What did the CEO of Microsoft smoke when he ordered production of the Surface RT

[Hugo Drax]

So this dude wakes up and calls up the factories and says build close to 1 billion dollars in surface RT inventory.

But then he calls up the sales division and says only sell this huge inventory we are building at select Microsoft stores no where else.

And then he calls the office division. Put office on it but make sure to tell customers it is illegal to use the office on the Surface RT for any work related uses.



Humm what exactly is Ballmer smoking?:biggrin:


Now they have close to 1 billion dollars of Surface RTs that will probably be buried next to the millions of E.T cartridges along side of Jimmy Hoffa's body.


1 billion dollars that would have been better off paid as a dividend to shareholders instead of buried in the desert.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

He was smoking hundred dollar bills.

MS is good at solving their issues by throwing TONS of money at the problem. Xbox? toss money at it. Win8? Toss lots and lots of more money at it. Nokia? Still keep tossing more money at them.

Eventually those dollars will stick.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I remember how much buzz it generated when rumors surfaced (hehe) that the price would be something like $300. Then they were like, no, it costs as much as an iPad and the keyboard is an extra $100.

That's not how you launch a product.

 

[Hugo Drax]

He was smoking hundred dollar bills.

MS is good at solving their issues by throwing TONS of money at the problem. Xbox? toss money at it. Win8? Toss lots and lots of more money at it. Nokia? Still keep tossing more money at them.

Eventually those dollars will stick.

But what he did was total idiocy.

Why order the production of 1 billion dollar of product. Then say, I only want you to sell it in a couple of stores?

Makes no sense.

 

[CPA]

Hey, there's always potential that we get an HP Touchpad-type deal eventually. See, there's always a silver lining.

<---$99 touchpad still going strong

 

[PingSpike]

He was smoking hundred dollar bills.

MS is good at solving their issues by throwing TONS of money at the problem. Xbox? toss money at it. Win8? Toss lots and lots of more money at it. Nokia? Still keep tossing more money at them.

Eventually those dollars will stick.

Microsoft could make serious inroads into the tablet and phone markets if they really wanted too. They have the resources (massive piles of cash and a huge existing ecosystem to leverage) But its like the Zune all over again. They show up late to the party with an offering that doesn't soundly beat them on price or features or even support and then seem to be surprised they are ignored. You can't show up late with a "just as good" and they should know this better than anyone since that's pretty much how Windows became entrenched. Maybe you could if you were cool like Apple but Microsoft is not cool. And they didn't even really leverage the Windows ecosystem to try and bootstrap themselves into the market, instead preferring the to muddy the waters with the hamstrung RT that so far has mostly just crapped up the whole Surface brand and Windows brand.

I think the problem is they have an antagonistic internal management structure which means departments will intentionally cripple each others products if there is even the slightest chance some of their sales will be cannibalized. And since they have a nasty recent history of abandoning unsuccessful product lines and screwing over their early adopters anyone who wants to use their new offering would be wise to wait for the product to succeed before they bother developing anything that depends upon it.

 

[Bacstar]

Hey, there's always potential that we get an HP Touchpad-type deal eventually. See, there's always a silver lining.

<---$99 touchpad still going strong

Same here

 

[Juddog]

Hey, there's always potential that we get an HP Touchpad-type deal eventually. See, there's always a silver lining.

<---$99 touchpad still going strong

^^ Me too - I love my touchpad, and for only $100 it was a steal. I ended up buying 5 at that price and using them as gifts.

I would go for a MS Surface RT if it dropped to $100.

 

[WelshBloke]

Hey, there's always potential that we get an HP Touchpad-type deal eventually. See, there's always a silver lining.

<---$99 touchpad still going strong

Oooh! You think we might be able to flash an android build on there?

Hmm, they might just shift a few units in that case.

 

[Andy22]

Semi related...I lost my iPhone 5 due to water damaged and replaced it with a WP8 Nokia Lumia 920 and I absolutely love it. I never had a problem with iOS and was a happy user but after using WP8 I really don't want to go back to the rows of icons with ios and Android. I miss not having draw something 2 but it's only a matter of time. Other than that I have found equivalent apps that are just as good. It's looking like they will end up a distant but solid #3 is the smart phone market. They need to build off that and put a good tablet.

