Earlier today ZDNet’s Charlie Osborne broke the news Nvidia’s CEO spilled the beans on what version 2 of the Microsoft Surface tablet might offer. At the top of the MS list of “must have” or “killer apps” is none other than the software giant’s Outlook, one big plus missing from the current iteration of smart device. But is a mail program enough of a “killer” to matter?
As for the “leaked” news of Microsoft, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was caught discussing with CNETs’ Shara Tibken about just how hard his firm and Microsoft are working to rescue and rejuvenate interest in what has been a fiscal disappointment for MS, so far. The dismal sales figures for the MS tablet made all the headlines recently, but according to insiders at Microsoft, the company is dead level set to go the distance on pushing their ultimate success in the so-called tablet wars.
A dedicated iPad user here, the pain of switching for me and several tens of millions of others will simply have to be anesthetized by more than Outlook. To be honest, I have not used that software since 2000. And if the current app corral over at Microsoft is any indication of what we can expect, that’s a pitiful stable of horses to deliver anyone’s hardware into the promised land.
Put simply, Microsoft is going to need incentive, and lots of it in order to glean more of the market and revenue share in tablets. All technical specifications now reaching a sort of parity in between Motorola, Apple, Microsoft and the Sony’s of the world of touch screen glee, and the powerful innovation app developers and services provide IS the differentiation. Rumors of things that matter little such as the use of Qualcomm chips and so on, by now the consumer is weary as all-get-out of fluffy features and services. “Utility” for the foreseeable future of tablets will be in the apps that let users enjoy them. Oh, and I’m not talking about Angry Birds Star Wars edition either.
Get more apps, integrate more service, or better yet create them yourselves MS.
