Microsoft’s Best Next Play, Intel’s Vaporware

Microsoft and Intel are in the same troubled boat as far as I’m concerned. Both megalithic companies have been complete yawners for the past five years or so. Now Microsoft is trying to dig up some enthusiasm for Windows Vista (formerly code-named Longhorn) and as far as I can tell, people couldn’t care less. I think I have the idea that could save them.

From what I have heard, Windows Vista has almost completely nothing new of interest, except for some pretty new semi-transparent icons. (Remember when Windows XP came out just shortly after Apple’s OS X and the new widget decorations look like suspicious knock-offs of Apple?)

All the core technologies that Windows promised have been quietly ejected. First it was supposed to be all about .Net, which Microsoft can’t bury from public attention fast enough. The it was all about the “database filesystem” which Microsoft later admitted they couldn’t get to work in time, so it too wouldn’t be a primary component of the new OS. (Then Apple released Tiger with Spotlight(tm) that does the same thing—and I have to admit that single feature has made my computer-using experience much better!)

There’s some other technology, I think it’s called Avalon (I could be wrong on this one, I’m tired of tracking Microsoft vaporware) that is either a knockoff of Apple’s display technology or Mozilla’s application component building architecture, or both.

Anyway, point being, I don’t care. How will it change my Windows using experience? Apart from “My Documents” now just being called “Documents”, etc.? Frankly, if it weren’t for broken network drivers for things like Wifi and Firewire, I’d still be using Windows 2000. But Microsoft needs to make people excited enough to upgrade. (Hardware as well as software. Last article I read said your graphics card needed half a gig of RAM in it!)

I’ve got a single simple idea: have Windows Vista do something cool regards to integration with the upcoming Xbox 360. As some of you know, the new XBox is supposed to hit the market in time for Christmas. It’s got a pretty steep sticker price itself ($300-400 in case you want a hard disk in it) and I’m not sure how quickly people are going to run to buy it.

Now imagine that, if you have an XBox 360 and a PC running the new Windows Vista. What if you could store your MP3 library on the PC but access it on the XBox? Apple introduced that feature with the Apple Express and I’m amazed by the number of people willing to shell out over $100 to have portable music access. (Okay, the gadget does more than that, but many people spend cash for that single feature.)

What if PCs with Windows Vista are automatically able to add some cool network functionality to an XBox video game? (I’m trying to think how this would work to add value. If you have an idea, add it to this blog entry with a comment.)

Point is: people (guys really) who like to spend too much money on nifty gadgets just love it when they can show some cool way that the gadgets work together. And if by owning 2 Microsoft products each product somehow gains special abilities, you really boost the likelihood a shopper will buy both.

Anyway, that’s my neat idea.

I’m going to finish with a dig at Intel. Anybody noticed the recent flurry of articles about Intel’s new microprocessor architecture? Supposedly they are going to do a complete break from their current designs (Can you say “Itanium”?) with the ability to easily cluster large number of identical processors together (can you say “Cell”?).

Okay, Intel, get off your collective asses and deliver something. AMD has kicked your butt by quietly releasing cheaper, faster and (frankly) better processors for the past couple years. They beat you to the 64-bit game (with your own architecture) and you’ve been forced to play catch-up. Your Pentium 4 has been the biggest turd around, and your best recovery has been to resurrect your Pentium III architectures by branding them Pentium M (for “mobile” which are supposed to be in laptops) and lumping them with your Celeron line (cheaper cache-sabotaged Pentium 4s).

Now you release some news about this “great new architecture we’ll see in 18 months” and you think we’re going to get excited?

Fool me once (Itanium/Merced) shame on me…

Author: Murray Todd Williams

I live in Austin, Texas. I'm enthusiastic about food, wine, programming (especially Scala), tennis and politics. I've worked for Accenture for over 12 years where I'm a Product Manager for suite of analytical business applications. View all posts by Murray Todd Williams