Throughout the year, the news is punctuated with the latest changes in the big three: Google, Microsoft and Apple.
But what can we expect from them in the year coming up? New products? New software? New directions? And how will these changes potentially affect the marketplace?
Looking for a tablet this holiday shopping season? If you are, and you’re leaning towards a shiny new iPad, wait just a minute: Oprah wants you to know that she loves the Microsoft Surface. How much does the billionaire media personality love it? According to a tweet she posted this past Sunday, Oprah has already purchased 12 of the devices as gifts for Christmas.
Don’t expect Apple to lose any sleep over Oprah’s endorsement of Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet: if you believe Oprah posted the tweet in question, she did so from her iPad.
Without a doubt, the most significant media disruptor in recent history has been the internet, and it’s reasonable to consider the last 10 to 15 years the “internet era.” If the long history of disruptions has taught us anything it is that we need to ask, what era will be next?
Even if we can’t predict the future, we need only look around us in digital media and technology to guess and stay informed of what’s down the road. As we have seen how quickly prominent companies have fallen, foresight is sure to pay dividends for marketers, publishers, and generally everyone who interacts with the world around them.
It’s a time for bold statements. It’s a time for stretching the imagination to glimpse at our future “beyond the internet.”
Last week, Microsoft finally unveiled the latest version of its operating system, Windows 8.
Any release of the software giant’s flagship product is a big deal for Microsoft, but Windows 8 is arguably the biggest product launch in the company’s history. Why? Windows 8 is the company’s attempt to successfully shift to world in which computing is increasingly touch-driven. And it might very well be be the company’s only opportunity to make the shift.
Earlier this year, Microsoft created headlines when word broke that the Redmond software giant would enable Do Not Track (DNT) by default in the newest version of its browser, IE10. Although these claims were initially questioned, Microsoft clarified that, in an effort to “balance ease of use with choice and control,” it would indeed enable DNT as part of its default settings during Windows 8 setup and IE upgrades.
That set the stage for battle and it didn’t take long for the ad industry to respond to Microsoft’s approach with harsh criticism.
At the IAB Mixx conference in New York today, Microsoft Advertising revealed their new Windows 8 and IE 10 platform that will be available October 26. Their focus is on integrating between the boundaries of hardware, OS and the cloud to virtually integrate eco-systems to move them to a position to closer compete with Apple, who are currently winning the battle for a smarter enterprise.
We are living in the time of the digitalization of society and as devices and technology have opened our minds to what is possible, our expectations are far surpassing what we’re able to experience as consumers. For the most part, advertising is falling behind and consumers aren’t getting the integration and personalization they are expecting as we move to digitalize almost ever aspect of what we do.
Prior to the launch of the new iPad, use of Apple’s tablet device was primarily being used as an internet access and entertainment device.
According to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), just 13% of iPad owners were using their iPads for business owners. But that may be changing.
Microsoft is making big, bold bets on its new operating system, Windows 8, which is set for release later this year.
Windows 8 is, in large part, Microsoft’s response to a world that is increasingly mobile, and in which tablet devices may be competing with desktops for consumers’ computing time.
Microsoft’s launch of its Windows 8 later this year may be the most important product launch in the company’s history. Seeking to compete in a world where the desktop is no longer king, the Redmond software giant has performed massive reconstructive surgery on its operating system in an effort to provide for a commercially-viable touch-first experience.
Change may be a necessity for Microsoft and its operating system, but change this significant rarely comes easy. Despite the fact that the company’s Windows 8 effort may be its greatest in many years, there are plenty who believe the new operating system is a disaster in the making.
My how the mighty have fallen.
RIM, once a household name thanks to the then-ubiquitous BlackBerry, has seen competitors, namely Apple, eat its lunch. And its future prospects look more and more bleak each day.
The popularity of Google’s Android may ensure that Google will play a prominent role in the smartphone market for years to come, but its future in the tablet space is anything but guaranteed.
Apple’s iPad is the tablet standard, and lower-end competitors like the Kindle Fire and NOOK Tablet use forked versions of Android that Google can’t control or monetize. For a variety of reasons, Google hasn’t thus far been able to rely on third party manufacturers to build a killer Android tablet.
And it’s unlikely to get easier for the search giant any time soon.
Windows 8 may be the biggest, boldest bet Microsoft has made in recent memory, and perhaps ever.
And the stakes got a lot higher for Microsoft on Wednesday as it announced what some had been speculating would come to pass: a new version of Windows Phone.