Microsoft has shown repeatedly in the last few years that they excel at creating pretty renders and hype for products that never appear on the market in comparable form. Anybody remember the Origami project? If not, here's a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHKCS28z1s. The same is true of the original Longhorn videos (which were revealed to be shockwave animations) and to a certain extent surface.
Contrast this with Apple's approach, which is to show absolutely nothing until they have a shipping product. Microsoft drives hype; apple makes products.
All that being said, I do hope somebody takes the ideas in those videos and makes a compelling product from them. I doubt the technology is there now, but it will be in a few years.
Of course the experiences never match up. In the videos, you get nice clips of some perfect UI. In reality, you get some crappy apps still designed for a mouse and keyboard.
Hence my qualifier "in comparable form." Origami did ship, but when it did it was twice as expensive as promised (initially: "as much as a good mobile phone", when released: $1200+) and was an unusable mess (read some reviews). The devices shipped bore no resemblance to those in the video, either in terms of interface or hardware. So while Microsoft's partners did ship UMPCs, it would be highly misleading to suggest that Microsoft shipped "Origami," at least as presented in the videos.
I was really hoping Microsoft shipped Courier, because I really don't want to buy an iPad (and I have a lot of personal reasons to do that). Have to wait and see what is going to do HP.
> ...show absolutely nothing until they have a shipping product...
Courier was a MSR project, and they were kind enough to make it public. (MSR) It's actually one of the good things MS does.
"I was really hoping Microsoft shipped Courier, because I really don't want to buy an iPad (and I have a lot of personal reasons to do that). Have to wait and see what is going to do HP."
I would tune in to Google I/O instead. Google plans to release a ChromeOS/Android tablet and the conference seems to be the best time to announce it (aside from their big Android announcements).
i wonder which one it is gonna be: ChromeOS or Android...
and will they get in the consumer hardware business or will it just be a rebranding ala nexus one?
Man oh man, if Google went into the hardware business, now that would shake things up. Seriously, it would be a huge shift for the company and would require some massive hiring and restructuring. I think that would be exciting, but not at all likely.
You don't think Apple "drove hype" for the iPad? Seriously?
Also, I'd be willing to bet that Microsoft ships more new products each year than Apple (meaning a larger number of different products, not just more total).
What Apple doesn’t do – at least not anymore since Jobs is back – is show concepts or prototypes (save those lost in bars :). They just don’t ever talk about future products. Or if they do, you will get what they announce no more than a few months later.
I’m pretty sure Apple had their own Courier, their own Origami. They could have produced the most beautiful and eye-popping concept videos you can imagine. Only they didn’t.
Concept videos are just a bad idea. Companies shouldn’t make them public. Only show me products you committed to producing. If you don’t do that you run the risk of looking like someone who can‘t keep promises.
This isn't just a policy on projects. Last year I was talking to an engineer on the compilers team about some of the work they were doing on LLVM/Clang, and even he wouldn't talk about unreleased features. This is a compiler! Not the latest iPod or MacBook, and yet I just kept hearing the same mantra, "We don't discuss unannounced products.
And why do you think this is? Because they don't release concept videos, and they deliver really polished products on their own time. People say Apple is all about marketing, but that's a joke. The press does all of Apple's marketing for them, all Apple needs to do is keep generating hits.
There is a fundamental difference between a shipping product that doesn't meet its sales targets and gets canned and a leaked video of a non-existent product that gets canned before production.
Apple's failed products are more notable because of two facts:
* they release very small number of products
* there have only had a small number of failed products
Microsoft has shown repeatedly in the last few years that they excel at creating pretty renders and hype for products that never appear on the market in comparable form. Anybody remember the Origami project? If not, here's a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHKCS28z1s. The same is true of the original Longhorn videos (which were revealed to be shockwave animations) and to a certain extent surface.
Contrast this with Apple's approach, which is to show absolutely nothing until they have a shipping product. Microsoft drives hype; apple makes products.
All that being said, I do hope somebody takes the ideas in those videos and makes a compelling product from them. I doubt the technology is there now, but it will be in a few years.