Microsoft Needs to Get in Hardware Business

Microsoft Need to get in Hardware Business

The heading itself tell what I mean. People can argue that Microsoft already has a hardware division and stuff like that. I don't mean that Microsoft needs a hardware division in that sense but I mean Microsoft needs a hardware division in true sense.

Before I dive into what type of Hardware Business Microsoft needs to get into. I want to clear myself as to WHY? Microsoft needs a hardware business.

Currently Dell, HP, Toshiba, IBM and all other crappy PC and laptop builder are building hardware for windows and selling it. But the problem with all of them is, they are ripping of the customer and the second problem is they are not innovating and making look windows as a operating system stupid. Well windows XP or upcoming windows Vista don't look or feel stupid. But the problem is this hardware builder are building crap machine and selling it for really high price.

They sell laptops and PC really cheap, great till here but then they believe that people are just buying this machine to turn it on and off and nothing else. People buy computer and especially PC buyer and they install every crap software available and top of the list is Webshots and many other smiley face software, they also install all those toolbars and tons of messenger and then with 256 RAM you expect to run that windows machine really fast and respond to user. It won't and people will complain especially all those MAC user that windows are slow and crappy.

If you want to buy a really decent machine then you have to pay good amount of money to this hardware manufacturer, enough money that you could buy a Apple PC or Laptop or should be getting a much better quality PC for the price you pay. To buy similar hardware like Apple PC or Laptop on Dell, HP or IBM end user will pay at least few 100 dollars more just to get a machine which does not have that amount of innovation as a apple power book will.

And to top their creepiness Dell, HP, IBM etc they all have there crappy software which takes up all the RAM and with their crappy user interface and annoying functionality sitting there to annoy people all the time and give a bad name to windows OS for their annoying software.

They are selling cheap hardware for really high price and the problem because of this is that people buying their new PC with windows start complaining that windows is slows or windows is making their machine slow or they will have crappy driver that will crash windows every time somebody plugs a USB mouse or anything inside their computer. All of this is just annoyance to customer and they don't care about it because when people are going to complain they will not say my HP machine is crashed, they will say my windows crashed and every single time that happens Microsoft is getting a bad name. This manufacturers may add a finger print reader but will not add more than 512 MB of RAM for they know that people will come to buy RAM later or upgrade their PC to new for 512 RAM will not be enough for their machine in few months. This is how they keep on reaping of people again and again.

When was the last time this company really had any decent invention for the laptop or Desktop. As long as i remember or understand HP and Dell sells more PC and Laptop then Apple or any other manufacture and in last few year which decent innovation effort was shown by them.

They failed to make PC or Laptop look smarter, They could not bring water cooled PCs to market, They could not create a Mini PC, They should be the one inventing the magnetic power cord like in use for Apple power book and not apple as this companies sell more laptop then Apple and their user need such a power cord all the time. But did they do anything for the end customer or user other than marketing and making them buy crap and ugly machine. NO NO NO..

CURRENT PC HARDWARE MANUFACTURERS ARE CRAP THEY ONLY CARED ABOUT THEIR BOTTOM LINE BUT NOT ABOUT THEIR USER/CUSTOMER EVER.

And there are many more reason why this companies suck to their most and why MICROSOFT has a need to enter this market. If Microsoft won't push the bar here on design, innovation, hardware and pricing than the only company that is going to get effected the most because of this stupid hardware manufactures is Microsoft itself.

Like in case of ipod Microsoft waited for their hardware partner to come up with a decent mp3 player just to come to terms later that they need to get in the market themselves. Too late and if Microsoft does not see a point in getting into hardware market now they have a real problem going further from here. Innovation at the right time made windows to be market leader in the industry and its time for Microsoft to innovate on three different end of hardware

1. PC.

2. Entertainment (MP3, Games, Movies and TV, Car entertainment and others areas)

3. Design

The problem will become worse by the end of the year, as I am 1000% sure that Apple will open up to this manufacturers and ask them to build Hardware will Mac OS X on it and this people will do it and when that happens Apple will surely make agreement which will say that computer cannot go below this level of hardware specification so even the end customer will still get good hardware that is going to run exceptionally well and this manufacture will sell it for cheap price for Apple will squeeze them. Microsoft does not have such agreement with this crappy manufacturer and this is going to hurt Microsoft so badly.

They need to not only get into the hardware business but have to put all their energy inside it to innovate and show that windows is the platform worth buying and is better than their competitors millions of time.

Like Xbox 360 and Zune which are good hardware coming out form Microsoft, Microsoft need to push the other end of hardware too. They don't need to compete with the usual manufacture in the same price range but they need to compete with them in high end machine and make this hardware manufacture innovate too. If Microsoft enter the hardware business it's not going to kill the manufactures but their presence will give people a choice who have given up on this manufacture and are looking at Macs for their next computer to come back to windows.

Also there are many advantage to Microsoft itself if it enter the hardware business itself.

1. Microsoft can innovate heavily and fast and can create really futuristic machine for which they are dependant on their hardware partner mostly now.

2. They can create new range of device which will avail them to have windows on more device as they are currently doing.

3. It will give customer a good enough choice in front of MAC PCs. (very important point)

4. Hardware can become sleeker and simpler and beautiful, people will talk about it (good words for Microsoft - needed more than anything for this company now)

5. They can create the next cool factor in the market (e.g. Xbox 360)

6. Most important all this device can talk and inter-operate ( a real dream of Bill Gates will come true - hoping that he will read this article and act)

7. Create next generation of windows mobile which was rightfully Microsoft idea but was given a pretty and sleek face by Apple and is now called apple innovation.

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Microsoft Hardware

I believe Microsoft understand the importance of this. It's a hard challenge and not easy to achieve but a small step at a time like in case of zune will help in future. If they are afraid that they will loose their hardware partners, well risk is somewhat they need to take if they want to be still standing in the market after a decade or they can just say we are trying to hand over our success to Apple.

I want a Microsoft based windows mini pc for my media center, i want a windows based mobile phone/Zune in one which operate seamlessly with my XBox 360 and other Microsoft devices, i want a xbox 360 which can handle IPTV, IPV6 and VoiP at the same time. I want to play games with my family with windows pc in network. I want a seamless, connected experience where based on my profile and choice and liking everything get synced to my windows home server and available to me on my pc, zune, xbox360 and windows mobile any time. It loads my favourite file on my windows mobile when i leave my house to connect my windows mobile to my car to work as GPS and MP3/FM player at the same time.

The possibilities are endless, it will only take Microsoft passion to make it happen or loose it. We need visionaries and I can guarentee you there is not even one in either of the current manufacturers of PC hardware

If Microsoft is willing to innovate then we are waiting for the real innovation and real digital future.

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