How much would you pay for Windows 7?

Are these seriously the prices for Windows 7?

• Windows 7 Starter: $200
• Windows 7 Home Premium: $259
• Windows 7 Professional: $299
• Windows 7 Ultimate: $319

Let’s see, how much does  good netbook cost these days? What percentage of that cost will be Windows 7? I have a bad feeling about this if these pricing models are correct.

 

UPDATE – Ars, which originally posted the pricing rumor now says: Upon further reflection, we regret posting this rumor. The source was anonymous and not one of our usual, trusted tipsters

I’ll hold off further comment until we get formal pricing from Redmond, suffice it to say, price will matter quite a bit in terms of how well Win 7 gets adopted. The percentage of costs allocated to Windows just isn’t something that’s going to be sustainable in the current market. Both business and consumers are going to pay a lot of attention to what migration costs will look like.

A little statistical humor before the weekend.

I just love this old joke.

It seems there are three statisticians who go hunting. The first aims at the bear and misses widely to the right. The second aims and misses widely to left. The third one jumps up and down and yells "we got him!"

People often say numbers don’t lie. That’s not true, numbers lie all the time.

It’s past time for Media and Mobility Czars at Microsoft

This is a follow up note to some folks I know over in Redmond (but it’s OK for the rest of you to read it as well.)

Hi guys. There’s no doubt that you must be frustrated. Really frustrated. After all, you were in digital music long before Apple, had cool phones that played music long before Apple and in general had a pretty compelling story for the digital consumer that no one really listened to. There were WMA players on the market long before iPod. In fact, Microsoft might have been dominant in digital music if it weren’t for that pesky little iPod thing (along with iTunes). Worse, Apple introduced a flash player years after anyone else, actually removed features and had customers waiting 2-4 weeks to get one. Gladly waiting I might add and ignoring all those other devices your partners brought to market. I won’t even get started with what’s happened in the phone space. First you ignored Apple, then you denied the iPhone was a problem. Today, I hear more and more folks wondering what the future is for Windows Mobile, Zune and Windows Media Player.

Let’s face it, while you have all the tools to respond but at the moment, you seem to lack the leadership to tie it all together. A few years ago, I suggested you needed a Music Czar. Today, I think it’s time you thought about Mobile and Media Czars. You need master strategists that can deliver what Brad Silverberg and Brad Chase did for Windows and Yusuf Mehdi did for IE back in the last century, for products like Zune and Windows Mobile today.

Folks, It’s time for you to create that type of leadership role. You have a differentiated set of products and services along with business models that can work. You have subscription services and hardly any consumers understand how they work. You have a viable DRM, not to protect old business models but to enable new ones. You have partners to deliver services and devices with diverse offerings.

What you don’t have is a coordinated strategy to make all this stuff work together. To make sure that internal technology is aligned with handset vendors and initiatives like Zune and Xbox. There’s no single, coordinated marketing message that can be presented to consumers, press and analysts articulating what your vision is for the 21^st century digital consumer.

It’s not too late. The market is still nascent and there’s still time to act. There’s time to pull together what you need from your partners along with internal products and services and really get out there and compete. The clock is ticking though and it’s time to get to work. Feel free to call anytime and we can discuss further.

Best.

m.

Retro Review, the original Sony Libre

On the eve of (possibly) a new version of the Kindle, I dug out my original Sony Libre that I bought in Japan. I called it at the time, the "The Best eBook Reader You’ll Likely Never Own". Sony eventually did bring a version to the US and evolved the product further. Of course it was Amazon that brought eBooks to the real mass market audience. Here’s what I thought of the original Sony back in 2005.

When I travel, I rarely take paper books anymore, they’re just too heavy and inconvenient. While I still buy a lot of paper books as each week (I usually buy one or two books a week on average) they’re mostly ones that I know others might be interested in reading, books I plan to read more than once and just stuff I like to keep.

