Surface Neo Pre-release Discussion Thread

Background: I am a retired Financial Exec turned CIO (IOW, cost accountant turned geek). I look at things other than from a pure technology POV--meaning I understand the value of profit, market share, investments, sunk costs, etc. Windows has lived a long and useful life--I hope it continues because I am so familiar and comfortable with it.

However, Windows is inexorably linked to an x86 past. Competition has reduced Intel's dominance. Microsoft will somehow need to adapt or they risk becoming just a dominant player of the past--like IBM became. Notice I didn't say go away or die, but a business shrinking is always a possibility.

Again IMNSHO, Microsoft needs to do something to protect it's market market share & reputation. New, innovative hardware can only go so far. Revenues from legacy applications (e.g., Office) can only go so far. A bridge between the past and the future will be needed. Thinking device size and market share, others (including Microsoft) have been toying with Android and Linux as subsets of Windows. Why not the reverse?

Better yet: why not a completely new platform that can offer up Windows, Linux & Android? Were it not for Apple's lock on its OSs, they too could be candidates!

 

In addition to your very valid point about Microsoft's need to have a revenue growth strategy (of which the Azure/cloud is only the beginning), you've also hit on one of the key components: the jockeying for position among the three. If Apple is the immovable object, what will be the source of the irresistible force? Not MS alone, maybe not Google alone. I get the sense MS & G are looking for a path to leapfrog Apple - profit by them but bypass them - on the road to growing revenue models.

Some days it looks like the old Cold War maps with US/USSR/CCCP. Remember the old board game RISK? I think we're in the middle of one of those games.

 

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" - how does that work when Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are ALL enemies?

 

Exactly. Aesop's Scorpion and the Frog

 

All I want to know is this, is my Neo still going to see the light of day and when? I really loved what I saw last October and I’ve not been able to get it out of my mind. Imagine my disappointment when I heard it’s been pushed back 2021 or 22.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I really agree with this and much as people like @sonichedgehog360 might cheerlead AMD, the core choke point is the x86 architecture itself and MS switching to AMD would be like trading your oxycontin habit for a Xanex one.

I think MS realizes this and both WOA (flawed as it presently is) and more importantly MS efforts with the Duo through Android are solid effort to move past the legacy of Wintel which was fine in the days of single core processors and single threaded applications, but has been passed by both in more modern processors and OS's.

What isn't clear to me at all is MS is truly committed to this; their recent track record going back to windows 8 and up to the at best tepid efforts with the Pro X doesn't bode well.

So in the interest of disclosure, I and several engineers have spent multiple days recently including yesterday dealing with legacy related issues of Windows and so am most definitely frustrated.

The bright spot lately is how pleased I have been with my duo, truly surprisingly more useful than even my optimistic expectations were (bugs and all)

 

Unfortunately, that leaves Apple in the catbird seat:

• now they control nearly everything from silicon to OS to apps
• Google can't afford to not be Apple's search provider
• Apple is quickly pulling away from Google for maps
• Amazon can't afford to not have Apple as the Kindle reader, despite Amazon's refusal to participate with in-app purchase
• Amazon again - I wonder just how many purchases are made on iPhones (like my wife and kids) every day
• Microsoft may be the closest to "co-existence" because of the draw of MS 365, especially for upcoming Apple Si, but I'm sure Apple would do just fine

So the prospect of the other three in common cause against Apple is kind of like "how to pet a porcupine"

 

Your little Duo is the tiny shrew-like first mammal - it's waiting for the x86 dinosaurs to see the incoming asteroid...

 

I agree about the 'bridge into the future' (with sustainable revenue, steady growth in market share, etc. etc.)

What I don't get is why WOA/10X can't be that platform.

Isn't way too early for MS to be flirting with Google to create a yet another 'Modern Windows' initiative this time in Android flavour?

Neo is not even released yet, SPX has just barely released; they are both starved for attention and fidelity from MS. Yet MS is gallivanting off with its new bride into another sunset future...

How is this supposed to build confidence with consumers and developers (let alone sustainable growth/revenue to 'leapfrog Apple')? Rather than building a bridge, I'd say MS is letting them crumble.

 

It could/can/might be. But if such a platform will run legacy x86 apps, why can't it be designed to also run Android apps? The only real downside of such a platform is the time and cost required to get it built, tested and to market.

We've all heard that the "holy grail" of technology is "cheaper/faster/better." Unfortunately, it has been demonstrated time & time again that you can only get 2 of the 3 at the expense of the 3rd. Microsoft is now choosing which 2 of the 3 to focus on. AND, that takes time!