Microsoft Moves from Followership to Leadership

Dear god what buzz-word laden soup. Switch out the brands and this article could just as well be about Nokia or GM or whatever BigCo.

Whether or not this article is fluff or insight depends on what Microsoft is doing: Are they creating a new product category?<p>What if you could dock a tablet and run it with the power of a desktop PC? If the dock/undock experience could be made seamless, then this would constitute a new product category. (It would be somewhat like the OQO <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO</a> )<p>If there was a docking mode that wirelessly linked and activated the screens just on device proximity without plugging in, then you could make the workstation/tablet transition relatively painless. There would be some lag with the wireless mode, but it should be good enough for light, mainly read-only actions. Plugging in would seamlessly transition to the desktop mode.<p>Add a wireless mode that links to the desktop display/input devices across WiFi, and you have a workable new product category.

If they were truly leading, they would apply the Metro UI to a 30-inch touchable drafting table, tilted at 45 degrees (see the original Jeff Han multitouch demos).<p>Portable/casual computing has already been reinvented; it's time to do the same to the high-end professional workstation.

If Microsoft could actually release a desktop operating system that is properly designed visually and in terms of user experience, people could actually admire their PC's like they do in all of their stupid commercials. Their market share is so massive that a success in the desktop space could then drive growth in mobile as they actually have build a good UX there.

Showing the world some 2-years old tech doesn't turn a dinosaur into a cheetah.

If urgency is one of the qualities of a leadership then yes Microsoft seems keen to create new products rather than just sit on the sidelines until somebody creates a market. Microsoft has been burnt badly by following that approach. iPod, iPhone, iPad are all examples of that and that is why others are eating Microsoft's lunch.