Microsoft Tells Computer Makers How to Make PCs Cool Again

Megalith

Megalith

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I know what you’re thinking—when you hear the word “cool,” Microsoft probably isn’t the first company that comes to mind. But you must admit, with the Surface devices comprising some of the best hardware out there, maybe their putting manufacturers to task is totally justified. Unfortunately, what Microsoft has proposed here for 2017 is weak at best, as they try to rally device partners with radical concepts like "cool" designs (e.g., 2-in-1s) and mind-blowing features such as Windows Hello, which lets you sign into your OS using your face or fingerprints. The real story here seems to be that Microsoft is desperately trying to reach a billion Windows 10 users by 2018, and some of the latest reports would suggest that they are making some decent progress on that.

Microsoft officials told these vendors that while there are more than 400 million Windows 10 devices in the market (as of September 2016), its goal remains to have "one billion people loving Windows 10 every single day." Microsoft acknowledged last year it's behind its own self-imposed goal of reaching 1 billion by mid-2018, but it's not clear by how much. The way Microsoft believes it can get to this goal is to encourage partners to make a "few big bets" together with the Redmond company. These bets are familiar ones: The Universal Windows Platform, which enables developers to write apps, drivers, and services that can scale across Microsoft's complete Windows portfolio (PC, tablet, phones, Xbox, embedded devices); a constantly updated version of Windows; and "incredible modern devices" that will replace the more than 600 million Windows devices currently in market that are more than four years old.
 
I think MS is totally justified. It's clear what people like, and then there's what is for sale.

Smartphones are a good example. There's a basic feature set people want. Look at the delta between the flagship models form the big names, and the cheaper models or off brand models. Now look at the difference between the cheap laptops and the flaghsip laptops. Now go back to things labeled consumer electronics. Look at the delta between a $400 TV and a $1200 tv. Once again, you are looking at something where things don't become giant turds as soon as you start compromising on price even a bit.

MS explains it badly, but they are right. They are also right that if they get the budget segment a lot more sexy, they can create pressure to upgrade.
 
I am going to side with MS on this one, and I think they probably explained it fairly well there is just a very limited slide set on the articles side. So many laptops hit the market every year that are useless to the point where I can't find a single use case for them and they are out performed by a Chromebook which can actually do things not many mind you but they can. The Surface lineup has pretty much shown that MS knows what at least some people want and if they can push that success down the line into some mainstream markets then its a win for everybody. I would be happy if they just convince some of the major players to stop putting LED's on everything, if I wanted my gaming rig to look like a disco ball I would just buy a disco ball.
 
It seems to me that Microsoft is trying to redefine FUD to mean Fiddly, Unusable, Defective.
 
The race to the bottom haven't helped PCs. Microsofts own Surface sales is also soaring for the same reason.
 
Should have changed "Cool" to "Classy". Some of the "gaming" laptops and monitors look completely ridiculous.
 
Honestly the document should have said, "Use quality components and build materials, don't make it look like an Alien Head".
 
How about ditching Windows and Microsoft's touch gimmics and put a SSD in everything?

The big problem with low-end laptops is that they all come with mechanical hard drives. I needed a cheapo laptop for surfing and playing Civ V while I watch my kids, ended up picking up a $400 15" HP with an i3/8GB RAM/1TB HDD. First thing I did was yank the HDD and put in a SSD with Linux Mint. Windows adds almost no value to laptops in the low-to-midrange market anymore.
 
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DeathFromBelow said:
How about ditching Windows and Microsoft's touch gimmics and put a SSD in everything?

The big problem with low-end laptops is that they all come with mechanical hard drives. I needed a cheapo laptop for surfing and playing Civ V while I watch my kids, ended up picking up a $400 15" HP with an i3/8GB RAM/1TB HDD. First thing I did was yank the HDD and put in a SSD with Linux Mint. Windows adds almost no value to laptops in the low-to-midrange market anymore.
Click to expand...

Or you could watch your kids.
 
auntjemima said:
Or you could watch your kids.
Click to expand...

The youngest sleeps or gets held, the older one likes to play (ie make daddy play) King's Quest and Minecraft on it.

It's worked out great, I'm really impressed with the gaming performance of these newer Intel mobile chips. Battery lasts all of an hour though. I just wish I could have avoided the Windows tax and gotten better hardware to begin with. Windows adds almost nothing to these lower end machines.
 
gxp500 said:
The solution is simple, stop using mechanical hard drives, the only component that ruins every pc experience. These things need to die a horrible and slow click of death... death.



They're so rad...

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I'm embarrassed just watching that.
 
"cool designs"

PC manufacturers misinterpret that to mean uglyass black and red childish designs
 
>ultraslim
>precision touchpad
>windows hello (aka we got your fingerprint in our database)
>cortana with voice (aka we got your voice in our database)
>touch and pen

Not selling me yet

---
>New Windows PC do (what old don't)

Well aside from stealing the Sega motto..

>Security

Purposely breaking the update system of win7 doesn't count, and fingerprint readers are incredibly easy to "hack"

>Xbox-compatible peripherals

Funny, I thought we had this standard called USB...

