If by 'confining yourself' you mean becoming the largest company in the world (not sure if that's still true) with growing profits then I guess that's a problem I wouldn't mind having.

Wouldn't it be funny if he went and started a company (let's say 'After') which implements his ideas for an OS based on a BSD kernel, completely uninhibited by MS bureaucracy. A few years down the track MS is floundering and Ballmer has been booted. Sinofsky comes back and replaces Windows UI with that from After and the rest becomes history?

Or it was all part of his plan. Maybe, just maybe, if he can convince enough people that he did in fact get elected then it might just maybe come true. And if that doesn't work he can just disappear by putting his hands over his eyes and saying 'Ha! now you can't see me.'

At the moment I would say that point is quite valid. How long that holds could be an interesting question however. I think Ballmer is going nowhere but Sinofsky is different. I think his style and approach have real potential and he's starting to find his stride. Give it a few years and I think he is going to be responsible for some big turn arounds in terms of what MS produces and we are just starting to see the inflection point.

Now I'm actually a Linux and Apple fan myself and normally don't think much of MS but Sinofsky is someone I respect.

Ok, I'll accept I was wrong there, but they are definitely in the software business and I believe they have applied a lot of what they learnt there to their hardware side of things and it is part of the reason their hardware is top notch.

Well I was talking generally not absolutely. But either way. MS must believe they can do a fair bit better if they are deciding to go it themselves. They seem to have done not too badly with the Surface so I'm actually keen to see what they pull off with a phone.

The other device makers really can't complain here from what I see. MS is starting to make their own products because quite frankly, the products made by others have been mediocre at best. They have had many years to pick up their game but none of them have. MS really does owe them nothing and if MS can make a better device themselves then they most definitely should because the others quite clearly can't.

I find it very interesting that Software companies (Apple, Google, MS, Amazon) have all taken to hardware as well and served many companies who specialise only in hardware (and have many years experience) their asses on a plate. This is a perfect example of skills learnt in one area translating very elegantly into another.

Indeed I believe we are just seeing the start of a new era of innovation in terms of new formats for portable devices. Android is maturing just as the manufacturers are starting to get their stuff together in terms of playing with new ideas. I think the future is going to be very interesting. I wonder if Apple and MS will be able to keep up?

I think you are right that this is going to be a fight, it's going to be a huge fight. There are many large and profitable organisations with a lot at stake here. I would not be surprised if this makes that **aa battles of today look tame in comparison.

These devices, as they become cheaper and better, have absolutely massive potential for humanity. But todays world is increasingly $'s focused instead of benefits focused. I would like to see humanity win but I fear the corporations (in the short term at least) will be too powerful.

http://www.creativitygames.net/creative-thinking/449-the-threat-of-3d-printing

Surely there would be a database somewhere of court cases and who was involved in them, either as witnesses, plaintiff or defendant. Even if it is only for court cases in America. Surely the system should automatically scan anyone called up to be a witness and show any prior cases for all to see?

If in fact Apple does release a smaller iPad then I think this will actually be quite significant with respect to MS and Win8. Given the popularity of other smaller tablets released recently such as the Kindle and the Nexus it shows that the market is moving (or rather expanding) to accommodate this new form factor. But it doesn't look to me like Win8 will play nice at this scale (just my opinion, I could be wrong). So just as MS finally get's something possibly credible onto the market the market has shifted to something else.

So it could be that Apple still doesn't believe the smaller form factor is better than the 10" size but is happy to play along as it would quite aggravate MS.
Regarding Jobs' comments regarding the 7" screens, I believe he may have been right at the time but our UI design skills for tablets have improved now which may mitigate those points. The industry moves so quickly that a lot of comments many people make are true at the time given what was viable then but become less relevant as we learn more.

This is just a ploy to help get more copies of Win8 sold. Shortly after it gets approved they'll get others to push for a huge tablet rollout in schools. MS will then go in with a deal they can't refuse for Win8 tablets. The bonus is they will then have to buy more Office licenses and quite a few more Win servers to manage them.

So. An easy way to get an increase in sales in the short term and secure Win8 market share in the long term.

While schools are playing with tablets as small individual projects MS has no chance but once it becomes a large scale deployment that goes out to tender MS can muscle their way in and force everything to be MS. That's effectively the way it worked here in NSW Australia for the 1 laptop per child project. MS made a killing on it and turned every high school student above yr 9 into a walking advertisement for Win 7.

Kinda similar to when FF started gaining market share. MS was very vocal in stating that people didn't want tabs, that tabs were a fad, that they were useless. Then when people didn't believe them they eventually added tabs to IE.

Wonder if similar will happen here?