And that leads to the question  "How bad is the erosion of the Windows brand name right now?"

Checking into this has led to some interesting info dating back from 2008 and then again in 2012 when  it was recommended to MS that they dump the Windows brand name completely because they had turned it into a net negative value with Windows 95 and Windows ME and had done the name yet further damage floundering around with the first version of Windows XP (which if you remember wasn't very good at all until Service pack 1.2 rolled around).  

Ditto again in 21012 for Win 8 and Win 8.1 -- more brand name erosion has taken place in 2012 - 2014 to the point the brand name Windows means "screwed up" all over again.

Vista was the first "renaming" of Windows ---- and wow, what a bath that was.    "Threshold" per se isn't a fix in other words, making some really really much better software is the only fix that you can do that will get you where you want to be.

Right now MS is being told by some pundits not to call it Threshold or Windows 9 at all --  firstly it is really going to be Win 8.2 structurally AND if MS screws it all up up again they may kill off their Windows brand name entirely beyond any real hope of recovery.

Instead the pundits are saying "have a Preliminary Release with no name, give it away for testing for free  (or whatever) and leave it out there for a year and show some really dedicated and rapid activity fixing whatever the people tell you is wrong with it.  

Then, after the fixes slow down and people are actually happy with it, then call it Windows 9 BUT NOT BEFORE THEN.

In other words, prove to us that you are REALLY different from Ballmer's MS in some real, meaningful ways.

Show us that your OS is SIMPLY BETTER than Chromebooks and Linux and Mac and iOS 8.

Don't bullshite us .... make some truly great software and let it do the talking for you.





Four years ago, Windows was the #2 strongest brand name.    Last year it was ranked #34.    

This year it may fall even lower .....

So, it's been a whole week now since Chrome and Android got married up, so what is Google up to now?

Let's see, Android L is going to come out in late October or early November along with the Christmas offerings of new, more powerful Nexus devices.   At the same time, Samsung will drop their newest 64 bit chipsets and phones and tablets and begin shipping them for Christmas as well.    

We are talking announce and ship on the same day.

Android L will be full 64 bit from the get go and it will carry all the Chromebook/Android mate up tricks from the get go as well as being fully encrypted by default from the get go.

What does this all mean?  

China and the NSA can't get into your phone or your tablet ......  (yup, not unless they can steal the encryption key when the phone is being built and first loaded that is)

Samsung and Google have been staying mute lately and holding off on putting out the new products and that silence has made some go theorizing that there were a few late burbles in Android L that took some extra time and effort to smooth out.

If so, then this was smart -- last major generation change Samsung pushed out the first OctaCore Exynos 5410 product that simply didn't work quite right because the software/hardware core swapping part of the A15-A7 generation simply wasn't fully cooked yet.   That was an embarrassing enough mess to be sure.

It is very important that there be no burbles at the 64 bit Android release.

However, words will be pushed out on October 30-31 saying when all the stuff will actually fly for real for Christmas.

Lastly, Android L may be called Lemon Meringue Pie or Lollipop and it will likely carry the Android 5.0 numerical designation as it is the very first 64 bit Android.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/189329-nvidia-sues-qualcomm-samsung-for-...



Nvidia sues Qualcomm, Samsung for infringing on its ‘invention of the GPU’

Wow, I thought Nvidia had learned something from watching Linus's middle finger pop up in public -- don't be an arsehole.   Boy was I wrong.   Nvidia is being a bigger arsehole right now than it EVER was before.

This lawsuit is unfounded, Nvidia did not "invent" the GPU (the very first IBM mainframe had a graphics co-processor and all that software/hardware design IP for that has been donated to FOSS for over a decade now) and what is only amusing to lawyers is the fact that Samsung doesn't make (and never has made) its own GPUs.

Samsung is going to request legal support from ARM and VR Graphics (the folks they do buy their GPUs from) and let Nvidia's lawyers explain to them how those guys (who predate Nvidia in mobile industry GPUS) are infringing on Nvidia's patents.

ARM will be very very negatively impressed that their licensee Nvidia is going around suing people who are using ARM Mali graphics.    Nvidia is a relative newbie in the RISC world after all, coming from an x86 CISC background.

What's behind the story?   Nvidia isn't doing as well financially as they have been doing in years past (with the PC industry tanking and all) and they want to do them a Microsoft and suck a little profit from those who are doing well.

