by Conrad MacIntyre
By Conrad MacIntyre
M.G. Siegler on the news that Apple TV outsold Xbox 360 last quarter:
When — yes, when — Apple adds apps to this thing, wonder what will happen? If they added them tomorrow, the Apple TV would instantly be the number one gaming console. Think about that for a second.
Ummm... this is comparing a decade-old console to a 3-month-old set-top box. I highly doubt Apple TV outsells a newly released Xbox console. IF that happens I'll be impressed.
Before Microsoft unveiled the Surface tablet last week in Los Angeles, it unveiled the mouse. More specifically, the 1983 Microsoft Mouse, which CEO Steve Ballmer hailed as an example of the company’s 30-year history in hardware.
Carr then goes on to rave about the Arc Touch mouse and the new Surface (including an emotional attachment to the kickstand, apparently) and about the superior quality of Microsoft's hardware designs and implementations...
Nick Eaton in 2009:
[A] Game Informer survey of 5,000 readers found that the Xbox 360 has an astounding 54.2 percent failure rate. That means 54.2 percent of Xbox 360 consoles fail in one way or another.
That’s well above the reported failure rates of Sony’s PlayStation 3 (10.6 percent) and Nintendo’s Wii (6.8 percent).
I'm not saying Surface is bad, it might be awesome. I'll be interested to play with one when they are released. But when we glow about Microsoft's history in hardware let's not forget their most successful hardware device.