Sitting second row for Microsoft’s unveiling of their new hardware line up, the WiFi is already slaughtered, and cell phone networks are melting down. It’s frustrating being detached from the wider social media world, but the buzz surrounding this event makes sense. Microsoft has never put together such a complete line up of products and services to show off before.
Chatting with others around me, everyone seems to be here for a different product category. Lumia fans, Surface fans, XBox Fans, Band fans, Microsoft has a lot riding on bringing these various teams together. Not just internally, as their company wide reorganization seems to be working, and we’ve recently seen a bit more product synergy between departments which used to feud. We’re looking at a company now trying to bring their diverse customer base together. Taking individuals who might turn to Microsoft for a single service or solution, and exposing them to a more comprehensive ecosystem.
They’ve made a lot of progress recently in re-establishing their reputation as a services company, providing apps on every platform. That doesn’t unseat the need for Microsoft and partners to find opportunities to continue pressuring the hardware market. While Windows is the dominate force in PC sales, they represent a much smaller slice of the mobile market. The timing on this event actually works in their favor, as tablet sales for Android and iOS are starting to cool off, Windows slates are in a good spot for consumers to replace both laptops and tablets with a single purchase. To continue moving towards one unified operating system environment, Windows needs to blur the lines between phones and tablets, as much as they did between tablets and PC’s.
One of the first major announcements to follow that theme came from Facebook, building out a new suite of universal apps for the entire Windows 10 platform. Continue reading “Microsoft Unveils New Surface Pro 4, Lumia Phones, and Surface Book Multi-Mode Laptop in NYC”
