微软，你不觉得羞愧么？
你选择在你的OEM客户推出产品前的几个月，就抢先发表你的 Windows 8 平板电脑。但，这可不是什么有勇有谋的举动。
多年来，PC厂商都亦步亦趋地跟随着你的系统需求，站在你那一边支持你，长久以来他们一直在付出。而当你认为你已经能开发出实体产品时，你就赶在他们前面，希望能分到5%的毛利率！
我猜，很少有人会公开说些什么，因为他们都怕伤到和你之间的合作关系，所以我会说，他们只是有口难言罢了。
你可能已经从 Google 的经验中得到教训。和一家或两家 OEM 业者密切合作开发杀手级产品，藉此展现你旗下软件的创新特性。也或许，并没有任何创新的功能可以炫耀。
一位消息人士对我说，他听到Acer工程师将之形容为背叛。“微软希望为每套Windows RT设备收取80到90美元版税，但却同时推出标示着其商标的平板电脑机──这是不公平的竞争，而且可能会加速更多装置采用Android，”他说。
他同时表示，ODM公司觉得他们浪费在Windows 8平板上的投资，而现在，他们不得不再度转移焦点。
如果我是移动PC制造商，我现在就会打电话给Google的 Android 团队，去建立密切的合作关系。
台湾的PC厂商已经不止一次告诉我，他们认为Android要比Windows 8更适合平板计算机。因为它是免费的，而且它已经拥有了完善的使用者基础，以及应用软件生态系统。
微软 Surface 平板看起来并不令人惊艳。它看起来很像是一种“me-too”系统。我看不出任何能超越苹果 (Apple) iPad 之处。至少三星(Samsung)还能用类似iPad的 Galaxy 平板快速切入市场。
当我从纽约时报读到在洛杉矶记者会上，微软甚至并未回答任何有关与 OEM 冲突的问题时，我非常惊讶。
“当被问及 Surface 平板是否会损害与OEM之间的关系时，微软Windows部门总裁Steven Sinofsky轻推记者，让他转向 Surface 平板，并说：‘去学些东西’。”
也许有一天，微软将会从平板业务获得庞大利润。但他们要付出什么样的代价？
编译： Joy Teng
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
本文下一页：参考英文原文： Et tu, Ballmer, or M’soft’s stab at tablets ，by Rick Merritt
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Et tu, Ballmer, or M’soft’s stab at tablets
Rick Merritt
Shame on you, Steve Ballmer!
Pre-announcing your own Windows 8 tablet a few months before your OEM customers are ready to roll out their own products. That’s not gutsy, it’s just gross.
For years, PC makers have slavishly followed your systems requirements, jumped on your bandwagons (like Windows for Pen Computing), and this is their payment. When you think you have a solid product you rush to get in front of them hoping you can steal their sub-five-percent profit margins.
I suspect few will say anything publicly for fear of hurting their relationships with you, so I will say what they cannot. This is bad business.
You could have taken a lesson from Google. Work closely with one or two OEMs on a killer product that would show off the novel features of your software. Perhaps there really aren’t any novel features to show off.
One source told me he heard Acer engineers describe this as a betrayal. “Microsoft wants to charge $80 to $90 royalty per Windows RT device while bring out this tablet under its own logo—it’s unfair competition which will accelerate more adaption of Android,” he said.
(In my own interviews, I was told the per unit cost of a Windows license for OEMs is about $45.)
He reports an ODM company saying they feel they have “wasted all the investment [on a] promised [Win 8 tablet] business [and] will have to shift focus again.”
If I was a mobile PC maker, I would be on the phone to Google’s Android team seeking a tight partnership.
Taiwan’s PC makers have told me more than once they see Android as a better road to tablets than Windows 8. It’s free and it already has a well-established user base and ecosystem of apps.
The scant information on the Microsoft Surface tablet is unimpressive. It looks very much like a me-too system. I fail to see any compelling differences over the Apple iPad. At least Samsung was quick to market with its iPad-like Galaxy tablet.
Nvida was quick to note its Tegra powers the Surface. Frankly, this is one design win I would try to distance myself from.
I was amazed to read at their hastily called LA press conference, Microsoft did not even answer questions about OEM conflicts. According to the New York Times report:
"When asked whether Surface would damage those ties, Steven Sinofsky, the president of Microsoft’s Windows division, gently pushed a reporter in the direction of a stand of Surface tablets and said, 'Go learn something.'"
Maybe someday Microsoft will reap great profits from a tablet business. But at what cost?
The innovation in the Surface is mainly in its chutzpah.
责编：Quentin
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