As a big eBook fan myself, I’ve tried all the dedicated eBook devices that were on the market and found them all lacking. None of then did the job any better than my PDA or Tablet PC did and most did them far worse. The whole point of the eBook idea is to lug around less stuff, not take more things with you. But what about something different? After all, the reason most folks don’t like reading stuff on screen (I know folks who still print out all their email rather than read it online) is that screen resolution is just nowhere as good as paper. While I live with the tradeoff of convenience vs. resolution, as I get older, I find my 40 year old eyes having a harder time reading large quantities of text even on good laptop screens. What if there was a small device, no larger than a DVD case with high resolution screen so clear, it looked like ink on paper? What if it were digital ink? What if it ran on only a few AAA batteries forever. Well, that device is real and it’s called the Librie from Sony. Using a technology called digital ink, the device has a resolution of about 170dpi, (which is about twice that of the computer you’re probably reading this on). Is it paper res? Nope, but its good enough and an order of magnitude better than any other display I have ever seen. Words do not do it justice. When people see it, they comment it looks more like a display unit with the text printed on a sticker than an LCD. And then they see the screen change and go wow. The technology works using a monochrome display with four gray levels, which changes reflectivity by moving microscopic black and white particles held within spherical microcapsules. As a result, the unit only needs power when changing the image on screen so battery life is good for 10,000 pages of text.

So what’s the deal with this amazing device? Well for one, you can’t get one here in the US. Sony only sells the Librie in Japan and the unit and all the software is in Japanese. The bigger downside is that the only commercial content for the device comes from Sony’s Japanese eBook service that doesn’t sell you the books but only rents then for 60 days. In short, unless you really love technology, this isn’t the most practical device in the world at the moment. If, however, you are intrigued and want to see the future and how a dedicated eBook reader could be successful (if marketed correctly with content available for it) then you can pick up a version that’s been modified to work in English Dynamism.vYou can then use the included print driver to get .PDF files on your device. From there, you can head over to Phil Torronne’s and read the tutorial on how to create your own content for the Librie from text files. Finally the public domain booksite manybooks.net has most of their content in Librie format.

Sadly, this device might never reach US shores for the mass market. It’s the first eBook reader that’s actually good enough to warrant being schlepped around. It would be amazing if this device could work with the popular eReader format books, that would be a killer combination IMHO that could really jumpstart this market and make it real. For now, it’s still more concept car than mainstream product.

Acura TSX iPhone integration

It’s pretty cool. Nice to get the whole Apple UI on screen. Phone itself connects over Bluetooth for voice. So far this is the best integration I’ve seen. Car also supports Bluetooth audio. Alas, the iPhone doesn’t.

The art of social networking during a recession

There’s no doubt that these are tough times for lots of people. Over the last few months, I’ve seen lots of friend and colleagues who have either lost their jobs or are in fear of being out of work in the near future. These are folks who had "safe" jobs. I’m talking doctors, lawyers, bankers, analysts, marketing executives, some who had been working in the same firm for decades.

The first thing I’ve told folks to do is to read a post by Robert Scoble. It’s called "If you are laid off, here’s how to socially network". It’s a must read with a 19 actionable steps to start building an online presence to get noticed. It’s also a good read and worth implementing even if you’re working and feel comfortable. As Jeremiah Owyang points out, the best time to build up your network and online presence is before you need it. Posting a resume on Monster isn’t what’s going to lead to opportunities for most folks. It’s a tough market out there, but there opportunities to be had. The key is being proactive, standing out and using your network. If you are employed, it’s also good karma to use your resources to help others. The person you help today might be the person who can help you tomorrow.

post hoc, ergo propter hoc

I’m looking at some research and can only think, "post hoc, ergo propter hoc". That’s Latin for "after it, therefore because of it". It means that if one thing follows another, one thing also causes another. (it’s also the title of one of my favorite episodes of the West Wing of all time. When the president asked who knew what it meant, I confess to shouting the answer at the TV set at the time, but I digress)

The problem is that type of causal relationship like is almost never true. It’s a common mistake that analysts often make and clearly the author of this report fell into this trap. I won’t name the analyst or the report, I’m not out to embarrass anyone in public so please don’t ask. If you come across it, you’ll recognize it.

Remembering Newton

A friend (thanks Gerry) recently sent me some cool vintage Newton accessories. Of course, I had to try them out so I pulled out my trusty Message Pad 2100,  popped in 4 AA batteries and hit the power switch. With a  Brrrring, she came to life with the familiar Newton trill and even more amazing woke up with all her data intact. Yes, everything. All my calendar entries from 1997, my contacts, every application installed and working just fine and all my scribbled notes. All exactly the way I left it so many years. What a stunning example of elegant technology and engineering. Newton was flawed in many ways but in many others, no product on the market has ever quite matched her elegance, style and techno-wizardry.