new gadget will get us all on Twitter and on Facebook. But wait a minute we are all there now and we all can use our not so expensive mobile devices. So again a little too late. As far as their gaming division goes, well lets just say it bleeds money and to think that this is the best division they have within the company. So if this division is loosing money(So far billions of dollars) what does this mean for Microsoft?

It means that their old way of thinking has got to go and that as a company it has to adapt to current trends pronto. No this does not mean lets wait and see if this or that becomes a trend. Apple (no better than Microsoft) has taken chances with new products and sure they failed a bunch of times. At one point the company was on the brink of going belly up but they hung in there. Microsoft needs to take a look at Apple and apply that formula to their products.

Here at the office we had an Xbox 360 for our gaming sessions. Guess what? Yes you guessed it we got the three red lights of death after an Xbox update(sounds a lot like the Windows blue screen of death). So we got ourselves a PS3 . Now we can game on-line and not pay a single cent. So now we have a better product while saving on a monthly fee.

Oh but wait I don’t know about you but I’ve been burned so many times by Microsoft products that I don’t think I could ever go back to purchasing or using them. Just look at what happen to IBM they too had this mentality back in the early 70’s and 80’s and now although the company is still in business it does not command the type of power it once had. And all because it forgot about what got them there in the first place us consumers.

So no matter how much reorganizing Microsoft does to their divisions they will achieve nothing that will be beneficial to us consumers unless they change their way of thinking and how they treat their customers and their competition. A little more innovation and smarts would not hurt either. Bang! Bang! Let us know what you think will ultimately happen to Microsoft’s mobile and gaming divisions.

What’s so great about the Apple iPad?

As I was watching the tube last night, yes it was a geeky show on the Discovery channel! So I came across this iPad commercial which looked nothing like the I’m a Mac or their iPod commercials and I realized that there is nothing great about the iPad. Why? Because there is nothing special about it. It behaves exactly like my iPod touch.

We recently got a hold of one at the office so we could test all of our web applications, designs and to our surprise it behaved again just like my iPod touch. So basically this thing is a big iPod touch with nothing new. You can use the existing applications which you can use on your iPhone or iPod touch(http://tinyurl.com/y8j5s22) and the darn thing has Wi-Fi connectivity issues; out of all things that could go wrong is the Wi-Fi.

All the web applications behaved just like they would on a Mac/PC or on any other standards compliant web browser(Internet Explorer does not count). Some of the form controls on the web applications were a bit out of place although the CSS for these web applications validates without any errors and they are design with WebKit in mind.

Also I recently read some disturbing articles about how Apple wants developers to only use their tools to create applications for all their devices this just does not seem right. A developer should be able to use what ever tools he/she deems fit to create applications. So I’m starting to wonder how long can their devices survive starting with the iPad. Sure the iPhone was great when it first arrived and so was the iPod but these devices are quickly being dismissed by other products which are more open for development and less expensive such as the Android.

There are tons of small tech firms coming out with tablet devices based on Android as well such as the WePad(http://tinyurl.com/y8wvbxs) and the Adam by NotionInk(http://www.notionink.in/adamoverview.php).

So going back to the commercial on the tube it stated that it is already a revolution but why? There is nothing revolutionary about the device in fact touch screen tablets have been around since the year 2000. So why would Apple make such a claim. I honestly think that is because people like the Apple designs but not because there is anything revolutionary about it.

The one thing I liked about it is that is light and it is slick just like all of Apple’s products. But besides this nothing else stands out. If you guys have a different take on this device please share it or if you plan to get one or wait for the competition to arrive. I would like to be enlighten.