Wednesday, August 16, 2000

M$ Stinger -- 9:40 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

CNet has put up an interview with Ben Waldman, M$ V.P.: Mobile Services Group, regarding their new "Stinger" cell phone/PDA/cuisinart/whatever. I'm glad that interviews like this exist, because it proves that M$ really is as arrogant and utterly clueless as many claim. Here's a nice clip on why he feels PalmOS devices are so popular:

You know, Palm has brainwashed people for so many years. They've told people, "Well, it's all the things it can do--the calendar...it's very simple and that's all you can do."

And we show these devices to people and they're just taken away. You can have rich, great color screens and you can browse the Web.

(Palm's) whole "simple" thing is so self-serving. When you think about last year, color wasn't part of simple. (They) didn't want to do color. Now all of the sudden color is included in simple because they can do a color device.

Words fail me. Tell me, is there anyone so profoundly stupid that they would like a cell phone running WinCE or, God forbid, Internet Explorer? Shoot me now. Unfortunately the interviewer didn't have the guts to throw any hardball questions at him, so he is allowed to give his marketing spiel without even so much as a squeak. Barf. Thanks Ars Technica, I think.

The Master comments: What interests me is the standard corporate mindset this implies Microsoft has. They have the "we can do no evil" attitude, which ironically makes them blind to exactly the same situation they erronously accuse Palm of. Microsoft has for years downplayed the usfulness of features in competitive products that they do not posess, and when they finally add them, make a big deal about it like it's the latest and greatest. I'd go on, but I'm sure J.T. can do a much more articulate rant than me on this subject :-)

J.t.Qbe comments: Rather than calling it the M$ "Stinger", it should be called the M$ "Spork"--it tries to do everything, but does nothing well ("spork" is the name of my Win95 box here at work). The beauty of the Palm devices IS the simplicity--they're information appliances, not PC clones. Color is nice, but I have no need (or desire) for a color handheld with 16 MB RAM and M$ (qr)applications which drain the batteries in an hour, and all for the bargain price of $400++. If I want to browse the web, I'll use my PC. Ditto for word processing and heavy gaming. Otherwise, I just need my little Visor with my book list, shopping list, calendar, phone list, and of course, Solarwars. As usual, M$ misses the point and tries to do it all to drive out the competition.

News for 08/16/2000

The Haus is powered by:

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).