Issue is that they are being ridiculous in what they are attempting.   And only a ridiculous West Coast judge would even consider granting them a "stop all shipments" court order against a South Korean company who isn't even the maker of the GPUs in question.

Linus's middle finger is going to be popping up again, I can just hear what he's gong to comment about Nvidia doing this.    Also, do you think this will affect your sell through of your current Nvidia products somewhat, by any chance, with you being such an incredible arsehole just lately?

And do you think it is funny that Nvidia goes sues Qualcomm who owns Adreno graphics that they bought from AMD who bought it with ATI who merged with Bitboys who INVENTED 3D graphics back in 1990, three years before Nvidia was formed?  Can you say "big arsed countersuit"?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/medfield-krait-smartphone-mobile-soc,3117...

So, go sue some people who are going to sue you right back, you idiot, and very likely they will win when they do it.   Erode your shrinking bottom line a little more, you idiot.

And go get yourself a fresh phosphorescent green coating of "stinking arsehole" while you are going about it, too.

Nvidia .....  you'd snatch defeat from the jaws of victory doing some really stupid stunts like this.   Your Tegra K1 was doing very well, and your follow on Denver cored version looked good too -- but not if you are going around suing people for stupid shite and pissing everybody off.

Samsung cross licenses with Google and Samsung is the largest (or counting Apple, the second largest) customer of ARM, who is the one you are really suing with your nonsense BS suit.
 
Even Apple doesn't win suing Samsung and the tit for tat they have been doing for the last 5 years is a drain on both of them.   Apple and Google have agreed to drop all lawsuits between them since their tit for tat was foolish and draining on both parties.  

And nobody successfully sues ARM, aka Acorn which was formed by IBM, Sun, Apple and DEC way way back in the day to develop and further RISC technologies and was granted all the founding companies various RISC patents to go do so.

And you are really stupid, because Apple and Google are teaming up now to go after patent reform in the electronics industry as they see exactly what you are doing is a slow poison effect on all technical innovation as the successful innovators are being sued by the out-competed failures fairly consistently now-a-days.  

Nvidia, you may be the poster boy example for this patent reform effort, BTW.


"Fwck you, Nvidia"       ...... mmmm, are the Nvidia Denver drivers in the Linux kernel yet?  
Remember what Linus said would happen if folks like you didn't cooperate and behave decently?
"Folks like that should be ignored ....."

I wonder just how long that Denver kernel work is going to take now.
And when the Linux kernel work finally gets done, just how long with the Chromebook board approvals & the software driver tuning take over at Google?
Stupid Nvidia, just plain stupid.

Drop the BS lawsuits     And it really doesn't matter what MS has promised you, they can't deliver on it because they are in the same boat you are now ....  a loser in the Chrome Wars.  

And they are really ARE asking you to cut your own throat with this one.    Remember, you were a WINNER last week, now you are a stone loser now, big time.

This Christmas is the dump all the old stuff, sell it all off Christmas.    This Black Friday is going to have some MOST EXCELLENT DEALS on the few surviving Windows desktop PCs and for all notebooks and laptops.

Lots of uncertainty in the marketplace combined with wholesale and retail channels sitting kinda stagnant & just slam full of goods that are getting ready to age out technologically.

No matter which way the Chrome Wars turn, there is going to be massive change at the start of 2015 and most of these warehouse stocks of existing units are going to be stuck on the wrong side of that change no matter what it winds up doing.

The new 20nm and 14nm lithographies are both going to say about the same thing for the equipment next year -- the new stuff will be FANLESS and it will all be very small form factor compared to the stuff getting sold off this year.  

You got a few canny vendors who are leaving the worst of the PC/laptop markets right now, intending not to take a year's end bath in those areas.   Those like Samsung will get out early by stopping production and shipments NOW and letting any existing inventory sell down naturally

(and admittedly they don't have a lot to sell down, Samsung isn't a big player in PC/laptops in Europe relatively speaking).  

The bigger players are a lot more exposed and they find themselves not having a lot of margin to play with for making up great sale prices as current prices have been pushed down pretty consistently over the course of the last two quarters.    Dumping this inventory is going to hurt them a lot.

Windows 9 is coming.   Microsoft is going to change from a "buy it once and keep it for 10 years" business plan to a "rent your software yearly and trust us to keep it current" model.

Chromebook has risen as a viable alternative to Windows.   Chrome has picked up Android and is integrating all of Linux to become a full function alternative to Windows that is always kept current and that is always free.    This is attracting a lot of people (especially in Europe/Russia) who are repurposing existing devices rather than buying anything new.

