A massive opportunity awaits for Microsoft: the chance to scuttle Apple's October product line. Kill it now.
A massive opportunity
Microsoft is ready. Apple is weak.
Microsoft is having huge success with the Surface family, the Xbox family, and everyone loves Windows 10.
Apple is weak.
Apple has had no really new products for four years. When it comes to computers, Apple has lost the plot. The iMac is getting old, the iMac Pro is far too expensive, the Mac Pro cylinder never sold that well, MacBooks are underpowered, MacBook Pro 13s are underpowered and expensive, and the MacBook Pro 15s are powerful and even more expensive. The repositioning of the iPad as a PC replacement is dead.
Apple is weak.
If you buy a MacBook Pro and an iPhone XS, and unbox them, you can't plug them in to each other. Crazy.
Microsoft is Ready
Microsoft is ready. They have massive piles of cash. They have massively talented people. They have worldwide reach. They have great leadership. They're raking in money from Cloud and Services. Xbox is a huge hit. Surface is a huge hit. People love Windows again. It's time to reboot.
It's time to Reboot
October 2018 is the perfect time for a reboot. A reboot to scuttle Apple. Bring down the hammer and squash the seeds out of the Apple core.
It's time to reboot.
Start with a blank sheet of paper and write down everything you'd love to have in a new Windows PC, and make it happen. Do it. Microsoft needs to do it.
Apple is weak. Microsoft is strong. Do it now.
"Strike while the iron is hot".
October 2018 is the perfect time for Microsoft to crush Apple.
Surface Go sucks. Surface Laptop 2 is due. Surface Pro 6 is due. Surface Book 2 is due.
Surface Studio 2 is due.
Xbox Two is due.
Reboot now. Create the perfect devices and launch them.
Forget legacy. Forget simple. Forget the past. Look to the future. Create awesome devices.
Microsoft needs to launch fresh new meaningful devices that deliver awesome customer experiences.
Microsoft needs to deliver:
Surface Go: Stop building the current Surface Go.
It sucks.
Microsoft Go:
Replace the Surface Go with the Microsoft Go.
Give it a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, and 8GB of RAM.
Give it Windows 10 S Mode and access to (Xamarin) Android apps.
Drop the USB-A and Mini DisplayPort.
Drop the Surface Connect port.
Keep the keyboard connect port. Give it two USB-C ports, Wifi AC and Bluetooth 5.
Give it an SD card slot for expandable storage. Keep the price in line with the iPad Mini.
Surface Laptop 2:
Choice of a Core i5 or Core i7 8th Gen processor.
Choice of 8GB, or 16GB of RAM.
Choice of 256GB or 512GB SSD.
Choice of colours.
Drop the USB-A and Mini DisplayPort.
Drop the Surface Connect port. Give it two USB-C ports, Wifi AC and Bluetooth 5.
Give it two Thunderbolt ports.
Surface Pro 6:
Choice of a Core i5 or Core i7 8th Gen processor.
Choice of 8GB, or 16GB of RAM.
Choice of 256GB or 512GB SSD.
Choice of Platinum or Black.
Drop the USB-A and Mini DisplayPort.
Drop the Surface Connect port.
Keep the keyboard connect port. Wifi AC and Bluetooth 5.
Give it two Thunderbolt ports.
Give it a built-in Wireless Display transmitter.
Surface Book 2:
Choice of a Core i5 or Core i7 8th Gen processor.
Choice of 16GB, or 32GB of RAM.
Just one case colour: Platinum
Drop the USB-A and Mini DisplayPort.
Drop the Surface Connect port.
Keep the keyboard connect port. Wifi AC and Bluetooth 5.
Give it four Thunderbolt ports.
Give it a built-in Wireless Display transmitter.
Give it a beefy GPU.
Surface Studio 2:
Choice of a Core i7 or Core i9 processor.
Choice of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of RAM.
Drop the USB-A ports.
Give it two USB-C ports for keyboards, phones, accessories.
Give it four Thunderbolt ports.
Give it upgradeable dedicated graphics.
Give it proper internal cooling.
Redesigned rectangular base to accommodate a GPU.
What to Kill:
Kill USB-A.
Kill Mini DisplayPort.
Kill HDMI on laptops.
Kill all webcams under 1080p resolution.
Kill anything that starts with "Pentium".
Kill everything with a 7th-gen or older processor.
Kill everything with 4GB of RAM. It's 2018.
Make sure Windows OEMs kill the above by mid 2019.
Kill Category 5 and 5e Ethernet.
Kill Category 6 and 6a Ethernet.
Kill Surface Connect port.
Standardise on:
Anything that used to be USB-A moves to USB-C Gen 2.
Anything that used to be Mini DisplayPort moves to DisplayPort over USB-C.
Anything that used to be HDMI moves to DisplayPort over USB-C.
Surface Connect moves to Thunderbolt.
Everything Ethernet moves to Category 7.
Why it matters
Right now, Apple is weak, Apple is stagnant, Apple has stopped innovating.
Microsoft has the perfect opportunity to stab Apple in the heart while they're weak.
Microsoft can walk proudly into 2019 and 2020 with fresh new exciting products, and OEM partners can use 2019 to transition their product lines to 2020 versions with amazing new speeds and features.
By dropping USB-A, and the other old technologies on the Kill List, and moving the entire industry to adopt the Standardise List, you lower the cost for OEMs and you bulk-upgrade the customer experience for every end user. Drink some Apple juice and have the "courage" to do it.
Apple laptops and desktops were far superior to anything that ran Windows in 2006, because those Apple products were tightly integrated on custom motherboards and ran new technologies. It delivered a better customer experience, but had the unfortunate side effect of Dongle Hell.
If every Windows OEM now standardises on the specs above, we avoid Dongle Hell in Windows and we jump to a gratifying user experience, in a bigger ecosystem, with greater economies of scale, and stab Apple at the same time: we give Windows users the Apple experience at half the price of Apple hardware.
Do it, Microsoft.
You know you can.
Until next time,
Xavier Zymantas
XYZtech
XYZ Media Group
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