 

[WelshBloke]

Semi related...I lost my iPhone 5 due to water damaged and replaced it with a WP8 Nokia Lumia 920 and I absolutely love it. I never had a problem with iOS and was a happy user but after using WP8 I really don't want to go back to the rows of icons with ios and Android. I miss not having draw something 2 but it's only a matter of time. Other than that I have found equivalent apps that are just as good. It's looking like they will end up a distant but solid #3 is the smart phone market. They need to build off that and put a good tablet.

If your home screen on android was just rows of icons then you were doing something wrong.

 

[Andy22]

If your home screen on android was just rows of icons then you were doing something wrong.

Well...never used Android at all...just going by friends phones so THEY must be doing something wrong

 

[blurredvision]

So this dude wakes up and calls up the factories and says build close to 1 billion dollars in surface RT inventory.

But then he calls up the sales division and says only sell this huge inventory we are building at select Microsoft stores no where else.

And then he calls the office division. Put office on it but make sure to tell customers it is illegal to use the office on the Surface RT for any work related uses.

Humm what exactly is Ballmer smoking?:biggrin:

Now they have close to 1 billion dollars of Surface RTs that will probably be buried next to the millions of E.T cartridges along side of Jimmy Hoffa's body.

1 billion dollars that would have been better off paid as a dividend to shareholders instead of buried in the desert.

Where exactly are you getting your numbers from? Just making shit up as you go, I see.

 

[Markbnj]

He was smoking hundred dollar bills.

MS is good at solving their issues by throwing TONS of money at the problem. Xbox? toss money at it. Win8? Toss lots and lots of more money at it. Nokia? Still keep tossing more money at them.

Eventually those dollars will stick.

Maybe, but Ballmer has lost all credibility with me. I doubt investors feel too much differently. A company can't stay on top forever, and Microsoft was due to have its "IBM moment" at some point, but I don't think Ballmer is the guy to lead them out of it.

 

[lxskllr]

There's some rumors they may be converted to Ubuntu machines.

 

[PingSpike]

There's some rumors they may be converted to Ubuntu machines.

Isn't the bootloader locked down on them?

 

[lxskllr]

Isn't the bootloader locked down on them?

Canonical is partnered with MS now, so a signed loader for them would be trivial. I wouldn't put too much stock in the Ubuntu Surface at this point. It's a rumor in the truest sense of the word, but it would help MS get rid of unsold units, and give Ubuntu some nice showcase hardware that would be exclusively theirs due to the signed loader requirement.

 

[dr150]

Hey, there's always potential that we get an HP Touchpad-type deal eventually. See, there's always a silver lining.

<---$99 touchpad still going strong

I'm banking on this as well.

Buy a Surface on fire sale and put Android on it.



<----Ultra cheap 32GB HP Touchpad also stlll going strong on Android.....(bought 3 of these during that fire sale--thanks HP!)

 

[Genx87]

Smoking some mad reefer.

 

[PottedMeat]

Hey, there's always potential that we get an HP Touchpad-type deal eventually. See, there's always a silver lining.

<---$99 touchpad still going strong

<3 my touchpad. except for the cracks near the speakers


ballmer was smoking chairs

come on ballmer, firesale firesale firesale! $99 $99 $99

 

[bearxor]

I have a TouchPad that sits around and collects dust.

But I think a $100 SurfaceRT would be WAY more useful.

 

[BladeVenom]

^^ Me too - I love my touchpad, and for only $100 it was a steal. I ended up buying 5 at that price and using them as gifts.

I would go for a MS Surface RT if it dropped to $100.

But when the Touchpad was on sale all the decent tablets were significantly more expensive. Now you can get a Nook HD for $129, Asus Memo 7 HD for $149, or the Nexus 7 for $199. Considering those options, I don't think I would pay $99 for a Surface RT.

 

[Miramonti]

Failure is an option.

 

[Narse]

I love my Surface RT. Win 8.1 made it quite a bit quicker. By far my most used product I own. I would not expect the price to fall bellow the recent reduction to 349.00

 

[tential]

When you're that rich, you don't even smoke it. You just watch it burn.