Like recipes being passed down through generations in a family, Microsoft is determined to continue to confuse the shit of out consumers:

Upcoming Windows 8 devices with small displays (under 10 inches) will come bundled with Office 2013 Home & Student, a version of Office that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. If you walk into a store later this month and purchase Acer's 8-inch Windows 8 device you'll get the free version of Office, but if you opt for a 10-inch Windows 8 Acer tablet you won't. Alternatively, if you opt for a 10-inch Windows RT device, like the Surface RT, you will get a copy of Office that also includes Outlook RT. If you purchase a 7- or 8-inch Windows RT device when they're available you'll also get a free version of Office. If it all sounds confusing, that's because it is.

I was naively optimistic to see Microsoft start fresh with Surface and Windows 8.

Oh well.

BGR on Microsoft still not getting the whole tablet thang:

Windows-based tablets haven't been big successes so far, whether they use the desktop-centric Windows 8 or the tablet-centric Windows RT. iMore's Rene Ritchie does some sharp analysis of Microsoft's latest marketing campaign and concludes that the company simply does not understand why people are buying tablets in the first place. Essentially, Microsoft doesn't get that its central criticism of the iPad -- that is, that it's more of a toy that can't be used for doing serious work -- is precisely why consumers are drawn to it in the first place. Simply put, consumers have PCs at their offices if they want to do work. When they're at home, they want to play around with their tablets instead; they like having toys.

As Clay Christiansen famously points out in The Innovator's Dilemma, most innovations aren't taken seriously when they debut and by the time they gain momentum, it's usually too late for competition to respond. My favorite one was when people in the media and some people in the government thoughts the Internet a fad back in the 1990s.

The iPad might look like a toy because kids love them, but when I'm on business trips I see iPads being used in first class seats and then I see them again when I'm in client meetings at Fortune 500 companies.

Microsoft can't seem to make much of a dent in the mobile market (more like a ding, not to be confused with a Bing):

Microsoft has reportedly developed an Android application with the sole purpose of stealing users away from Google. According to a report from CITE World, the company will be releasing the "Switch to Windows Phone" application on Android to help users change platforms. The application is able to "find identical or replacement applications" for Windows Phone 8 to replace a user's old Android apps, thus making the transition far more bearable.

How awesomely ironic would it be if Microsoft started a 'switch' ad campaign like PC-underdog Apple did in the 2000's?

I can dream, can't I?

Craig Mundie on Microsoft's (new) perspective on hardware quality:

"We said, 'oh the OEMs, that's their design, they deal with it.' We got huge diversity out of that at all possible price points, but it became hard to guarantee a uniform quality of experience that the end user had," he explained. Pointing to the initial touchscreens in Microsoft's first-generation phones, there were clearly devices with better hardware than others. "If you were in front of a bad one then people said that was a piece of crap; it didn't work a damn."

Right. Quality of hardware matters. No shit, Mundie.

The reason Microsoft didn't give a damn about hardware quality in the 80's, 90's and 00's is because they were only trying to license Windows to businesses and businesses don't mind if they're giving their employees crappy PCs and laptops. For businesses, it's all about the bottom line. Forget how important the quality is or how people will appreciate it more and it will last longer.

Sounds like Microsoft's (and Bill Gates's) original mantra might be changing. It used to be, "A computer on every desk and in every home." It was all about quantity, not quality.

Now Microsoft is trying to sell to human beings with opinions and, surprisingly, it turns out a lot of people like to buy quality hardware.

Microsoft thinks so.

Microsoft can't help themselves. They keep gravitating back to their original Surface.

You don't remember the big-ass table?

Stephen Hackett was nice enough to post some reviews of the Microsoft Surface Pro from across the tech press.

Let's be clear, these reviews aren't just from Apple users.

No, even guys at PCWorld don't like it:

The bad news: Surface Pro doesn't run away with the Windows 8 hybrid crown. And based on your needs, it might not be the best Windows 8 portable you can buy in the neighborhood of $1000. This is a problem because Surface Pro needs to stand out as a kick-ass reference design, and not be just another interesting-but-imperfect hardware option for anyone taking the Windows 8 plunge.

Microsoft is Microsoft, damn it! It owns Windows. Its war chest is huge. If it can't conceive, manufacture, and market the hands-down best Windows 8 hybrid in the world, it's got unfinished business.

In trying to be everything to everyone with their "No Compromises" philosophy they've failed. This is unfortunate because Windows 8 really had a chance to be kick-ass. Instead, Microsoft chose to advertise the shit out of the fact that their tablets have magnetic keyboards.

I have a news alert: a keyboard is the first thing a lot of iPad owners buy (and there's some good ones out there). Microsoft thinks their Touch Covers are giving them an edge, but they're really only giving them parity, if that.

So what's so wrong with Microsoft Surface and Windows 8?

Let me count the ways:

- [Regular?] Surface tablets run Windows RT and Surface Pro tablets run Windows 8, and neither are compatible with each other.

- Surface and Surface Pro tablets look and feel almost identical further confusing regular, non-nerdy people.

- Microsoft took away the Start Menu

- It's hard to differentiate labels from buttons

- A Surface Pro with an advertised storage capacity of 64 gigs has only 23 gigs of actual, usable space. Yeah, try explaining that one to mom.

You can't chop 2 wheels off an automobile and expect it to ride like a motorcycle. In essence, this is what Microsoft tried to do.

Microsoft Might Kick In $1-$3 Billion To Help With The Dell Buy Out

$3 billion to keep Dell going?

It's like supporting a horse carriage company during the golden age of automobiles.

If I were Michael Dell, I would give the money back to the shareholders (it never gets old).

Techcrunch: Microsoft Launches "Next App Star" Competition For Windows Phone Developers

You know a mobile app store is still young and needs more content when the company behind it still writes its own blog posts when interesting new apps appear in it. With 150,000 apps, the Windows Phone store isn't actually quite as empty as the Windows 8 store, but Microsoft could sure use some marquee apps for its mobile platform. To get developers and consumers a bit more excited about it, the company is launching its "Windows Phone Next App Star" contest today.

It wasn't to long after Apple launched their App Store that they were able to brag about having both the best and the most apps. Now in 2013, Microsoft has no such advantage. While 150,000 apps is nothing to scoff at, it means nothing to people already conditioned to seeing over one million apps in Apple's App Store. "Hey, Windows Phone now has Angry Birds!!!" ...who cares?

Parity in apps will help Microsoft, but parity won't win the war for them.

I'm just curious when the Charade of the Zune Phone will end. Will Microsoft piss away all their cash reserves before they gain a foothold in the smartphone space?

Influencer: Kickstand, inventioned by Joseph Paul Treen, 1930's

Influenced: Microsoft Surface, 26 October 2012

Microsoft Surface image taken from Anandtech