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Will Intel's 'Bay Trail' Atom Chip Blur The Distinction Between PCs And Tablets?
The Compact Cassette (Remember Them?) Turns 50
Everything That's Wrong With Microsoft According To Redmond Veterans Who Bailed
The Seven-Point Plan To Save Microsoft
Why Gates Dismissed Ballmer From Microsoft And Where He Might Find A Successor
Replacing Steve Ballmer Won't Fix Microsoft
The Economist Weighs In On Ballmer's Defenestration
Will Intel's 'Bay Trail' Atom Chip Blur The Distinction Between PCs And Tablets?
PC World's Mark Hachman notes that just five years ago three basic categories: desktops, notebooks, and tablets covered the personal computer device spectrum, but observes that now consumers are obliged to choose among all-in-ones, two-in-ones, convertibles, mini-tablets, ultraportables, and phablets. And he says that with Intels new Bay Trail Atom chip, due this fall, you can expect the market to diversify even more.
And, Hachman adds, "thats a beautiful thing."
He notes that Intel's new Bay Trail Atom CPU supports both Windows and Android, opening the door for hardware manufacturers to be able to build machines that boot into either OSor both, and enabling system prices to drop as low as $150, or so Intel executives have claimed.
Hachman suggests that Bay Trail represents an opportunity to offer consumers the tablet form factor they overwhelmingly prefer plus expand market share through a new tier of low-cost devices.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/CtRqOD
The Compact Cassette (Remember Them?) Turns 50
The Register's Bob Dormon has posted an affectionate and thoroughgoing retrospective on the 50th anniversary of the Compact Cassette audio tape format, which has become a largely discarded technology, killed off by the CD and DVD, and more recently by online streaming.
Dormon notes that the Compact Cassette was introduced at the Berlin Radio Show on 30 August, 1963, a new bit of sound recording tech that was to quickly become a standard format leading to a huge swath of related technological applications that had never been envisaged by its maker, Philips, and that culminated in the ephemeral success of the Sony Walkman in the 1990s.
I recall my first encounter with a Compact Cassette recorder being around 1968 - a machine purchased in Bermuda by a friend who worked in the engine room of a Canadian hydrographic research vessel. I eventually acquired that monaural GE unit third-hand, and immediately put it to work compiling my first mix tapes. The fidelity was awful, but the ability to play continuous music for 30 - 45 minutes without changing records or interruption fron DJs and commercials was an irresistable novelty.
Dormon cites Philips' claim that about three billion Compact Cassettes were sold in the 25 years between 1963 and 1988, the tipping point where other formats began rapidly eroding sales, which in the US alone dropped from about 450 million in 1990 to just over quarter of a million in 2007, according to Billboard. However, he notes that you can still buy tapes and that cassette recorders remain in production too, although choice is constrained.
For more, including the technical details, see:
http://goo.gl/b1L4bf
Everything That's Wrong With Microsoft According To Redmond Veterans Who Bailed
Quartz's Christopher Mims contends that it's possible, even likely, that Microsoft is about to enter the darkest period in the firms history, with the company's essential boiling down to this: Computing is no longer confined to personal computers, where Microsoft still maintains a near monopoly, while more than ever, people are turing to other devices to do the jobs that PCs once did: communication, entertainment, and some portion of their work.
For a host of reasons, Mims says Microsoft failed to compete effectively in the two markets that are disrupting its core business; namely mobile devices and cloud computing resources, and failing to respond effectively to decline of the PC and the rise of the Web, mobile devices, and cloud services.
He cites analyses and insights from an array of anonymous Microsoft veterans of Microsoft about what ails the company and how to address it, including:
(*) Why Steve Ballmer never should have become CEO in the first place
(*) Low morale and a destructive internal culture
(*) Shareholder constraints on innovation at Microsoft
You can check it out at:
http://qz.com/118513/the-long-hard-road-back-for-microsoft/
The Seven-Point Plan To Save Microsoft
In another companion article, Christopher Mims picks the Microsoft veteran panel's brains on how Microsoft could be fixed, distilled down into seven suggestions:
1. Be ready to annoy some people
2. Unlock the talent that remains
3. Make the most of an enormous trove of intellectual property
4. Figure out what the next Xbox will be
5. Continue becoming the Apple of enterprise software
6. Split into multiple companies
7. And the one thing Microsoft mustn't do
For full elucidation:
http://goo.gl/4Ev7Zd
Why Gates Dismissed Ballmer From Microsoft And Where He Might Find A Successor
Motley Fool's Malcolm Wheatley notes that the original story last week was that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was retiring, so that he could spend more quality time with his $billions, but says a different version of events has since emerged, to wit tha Ballmer had been fired by a board of directors still dominated by Microsoft's biggest shareholder, co-founder Bill Gates, and with Ballmer out that Gates will join a hastily convened panel of directors who will begin the months-long search for a replacement.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/tfWaUN
Replacing Steve Ballmer Won't Fix Microsoft
The Inquirer's Egan Orion contends that replacing Steve Ballmer won't fix Microsoft, and given the firm's recent history and present situation, it's not inconceivable that the uncertainty and turmoil that result will only further demoralise and disrupt it, thereby hastening its downward trajectory. He contends that if Microsoft itself and it corporate culture don't change, it's certainly doomed, whoever succeeds Ballmer.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/X2jGEc
The Economist Weighs In On Ballmer's Defenestration
The Economist says Steve Ballmer is a casualty of the personal computer's rapid decline, noting that Ballmer "has played both tiger and Tigger: snarling (toothlessly, as it turned out) at Apples gadgets; and bouncing, with a whoop, onto conference stages to extol his company's wares."
The influential journal notes that Microsoft sits atop a pyramid of companies that prospered from the long boom in personal computers, with the vast majority of PCs running on Microsoft's Windows operating system and powered by Intel processors.
However, both consumers and enterprise users are more and more opting for mobile devices, mostly made by Apple or running Google's Android operating system, resulting in sales of PCs declining at double-digit rates, the Economist citing Forrester analyst Frank Gillett who estimated that Windows' share of the personal computing device market has nosedived from an erstwhile 95% or more, to around 30%.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/KpNXe1
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