There isn't a lot of money to be made in computers any more -- the selling price has come down to only a couple of three-four hundred dollars on the low end, no matter which kind you are chasing.   Sub $350 is most common with some coming in at sub $200 now --- this huge price drop has got to winnow out some of the lower volume producers fairly soon.


Change, she comes .....        



Remember, this is a cell phone, and next year if you give its grandson a wireless keyboard and monitor then you could type a post on it.   Or do a spreadsheet.   This is the sort of AMAZING change that will happen inside the world of the Internet of Things next year .....  

Both Samsung and Lenovo are coming out with their own relatively sleeker more normal looking Glasses -- yep, Google will have piloted yet another venue for their ads to take place (and invented yet another new technology).

Shopping with Glasses, with an app that instantly reads the bar code on the shelf label and instantly gives you the 2 day shipped Amazon price for the same item .....  plus gives you three alternative Amazon items for you to consider.

http://liliputing.com/2014/09/installing-android-apps-chromebooks-made-easier...

Installing Android apps on Chromebooks made easier by Chrome APK Packager tool



"Developer bpear96 has released an Android app called Chrome APK Packager. Install it on your Android phone and it will come up with a list of apps installed on your Android device.

Check the box next to an app you want to install on a Chromebook or PC running the Chrome browser, hit the “Generate Chrome APK” button, and it’ll create an Android app that’s compatible with Chrome (assuming you have the ARChon runtime for Chrome installed)."

My goodness, in just two weeks it goes from "you can do it" to "this is how you do it" to "here is a one click Android App that does it automatically for you from your phone".

Somehow I jest don't think Microsoft (or Apple) can match the reaction speed and general skills levels of the crowd of Googlites that are marching in formation towards Christmas.

CHROME STUFF IS GETTING BETTER at an incredible rate while MS still hasn't even got their base OS's operational 8.x brokenness fixed yet, much less tried to get it tuned to run any lighter, faster or better.

Young people who are up on all this techno stuff likely will buy into the free stuff that is rapidly getting better rather than the pay me stuff that is going to cost yearly subscription money just to stay the same 'ol porky slow stuff.

Plus, folks who know Android and the Chrome browser know all about how all this new works already ......

Since the Chrome browser is going to get all this goody built into it along with voice search and all the other good just invented tricks, then good 'ol Apple is still struggling to play catch up despite just having dropped iOS 8 out on the market.    

MS is so far behind now that their confused stinky brown vapor isn't even keeping up any more.

         (feeling Scroggled yet, MS ???)

Toshiba and Acer each dropped in a new Chromebook today, each of which offers over 8 hours of run time on a charge.    The Toshiba has a full size laptop battery that gets over 11 hours actually, which is very very good.

By my count there have been six new Chromebooks dropped to only one "way way out of price position" Stream Book machine so far.    

I doubt there will be any more BingOS machines since the entire Stream Book class seems to have failed to meet the needed price and performance guidelines.  Plus, so far MS isn't "contra revenuing" the Chrome Killers enough price-wise to even get them down into the real Chromebook striking range.    

Seems like $50 is all the price support MS will allow, which ain't nearly enough to get the job done.

So far the Chrome OS has been improved twice since the war was started while the current version of BingOS has been
technically discontinued (the name, anyway) during this same very short period of time.

        not much of a war really so far, kinda more of a dumb biatch slappin' actually.





                                                                                                 


   Oh my goodness, another metaphor for this ongoing struggle comes to mind .....

A skinny quick '60s hippy chick having a slap fight with a fat sloppy spandex street ho.

(yeah, MS sells it  --  charges a lot for it even though it ain't all that good.   MS's ho keeps giving you the clap repeatedly too).

Well, if MS actually can improve Win9 in several significant fashions, then that fat sloppy spandex clad ho might just slap that skinny hippy chick back some next week.

MS swung a meaty spandex clad arm and hit back today -- but the meaty arm was all vapor so it did NOTHING AT ALL to the little skinny hippy chick.    

No audible Christmas season SMACK sounds all so far.

Looking for the Win 8.x machine discounting to become sorta severe come Black Friday -- them MS fan boys can now see Win 10 coming and it might be good, so expect all the current stocks of Win 8.x to just sit unless the STEEP discount deals and some avowed "upgrade rights" to Win 10 are announced ASAP and are promoted strongly.

Time to clear the retail channels, boys .....