Microsoft: Xbox One Is Perfect For Your Small Business

[WhiteTigerShiro]

"Okay, and when I'm done Skyping, will I be able to type-up an email to my business partners? No? I'll have to make use of a PC that can also use Skype and all those other features? Well shit, why don't I buy just the PC, then? Oh, but the PC is more expensive? But we just established that I have to buy it anyway. So..."

Man, Microsoft is really reaching, here. -_-

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

I'm really starting to think Microsoft is run by some kind of non-humans that don't understand how mammalian brains work

 

[KOMega]

They are scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
Unfortunately, the barrel is as dry as a Xbone.

 

[tdylan]

The profound ignorance is that you can buy a cheap PC and do the same thing.

Anybody know the cost of a good teleconference peice? $50? $60?

No. Be ready to drop $1,000 IF YOU'RE LUCKY. That isn't even including the cost of the computer. So, this is actually much cheaper than buying all the telecommunications hardware alone. I have worked for a company (Bank of New York-Mellon) where this hardware is used and their specific hardware now costs about $3,500 retail. (Polycomm)

Yeah. This actually is appealing.

Skype is free.

 

[Something Amyss]

I have a dumb question:


"Why can't a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE be centered around attracting video game players?"

Man, that really IS a dumb question.

No, it's not. But here's the thing: gaming wants to be bigger than it is. Bigger than it probably CAN be at this moment. The future? Who knows. But they're marketing games that need to sell more than 5 million copies to meet expectations, so just imagine sales projections for consoles.

Rather than trying to reign in expectations, they're broadening the market. Almost broadening gaming right out of the picture. It's likely a very illogical move. But considering the rest of the industry, it's probably more common than "let's make games for gamers to buy, play and enjoy!"

And with the Kinect 2.0 spying on your employees, you won't have to worry about your workers embezzling funds or eating the sandwich you left in the fridge.

Only if you pay an additional fee. It's Gold Plus For Business (tm) Otherwise, they just blackmail your employees.

Sounds like Microsoft is scrambling to allure markets after is spent this last quarter alienating them.

To be fair, they only really alienated gamers. This makes sense in their batshit crazy world. They're still ignoring gamers.

The profound ignorance is that you can buy a cheap PC and do the same thing.

Anybody know the cost of a good teleconference peice? $50? $60?

No. Be ready to drop $1,000 IF YOU'RE LUCKY. That isn't even including the cost of the computer. So, this is actually much cheaper than buying all the telecommunications hardware alone. I have worked for a company (Bank of New York-Mellon) where this hardware is used and their specific hardware now costs about $3,500 retail. (Polycomm)

Yeah. This actually is appealing.

I hope you're taking the piss, but you're all over the place so I'm not sure.

Do you think that this will be even remotely comparable to telecommunications equipment in terms of quality? No? Then why compare it to that, when you could compare it to products which are...Comparable in cost and quality? Hell, since you'll likely have applications for which an Xbone still isn't viable (unless they've added spreadsheet and word processor functions, for example), why not pay the roughly 100 dollars for the Kinect (if it so good as to be compared to serious telecommunications equipment) and use it with your likely existing computer?

 

[Doom972]

Paying $500 to use Office and Skype? You'd have to really stupid, and probably shouldn't be running a business. A low-range PC can do it better and it'll cost less. It's worth mentioning that while on PC you choose which services you want to use, on the Xbone you're restricted to what Microsoft offers.

 

[Zipa]

I'm really starting to think Microsoft is run by some kind of non-humans that don't understand how mammalian brains work

Maybe they are the crab people that South Park warned us about!

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Xbone with inevitable TV purchase required to make it function: $800+
Tablet with all of the above features and more: $200+
Buying a 1080p webcam to add to your existing PC: $69
Skype: Priceless.

There are some companies that know how to successfully pitch value to potential customers. For everything else, there's Microsoft.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

Personally I am thrilled. I have always wanted some sort of computerized office machine that can do things like store documents, act as a writing tool and help me keep in touch with my overseas colleagues without having to foot expensive phone bills. Something that is simple enough to be used by any average Joe. One might call it a "personal computer". Hell microsoft, that is a market I'm sure you could just downright own.

