Early Exit for Ballmer Amid Course Change at Microsoft

"How bad was it?

It was bad from the beginning. And it got worse in a hurry."

(from "Christine" by Stephen King)

 

This is the reason for Ballmer staying for 12 months. M$ is huge and can not just change directions overnight. There are changes and plans that were already in the pipeline and they need a scapegoat for them until directions can be changed and improvements implemented. To just hand over the reigns and say all is ok now just can't happen.............

 

I never said convertible tablets would replace ALL laptops and desktops, just as multi-tools have not replaced all other hand-tools. But multi-tools are a popular genre nowadays, not some brief passing fad. Just ask Leatherman, Gerber, and Swiss Army...all three of these companies make a substantial amount of their sales on multi-tools.

A lot of consumers really do prefer to own a smaller number of jack-of-all-trade devices instead of a larger number of highly-specialized devices.

 

Not too many Swiss Army knives would sell at $1,000 or so a pop. Same for multi-tools. A lot of those tools sell to those that just have to have everything in their tool box's. Not too many of those consumers where the computing hobby stands........................

 

Not many single-purpose hand tools would sell for $1000 a pop either. Absolute price comparisons between hand tools and PCs is silly. As for relative price comparisons, you'd expect a multitool to cost more than just a pocketknife, but less than the total of all the dedicated tools it can serve as, right? Well a convertible tablet costs more than just an ultrabook but less than an ultrabook plus a dedicated 10" tablet. For example, a Vaio Duo 13 is more expensive than a MacBook Air 13 but less expensive than the sum total of a MBA 13 plus an iPad (10"). Similarly, a Lenovo Yoga 11S, at $800, costs more than a cheap ultraportable but less than a cheap ultraportable plus a 10" tablet.

Convertible tablet pricing is right where you would expect it.

 

I am not the one to bring up tools. I am just pointing out a lot of those do it all tools are purchased by consumers like me that let them sit and rust out. We tend to look at them as purchases from disposable cash for our tool fetishes. Not too many have disposable cash for computer purchases. Now put up a bunch of touch screen Win8 tablets on the market for $10.00 or even $20.00 then it might be different............