Microsoft actually does learn from its mistakes, and the Netscape mistake was a huge learning experience. Microsoft learned that it really doesn't do subtle well, and that virtually any memo can, and likely will, be leaked to the press. As a result, while the company will attack Linux and open source directly from time to time, it actually can't -- and really has never been able to -- make the subtle moves that are being attributed to it.

The article then continues to the specific myth regarding the future of the Tablet PC.

Tablet PC Is Dead

This one caught me by absolute surprise. Here is the background. For some time now, I and several other analysts and IT managers have been telling Microsoft that the separate Tablet PC edition idea was a bad one. This is because the last thing IT wants is another operating system to manage. After lots of pounding, Microsoft agreed to look at this issue. In two presentations at WinHEC -- Microsoft's recent hardware conference for developers -- Matti Suokko, the Mobile Platforms Division manager, and Darin Fish, the Business Development manager for the Mobile Platforms Division at Microsoft, both indicated Microsoft is considering a new direction.
You would think the result would be a sigh of relief from analysts and media. Instead, the articles that resulted generally concluded that the Tablet PC is dead. Folks got to this opinion by taking the obvious shortcut of tying the platform to the unique OS and concluding that if the unique OS is gone, so is the platform -- despite the fact that pictures of tablet computers were liberally sprinkled through both presentations, including the future road map sections.

The other product we have been asking Microsoft to lose is the Home Edition of Windows XP. However, it scares me to think that were Microsoft to ditch that version, the media would conclude that the company was abandoning the entire consumer segment of the market.

This is an excellent analysis but leaves me a bit concerned. Maybe you are too.

Link: Dispelling Misconceptions About Microsoft

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