

Microsoft denies WP7 for tablets: 'we view a tablet as a PC'  - davidhperry
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/07/12/microsofts.lees.says.no.windows.phone.7.tablets/

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diogenescynic
This is suicide. Goodbye MSFT. They're losing out on an entire generation
moving to mobile devices, which increasing do not require a Windows license
(iOS, Android, WebOS, QNX/Blackberry).

~~~
Impossible
If anything it seems like Windows 8 will be a better fit for tablets than WP7.
I'm not sure if porting Windows 8 "down" to tablets or porting WP7 "up" to
them really makes a difference.

There is currently no reason why they can't have apps written for WP7 running
on Windows 8 tablets, or at least make it easy to port existing XNA and
Silverlight apps over. WP7 might have a nicer UI, but it seems like MS is
giving Windows 8 full touchscreen support.

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smhinsey
One thing that I have learned from Microsoft over the years is that this kind
of statement is worth about as much as the ink it takes to print it. It may be
true for WP7 in the immediate future, but it has no bearing on WP vNext or
whatever they choose to do when they ultimately panic and reorient, which they
will, because that's how they have always reacted to change in consumer
tastes.

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lotides
I'm very surprised by the reaction here. I always viewed this community as
open platform advocates. Windows 8, which seems to have a new touch UI layer
and ARM support, is far more open than Windows Phone 7. My prediction is the
Windows 8 tablet will see widespread business adoption leaving the iPad and
Android tablet to fight over the consumer market.

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bradleyland
What do you mean by more open? I'm guessing that you mean "open" in the sense
that it can run more Windows applications, provides more access to the OS, and
is generally a more "full blown" operating system of the type that we (geeks)
are used to.

I get what you're saying. I really do. But we should talk. In order to
understand the broader market (outside of geeks buying gadgets for
themselves), you have to see past your own interests. There are plenty of
people for whom hacking on their computer is a pastime. This can mean any
number of things like building your own computer or building your own
software. The key is, hacking on the computer is an end, not a means. In the
broad market, the computer is a means, not an end. Full stop.

Most business users want to accomplish a goal. In the business space, it's
about accessing, sharing, and manipulating business data. The reason everyone
(outside of geeks) _says_ they want a full blown OS on a computer is because
they want access to the tools they're used to using for accomplishing these
tasks (hello, Excel). As Henry Ford said, "If I had asked people what they
wanted, they would have said faster horses." In essence, Microsoft is breeding
faster horses while everyone else is designing cars.

I'm not sure what it means to be an "open platform advocate", but when I hear
that term, I think open source software, and to use Windows in that same
sentence really blows my mind. That's why I'm left to assume that you're
talking about open in the other sense (open access to the system). For my
part, I'm an advocate of open platforms in this sense, but I have a sense of
scope. I realize that the tablet market for business managers doesn't overlap
entirely with the tablet market for hackers.

I think that as the computing market continues to mature, devices for hackers
will become a niche. This is a natural consequence of the fact that hackers
are a small group. We are not in the majority. Be thankful for that, because
the demand for hackers is high and the supply is limited.

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ratsbane
Is Microsoft even trying any more?

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pablospr
They STILL don't get it.

