[Info-vax] HP Securities Analyst Meeting 2012

[Paul Sture]

In article <k4p2bh$gun$4 at online.de>,
 helbig at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---undress to reply) 
 wrote:

> In article <506fd2d9$0$1078$c3e8da3$e074e489 at news.astraweb.com>, JF
> Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> writes: 
> 
> > HP wants to introduce a tablet in 2013. Likely focused on Windows for
> > enterprise.
> 
> Those are two separate statements, right?  :-)

I have come across comments that iPads don't give the best experience 
when linked up to a corporate network, and the potential volumes for a 
solution which is executed properly and at the right price are huge.

This article tosses some figures around:

http://hal2020.com/2012/09/27/developers-ignore-creating-windows-store-ap
ps-at-great-peril/

"Some 16 million devices out there are running preview editions of 
Windows 8.  To put that in perspective that is slightly more than the 
number of iPad 1s that Apple sold.  Yes Apple is now selling that many 
iPads a quarter, but again this is preview editions of Windows 8 running 
on older hardware vs a third-generation refined tablet.  What¹s going to 
happen when real Windows 8 hardware hits the market next month?  Even in 
a worst case scenario Windows 8 will blow by Apple¹s non-smartphone 
platforms right out of the gate.  Combined iPad + Mac sales are running 
a little over 20 million per quarter.  The ill-fated, much hated, 
Windows Vista sold 20 million units in the first month.  In another 
metric, it took the iPad about 27 months to sell 100 million units.  
Microsoft¹s Windows 7 did that in 6 months.

I¹ll take it one step further.  Even in a Windows Vista-like debacle 
Windows 8 will blow away combined Apple and Android non-smartphone unit 
volumes.  Let that sink in."

I am somewhat sceptical of that 16 million figure since plenty of folks 
have tried the preview editions of Windows 8 and blown it away due to 
dislike of the new interface.  Much has been written elsewhere on the 
web about that.  The numbers here are definitely food for thought.

And on the apps front, Steve Sinofsky's arrogance may pay off and allow 
Microsoft to finally get rid of Win32 clutter.

http://hal2020.com/2012/09/27/windows-8-and-arrogance-or-not/

"In my earlier post today I took the position that having the large 
library of suboptimal apps, basically WP 7.x apps running on Windows 8, 
would have significantly helped the platform.  I might be right, I might 
not.  Having the large library would have been a marketing message coup 
that helped the Windows 8/RT tablet business get off to a quick start.  
But, if it turned into another excuse for developers to delay writing to 
the new (³Windows Store²) app platform then it would have hurt the 
Windows 8/RT effort more than it would help.  And then there is that 
pesky problem of not wanting to create this new legacy that you could 
almost never remove from Windows.

So was this a well reasoned decision by Sinofsky or one driven by 
arrogance?  It is both.  I just layed out an argument that says Steven 
made the right choice.  But its also true that he bet against another of 
the company¹s key efforts, drove away a number of his senior people, and 
believed he knew better than the Developer Division what developers 
wanted.  We¹ll soon know if he was right or wrong.  If he was right, 
then Windows has a nice shiny new app model that will live on for many 
years and evolutions, including ones in which the legacy Win32 app 
model disappears completely."

-- 
Paul Sture