But seriously microsoft, have you gotten so bored that you are now trying to dethrone yourself from the nr 1 office computer position?

 

[Nazulu]

Microsoft: Xbox One will now lick your ass!

For fuck sake, I couldn't imagine who this message will appeal to since anyone with a computer will have these and more, or something similar through i technology.

Just drop the damn Kinect already you pompous morons.

Edit: Hell, even my brother who didn't give a damn about the online DRM and what not, who only really wants to play COD and Halo (Halo being his favourite franchise ever and prefers to play it on console), feels that all the shit you've done adds up. He just can't bring himself to look past those things so he's looking up the PS4. That's how much you screwed up Microsoft.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Wonder how many mom and pop gaming stores got this message? You know, the ones MS threatened to put out of business?

 

[Callate]

...And yet you can do all of that on many netbooks, laptops and tablets that cost even less. Unless your "small business" is really about finding ways to justify your plasma TV as a business expense.

I'm not sure I'd read this as out-of-the-box thinking about the functionality of the XBox One as much as lack of familiarity and/or confidence in Windows 8.

 

[Strazdas]

Like Skype?

No? Now go back to the corner or bring my my MSN back.

Need to store documents? Xbox One has the Sky Drive. Internet Explorer and Office Web Apps are at your fingertips

wait, i though you said store documents, not upload them, which any decent company would consider a security breach

Plus there's plenty of assistance for your presentation and Power Point needs

i already got assitence, its called "clicking the next slide".

So far i see this as offering less than same priced PC for any business.

Is Microsoft trying to get people to buy a PC because they will probably get windows?

considering that they recently banned windows 7 sales because people were buying 7 more than 8, dont think that will work. now the firs thing whne you get a computer will have to be uninstalling windows 8 and installing 7

The profound ignorance is that you can buy a cheap PC and do the same thing.

Anybody know the cost of a good teleconference peice? $50? $60?

No. Be ready to drop $1,000 IF YOU'RE LUCKY. That isn't even including the cost of the computer. So, this is actually much cheaper than buying all the telecommunications hardware alone. I have worked for a company (Bank of New York-Mellon) where this hardware is used and their specific hardware now costs about $3,500 retail. (Polycomm)

Yeah. This actually is appealing.

maybe you should be less ignorance yourself. PC can teleconference quite easily, and a pc that costs 500 dolalrs (Xbone price) will do that very easily.
you see, either your bank used truly specific hardware (as in banks want to be safe from outside interferece so no itnernet and shit) or you got scammed.

 

[Jaythulhu]

I can't think of a single business that would buy one to use instead of a pc/mac/'nix-box, especially with the mandatory internet explorer "browsing" "feature".

 

[Olas]

This is starting to get sad. Most infomercial products seem more reasonable than this.

What are you doing Microsoft? Why can't you make different products for different applications? First you tried to make desktops use the same operating system as tablets. Now you're trying to convince people to do business with a gaming console.

Somehow I doubt Windows 8 or the XBone will be seen much in office buildings.

 

[General Vagueness]

I saw this coming as far as the appeal but I didn't think Microsoft would actually talk about it like that. I also didn't know it runs MS Office, which implies we can still connect a keyboard.

 

[Zero Serenity]

Skype is free.

But the hardware is not.

maybe you should be less ignorance yourself. PC can teleconference quite easily, and a pc that costs 500 dolalrs (Xbone price) will do that very easily.
you see, either your bank used truly specific hardware (as in banks want to be safe from outside interferece so no itnernet and shit) or you got scammed.

Ha ha. No. Scammed? No. Really. Here's a comparable device. [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1ZC0K70413] Tell me again, how is $3,800 less than $500?

I hope you're taking the piss, but you're all over the place so I'm not sure.

Real person.

