Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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Sorta big news.
I actually think the Nook brand could be a good fit for Microsoft. It's not a market-leading brand, but it is a well-liked one, and like the Xbox brand, it manages to be price competitive without feeling low-rent. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, it doesn't really overlap with any of Microsoft's existing businesses — the ebook space was one pie that Microsoft hadn't dipped a finger into yet, and 7" tablets are too small to run Windows RT anyways. Microsoft could just tell their hardware partners that they consider 7" tablets to be consumer electronics products, not PCs, no conflict of interest there. (Though I wouldn't be surprised if Nook devices eventually switched from being based on Android to Windows Embedded, perhaps with a PlayBook-style emulation layer for existing apps in the Nook Store.) In a way, Nook could sort of carry on the torch for Microsoft's Courier, another compact, consumer-electronicsy, not-Windows tablet Microsoft almost made. (I wouldn't be surprised to see a Nook with a pen, either.) Microsoft's position is that iPad-style tablets aren't post-PC devices, they're just new PCs. But I think such a strategy would be especially misguided for smaller, more focused devices, like the Nook. It's sort of like how Microsoft failed for years to convince people to put a PC in their living room, and then they made the Xbox, a smaller, more focused device, and it's the only Microsoft product that people genuinely seem to like now. This might be an attempt to have that multipronged strategy from the beginning — licensing Windows to OEMs for general-purpose tablets, but keeping the focused "book console" in house. Of course, "the beginning" was actually two years ago, but Redmond doesn't turn on a dime. I will say that there was absolutely no excuse putting out the press release calling the new subsidiary the temporary name "Newco," though. Either introduce a new name or not, don't bother to tell us your placeholder name. Especially when it's obvious they're just going to call it Nook Inc. in the end, anyway. Your thoughts? and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Also, Microsoft just sunk $300M into a product that's high-end model runs Android. So yeah. |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
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Possibly an outgrowth of this?
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I don't know how much influence on hardware or software a 17% stake gets Redmond, but maybe that's just an initial position with an option for more extensive involvement later? Either way, it seems..... half assed? Like typical Apple/MS dichotomy-- Apple makes ebooks a central part of their iOS initiative, no holds barred, plus makes a big bid for textbook publishing with iBooks Author. No subsidiary initiative, no flavors, no parallel development track, just iOS functionality. MS can't quite seem to decide how many eggs it wants in the Metro basket, welding it to Win8, letting their phones bring up the rear, running XBox as an entirely separate thing, and now whatever this is-- some kind of silo-ed ebook thing? Partnership? Seekret plan to take over B&N? That which doesn't kill you weakens you slightly and makes you less able to cope until you're completely incapacitated |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
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Hmmm, or maybe that's the other way around-- MS didn't have a leg to stand on and B&N extracted some investment and compatibility instead of invalidating some of Microsoft's Android patents in open court....
That which doesn't kill you weakens you slightly and makes you less able to cope until you're completely incapacitated |
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