>windows 10 IoT

I'm telling you right now that these don't "count" towards your 1 billion installs/devices goal, despite what your marketing team tells me

>Microsoft also is working on a high-end gaming rig codenamed Project Scorpio for a Fall 2017 release.

An upgraded xbox that can do 4k movies =/= high end gaming rig
 
tetris42 said:
Oh I'm more impressed by the Windows 7 launch party campaign. I swear it's like watching aliens act like humans:
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Hey I loved that launch party campaign, well maybe not the videos so much, but it did land me a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
 
Void said:
Hey I loved that launch party campaign, well maybe not the videos so much, but it did land me a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
Click to expand...
To this day, I still can't even watch the whole thing through. I'll never forget it when I think of "Microsoft" and "cool."
 
raz-0 said:
I think MS is totally justified. It's clear what people like, and then there's what is for sale.

Smartphones are a good example. There's a basic feature set people want. Look at the delta between the flagship models form the big names, and the cheaper models or off brand models. Now look at the difference between the cheap laptops and the flaghsip laptops. Now go back to things labeled consumer electronics. Look at the delta between a $400 TV and a $1200 tv. Once again, you are looking at something where things don't become giant turds as soon as you start compromising on price even a bit.

MS explains it badly, but they are right. They are also right that if they get the budget segment a lot more sexy, they can create pressure to upgrade.
Click to expand...
The discrepancy between entry models and the flagships is status. Computers will never have this position for most, so the pressure is on value.

Also phones are bought on time, perceived as part of the phone service, if the phone hardware was a separate charge or it was all byop, entry level would be the norm. Computers never leveraged that model and its too late now.
 
Also microsoft wants you to buy hardware, that's how they get paid for Windows 10, baked into new hardware. The truth is people are jaded on buying a new computer. Firstly they are good enough for most people, no real need for most to push the envelope. Secondly the Windows nonsense was too much drama and confusion for something most people don't have high interest in. Microsoft is as much to blame for lackluster sales as anyone else. If a car company decided to replace steering wheels on all their cars with joysticks and berated people for not loving joysticks, is not the way to make people look forward to buying more cars.
 
At work, we have had more than 60% of our Surface 3's die, and be replaced.
No one wants one anymore, they are going back to laptops.
They all overheated, even after the Bios update that was supposed to repair the problem.
they spent most of their time running at 800MHz too, because they hit the thermal wall so quick.

I wouldn't trust Microsoft to get anything right.
 
Evildead666 said:
At work, we have had more than 60% of our Surface 3's die, and be replaced.
No one wants one anymore, they are going back to laptops.
They all overheated, even after the Bios update that was supposed to repair the problem.
they spent most of their time running at 800MHz too, because they hit the thermal wall so quick.

I wouldn't trust Microsoft to get anything right.
Click to expand...
SP4 user here. The thing will burn your bare thigh if you're not careful.
 
I got it how about to gain users like me Microsoft removes Telemetry, gives me the ability to control when and what updates I install, and gets rid of the hybrid POS GUI? That would bring me right to Windows 10. I use Win 10 at work with a start menu replacement, clock/calendar replacement, calc replacement, and other things. The underlying kernal is superb to anything Microsoft has ever put out. My work laptop has not been rebooted in months. It just works. Like Apple Products (Sarc) And here at work I am already forced into updates and the telemetry does not effect me. But not on my main rig at home. Never going to happen. So I may be the only one running Windows 7 in 2030. But I will not put it on my home rig for the reasons above and I am not getting an Enterprise or Education license, but I will give credit where it is due. The OS (Not including the GUI and other stupid shit they did) is great. I told my friend the other day Windows 10 and it's GUI and telemetry is like putting a Corvette engine in a Chevelle body. Sure does run good and fast, but butt ugly and uncomfortable as hell and you ain't picking up any hot women with it.
 
Hooksalot said:
The underlying kernal is superb to anything Microsoft has ever put out. My work laptop has not been rebooted in months. It just works.
Click to expand...

It's the same basic Vista/7/8 kernel. There's next to no real performance differences between them. Major updates to 10 completely reinstall the entire OS in place and make it feel 'clean.' This is a nice feature for users by itself, but we've seen a lot of examples of how forcing these reinstalls is problematic.
 
Then not the kernal. I can tell you this. In Windows 7 both IE and Firefox gave me huge issues after being open with several tabs for a few hours. I do not have that problem in Windows 10. I never have to reboot my Win 10 laptop and I did have to reboot my Win 7 laptop on a regular basis. I like the way 10 runs but detest the GUI and the telemetry and will never have an OS on my machine that auto updates without my control. Especially for hardware. I had a Logitech mouse driver years ago in Windows update cause the OS to stop booting. I just don't trust Microsoft to know what's best for me.
 
Windows 10 would have been a slam dunk for Microsoft with all the XP, Vista and 8 holdouts if they hadn't laced it up with that telemetry malware and forcefully undoing people's efforts to maintain control of their own PC.
 
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