Monday's big ​announcemen​t.

Edit: screw this. I figured we'd get some good old speculation going but apparently this too has to become another Windows 8 whingefest.

29 minutes ago, Bas wrote

Basically anything they'll announce is bound to be disappointing at this point

Not if the announcement is about putting the start button- and menu back into Windows 8.

Acquisition of Yammer? Although, that would make for a really boring announcement.

I recall the special monday announcements usually amounting to some special feature in an existing product that people over the interwebs already knew about.

IIRC the last time MS doing some mystic event, was for Kin.

@Bas: i feel your pain.

I loved yammer with my previous employer.

Hmm, I thought it was just a rumor but Bloomberg seems certain that it will be about the tablet (unless the tablet reveal is in addition to Monday's announcement next week).

So a Barnes & Noble Tablet running WinRT and a Bespoke Metro based UI is my bet. 

Hope the deal crosses over the pond whatever it might be. 

5 hours ago, Bas wrote

Edit: screw this. I figured we'd get some good old speculation going but apparently this too has to become another Windows 8 whingefest.

Need less speculation and appreciate what is already out there, like the awesome traffic aware Bing Map on WP7 (both freeway and local street). Weeeee.......... 

Go get a WP7 and feel the awesomeness already. It is extremely satisfying to get out of red freeway and see others stuck on traffic, and you just cruise around the almost empty street, harrr harrr harrr.

If all this fuss is really just about a tablet, then Microsoft's infamous marketing department has truly outdone itself.

What's exciting and big about yet another Windows 8 tablet?

Haven't Acer, Dell, Lenovo etc. already promised Win 8 tablets? And of course, everyone was expecting a Nokia Windows 8 tablet as well.

@wastingtimewithforums:I think the difference is 'content is King' which is where the Barnes & Noble link is key.

I'm all for having MSFT investors foot the bill for the friends of Microsoft executives

.... BUT

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/yammer

VENTURE FUNDING TOTAL     $142M
Series A, 1/09 3
Charles River Ventures
Founders Fund
    $5M
Series B, 2/10 4
Emergence Capital Partners
Charles River Ventures
Goldcrest Investments
Ron Conway
Keith Rabois
    $10M
Series C, 11/10 5
U.S. Venture Partners
Emergence Capital Partners
Charles River Ventures
Founders Fund
    $25M
Series D, 9/11 6
The Social+Capital Partnership
Chamath Palihapitiya
    $17M
Series E, 2/12 7
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Social + Capital Partnership
Meritech Capital Partners
Khosla Ventures
Capricorn Venture Partners
Charles River Ventures
Founders Fund
US Venture Partners
Emergence Capital Partners
Max Levchin
CrunchFund
Ronnie Lott

No.... the Microsoft board just gave the MSFT investor money to Michael Arrington and Paul Carr. OMFG, show some restraint next time.

http://uncrunched.com/2011/10/03/welcome-to-crunchfund-mg-siegler/

Thanks for the money MSFT investors. It comes out to 100k per nasty thing I wrote about M$, now that's ROI. You guys are SMART!

I'm going to dance my happy dance now, yay!

MG is my new hero. He made Microsoft fund it's own bad press for years to come.

To the lowly Microsoft employee working in tech support for years, this dude above just got all your company's money, not you. This guy who trashed Microsoft for years.

That's corporate leadership. Your corporate leadership. Now go and buy a slurpee with that bonus.

MS is going to announce that the entire Interweb will be changed to Metro.

A WinRT Nook would be awesome to see, but I think this will just be an announcement of the Xbox-branded ZunePass replacement, hopefully including movies as well as music.

@elmer: Hasn't it already been?

14 hours ago, wastingtimewithforums wrote

If all this fuss is really just about a tablet, then Microsoft's infamous marketing department has truly outdone itself.

What's exciting and big about yet another Windows 8 tablet?

Haven't Acer, Dell, Lenovo etc. already promised Win 8 tablets? And of course, everyone was expecting a Nokia Windows 8 tablet as well.

Some speculate that this one will bear the Microsoft brand, which would make it pretty special.

It would give them free rein wrt software installed, they could establish a "reference design" for all W8 tablets to come, they could subsidize it all they want. And since they wouldn't have to pay for the OS, they would level the field with the competition while screwing the OEMs big time.

That's the reason why a MS tablet would be exciting...

2 hours ago, Blue Ink wrote

while screwing the OEMs big time.

And destroy their entire business model? I doubt it.

1 hour ago, GoddersUK wrote

*snip*

And destroy their entire business model? I doubt it.

I had the same reaction, at first, but that might not be the case. Not necessarily at least. If I were an OEM, I would be wary of W8 tablets getting the same lukewarm welcome that WP7 got: there's little to be gained by getting the largest slice of the pie when the pie is ridiculously small.

MS spearheading the effort of establishing a presence in the market segment (or in a loosely related one, like that of eReaders) might end up making life easier for OEMs, despite the fact that they end up with a much smaller share. Except that the pie might then be large enough.

And with this I exceeded my yearly quota for speculation...