With the recent announcement of Microsoft's new Surface tablet, the decades-old network of partners that Microsoft and Intel built just got a formidable new asset-rich competitor: Microsoft.
Like all successful partner networks, Wintel thrived because all of the players -- the two principals, OEMs, the channel and other stakeholders -- benefited individually from the association while contributing to the growth of the network itself. The Wintel platform is still the dominant desktop and laptop computing architecture.
But with smartphones, tablets and the cloud replacing desktops and laptops with remarkable speed, it's a brand new post-PC world. And in the most stunning development imaginable, Microsoft's Surface announcement confirms that Steve Ballmer and company are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve success -- including blowing up the partner network Microsoft helped create -- and that has been the linchpin of the company's dominance for the past 30 years. And it has the financial staying power to do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment