Re:Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple soft...
by taneq on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @04:23AM
(#11387751)
This is true. Their problem is that until recently they've existed in a growth market and their annual profits rely on new PC sales. Shareholders don't see "we're a $10 billion company but we'll be transitioning to a $2 billion company over the next 10 years" as an acceptable strategy so they're forced to try and wring growth-market profits out of a mature market.
Re:Why Apple and Google are struggling to design simple soft...
by userbinator on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @06:28AM
(#11388255)
Your hardware will die or become obsolete quickly enough that you still have to buy a new machine and with that a new windows license.
In other words, planned obolescence. Often more euphemistically known as "lifecycle engineering/management". Solid-state electronics can function indefinitely if they're designed well and not abused, but the companies obviously don't like that so they're deliberately trying to shorten it, often saving some cost too. I have 20+ years old hardware that still works just fine, and I wouldn't be surprised if it continues functioning 20 years from now.
Your hardware will die or become obsolete quickly enough that you still have to buy a new machine and with that a new windows license. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the churn for smartphones and tablets was a multiple of desktop pcs. Cars are a mature industry. You still have to replace your car regularly, but the new car doesn't go faster.
But I have the feeling Microsoft is even loosing their market share on laptops, everyone around me replaced their windows laptop with a mac. And despite being myself heavily invested in the windows ecosystem, I am very uncomfortable with their new OS and considering alternatives.