Do you think that this will be even remotely comparable to telecommunications equipment in terms of quality? No? Then why compare it to that, when you could compare it to products which are...Comparable in cost and quality? Hell, since you'll likely have applications for which an Xbone still isn't viable (unless they've added spreadsheet and word processor functions, for example), why not pay the roughly 100 dollars for the Kinect (if it so good as to be compared to serious telecommunications equipment) and use it with your likely existing computer?

Okay, this one will take some dismantling. Let's base price a computer off the shelf. $300 for all the goodies sounds reasonable. I'm going to exclude the TV/Monitor for this comparison because it's the same either way.
Now let's add a webcam. Say $20.
Finish up with a long gain microphone and...wait...anybody know where I can get one? Here's the problem. All but maybe five of the presentations I've given in my job have been a multi-room and multi-persons in each room shindig. A few in the conference room, few on the other ends and so on. You can talk about all just throwing together cheap equipment, but this item is actually kinda hard to find. So let's substitute in a nice conference phone. $250.

And we're over the cost of the XOne and I haven't even gotten to the price of a remote control for the computer (assuming you're up and about) and the cost of MS Office (XOne includes a base version). Plus the XOne has Smartglass which according to these documents will allow remote control via any device that can use it. Not to mention the labor involved in getting it working. XOne is largely all set up out of the gate and requires less work to put together than a computer.

And I gotta clear one thing up that NOBODY got right. Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (what the MVP stands for, more info here [http://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx]) 99.9% of the time DO NOT work for Microsoft. Marques Lyons, Director of Consumer Camp (MVP Profile [http://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/MVP/Marques%20Lyons-4021778], Interview with him. [http://www.pocketables.com/2012/11/interview-marques-lyons-director-of-consumer-camp.html]) is not a Microsoft employee. So...yeah. The argument that Microsoft said this is just flat out WRONG.

Finally, if there was one thing I loved about having an Xbox 360 in my break room at work was the ability to team build and socialize during off times such as lunch. So the XOne has that. Yes, I would say as a presentation machine I would rather have an XOne.

 

[unstabLized]

"Welcome to the 5 o clock Fuck Up. This evening, Microsoft released a statement that the Xbone can, contrary to popular belief, be useful for small businesses everywhere. Small business owners everywhere were confused as to why they should spend their money on a $500 system that can do less than a $200 PC. When asked regarding similair questions, Microsoft responded with "We'll have more info about this later". More at 11."

 

[Something Amyss]

Real person.

That doesn't answer the question of "are you taking the piss?" though.

Finish up with a long gain microphone and...wait...anybody know where I can get one? Here's the problem. All but maybe five of the presentations I've given in my job have been a multi-room and multi-persons in each room shindig. A few in the conference room, few on the other ends and so on. You can talk about all just throwing together cheap equipment, but this item is actually kinda hard to find. So let's substitute in a nice conference phone. $250.

So basically, you're saying a 100 dollar Kinect is going to do more than all the equipment you're throwing out, including a multi-person, multi-room setup.

Not only is it ridiculous for small business concerns, but that's just plain ridiculous, period.

I'm pretty sure you are just screwing around here, but I'll point out again that the PC is likely already a business cost as you're still going to need things an Xbone can't do. So for a fair comparison, the computer and monitor need to be factored in anyway. And, since the Xbone needs an HD source, you need to factor a monitor or HDTV in there, too.

There's no way the internal mic on a Kinect is going to come close to a 250 dollar mic, though. It probably won't even match the quality of my 50 dollar bluetooth headset.

You do understand how this works, right? They're not selling the Bone at a major loss to load the Kinect with massive amounts of audio equipment. If you can't be realistic and compare it with comparable technology, you might as well admit you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Zero Serenity]

Apparently you didn't read my post, but okay. For the record, I don't really care much what you think. What do you do? Ever been around this gear before? Been in my shoes?
And secondly, I left the monitor out because it would be the same cost either way. It's rare to buy a TV or Monitor now that doesn't take HDMI/DVI in.
Third, this computer I was talking about is left in the conference room constantly. Nobody uses it for their actual day-to-day jobs.
And finally the cost is just speculation at this point so that argument is worthless.