Robert Pogson

“CNBC’s David Faber is reporting that Microsoft may invest between $1 billion and $3 billion in Dell as part of the computer maker’s plan to go private.”

see Report: Microsoft in talks to invest up to $3B in Dell to help take the PC maker private – GeekWire.

This is another example of M$ nailing its coffin shut from the inside. If it did buy a piece of Dell would Dell be beholden sufficiently to continue to be a “partner”? Perhaps for a while but Michael Dell is OK with GNU/Linux and Android/Linux and taking Dell private is mostly his way to get out from under a bunch of dead wood on the Board of Dell. If M$ made a sweet deal with Dell, I would bet other OEMs would hedge their bets by investing heavily in */Linux and M$ would be shooting itself in the foot.

As long as the Board fears the effect of selling GNU/Linux on share prices they will be stubborn. If Michael Dell was in charge, he could make whatever arrangements he wanted with China, Canonical and the rest of the world. The phenomenal success of Android/Linux freed from M$ is no doubt tempting for him. He could do a lot more Android/Linux and GNU/Linux if the Board and shareholders were out of the picture.

Dell was Michael Dell’s baby. I would bet he sees Dell in need of fewer restrictions in order to continue to grow and to thrive. Why he invites investment from M$ is beyond me. Google has a ton of cash. Perhaps he should ask them…

“Complacency and a lack of innovation among OEM vendors and other parts of the PC ecosystem has occurred over the past five years. As a result, PC market growth flattened in 2012 and may stagnate in 2013 as users continue gravitating to ever more powerful smartphones and tablets.

This year, over 2 billion users will access the Internet. What makes this compelling is not the number of users going online, but rather the number of devices that will be used to gain access. Over half of these users will access the Internet with mobile devices, which means that system OEMs and semiconductor suppliers need to emphasize technology that offers better performance, optimizes power for all day mobility, and drives integration and cost savings by leveraging heterogeneous SoC-based solutions across every form factor.

see IDC Announces Study Highlighting New Roadmap on the Future of Personal Computing.

There are still those that see the Wintel PC as the anchor of IT but it is really a millstone around the neck of IT. Instead of letting Wintel drag everyone down, OEMs, software developers, retailers and consumers are turning to Free Software and open systems to get done what they want. A large monitor and a keyboard are not the sole property of Wintel PCs. Consumers now have Android/Linux, GNU/Linux and other offerings besides the legacy stuff from Apple, M$ and its “partners”.

Five years ago, I would see 47 varieties of Wintel PCs on retail shelves. This year I see 5 varieties of Wintel and 47 varieties of other personal computing devices, largely tablets and smartphones but more GNU/Linux desktops and notebooks are being produced and sold every year. Real competition has entered the market for consumers’ money and legacy Wintel has lost traction and mind-share. Business usage of Wintel PCs seem to be the last hold-out but even business is using smart thingies as accessories to Wintel PCs and thin clients to access Wintel applications. M$’s grip on IT is broken. We expect to see that in the numbers this week as a new release, Christmas and huge outlays on advertising have not advanced M$’s cause much at all.