Most people think MS lost it a long time ago.
On the face of it, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Gordon Brown don’t have much in common.
One is a plain speaking, unpretentious, horny-handed son of toil who, after what seemed like an eternity, took over the top job from his best friend – only to find himself in charge of a crumbling empire with no clear direction, declining popularity and endless media coverage of his smoother, more stylish rival. The other is the Prime Minister.
The comparison isn’t as bizarre as it might seem. With the departure of Bill Gates, Ballmer has inherited a Microsoft whose position looks much less secure than it did in the Gates era. Despite massive spending on search, Microsoft’s market share is dwarfed by Google. It’s outflanked in entertainment and mobile computing by Apple, it’s losing browser market share to Firefox, and Silverlight is barely scratching Adobe’s Flash.
The ‘Wow’ marketing campaign for Vista has been replaced with the more desperate ‘if you try it, you might not hate it’ Mojave campaign, and mini-PCs – one of the few PC sectors that hasn’t stagnated – are sticking with Windows XP. Even Office, Microsoft’s cash cow, is under attack from free and open source rivals.
So has Ballmer inherited a poisoned chalice? Has Microsoft lost it? And if it has, can it find it again?
As long as they keep Xbox running, I will be happy.
Why have the shareholders have not dumped this guy ?
Windows 7 needs have something that has that OMG feel to it and not just seem like a re-skinned version of something they had rolled out previously. That will be a start.
Well, DRM Everywhere will do that to a Company !!! Good Riddance, M$ and the Micro$ofties !!!
I’m with #1, but they need to improve the hardware in the next generation to stop the RROD.
They are pretty much entrenched in business applications. They become more meaningless when they try and chase everyone, rather than lead by some innovation in the OS. Why not remove all the blot wear (which is what most complain about) and make an OS that performs better. If they did this they could rule another 25 years. By losing focus on their core business they are becoming the GM of software companies.
Steve Jobs reminds me too much of a used car salesman. Very smarmy. Don’t like the turtleneck either.
I’d rather buy computers using Microsoft OSes, actually. Although Ballmer and Gates haven’t exactly shone as spokesmen, they’re less slimy than Jobs. I guess I prefer geeks to car salesmen.
Maybe we should get Steve Wozniak (who seems far more trustworthy than any of the above) to manage both companies, by bribing him with a gold plated Segway or something…
Perhaps the better question is ‘Does any Business have the right to exist?’
MS has shifted many times over the years, to align itself with the market, why assume it won’t do the same thing again?
This idea that MS will stubbornly refuse to budge and just twist away (while certainly a possibility) I think is sheer fantasy. Much like the idea that Windows will suddenly disappear, much to the delight of linux, and mac fans.
#6: So, you buy a computer based on the salesman rather than the quality of what he’s selling? In that case, come on over. I’ve got a delightful personality, plus I’ve got all sorts of land and bridges and other things to sell you.
Frankly, I don’t care what happens to Microsoft. Windows XP was the last Microsoft OS I will ever use. Now, if I can only get my work place to migrate off the platform.
M$’s success was never due to the quality of their products.
It was due to the business accumen of one individual – Bill Gates.
In fact they were so successful that they eliminated the competition. Which by the way, was their only source of innovation.
Now they’re screwed. And I for one am glad. And if their end is near we’ll all be better off for it.
Microsoft forgot they are a software company. To many resources going to other things.
Not to mention that embarrassingly bad Jerry Sienfeld fiasco.
Last time I checked I could have sworn they’re still kicking ass in the consumer market place with very strong sales. Apple is a far cry away from claiming victory. Apple’s problem is that they have out-do themselves every few months… that’s a pretty expensive way to live.
Same with web browsers, I’ve sat through all the battles… when IE 8 released and it’s ore standards compliant (so that excuse can be killed), then what? It’s standard on the most widely used platform in the world… hard to beat. Who cares if Vista licenses are downgraded to XP licenses…it’s a sale either way.
As well, they are fairly cash rich, perfectly positioned for a downturn, focused (someone said they forgot they’re a software company), I see google in a far worse position.
They’ll start buying in the bad economy… watch. While other’s stock’s drop and the ballon value drops, MS will stay pretty strong because their fundamentals are not way up in the sky like the others.
in order to lose it you actually had to have it in the first place…
does microsoft actually have something? other than an underhanded business model? remeber gates was a dropout of harvard, not mit or berkley… his business model was from a legal standpoint not on building a better product, it was getting you hooked and making you pay.., the only tru innovation ms has was the ease of acquiring maleware of some sorts.
They need an integrated software/hardware product.
Oh wait, that’s an iMac. Well, something like that.
I really think their OS is being hindered by the PC hardware.
#12, that’s all true, but what’s changed is that people are no longer interested in buying upgrades to Windows. Whatever version comes on their new PC stays there forever. So MS sells one license for each new PC, which is still a lot, but they could certainly do better if they came up with upgrades that end users actually wanted to buy.
Windows isn’t going away though. Apple’s prices will always be way too high, and Linux – let’s not even go there.
Writing code in Visual Studio is silky smooth compared with WSAD, Eclipse, NetBeans, and whatever other crap out there.
Every time I do a project in Visual Studio, I can start writing code, right away. In every project using Java or PHP, I spend what feels like half my time fighting configuration issues.
And don’t get me started on the half-assed crap that passes for documentation in the open-source world.
My (admittedly limited) understanding of the Enron debacle is that, among other mistakes, they attempted to diversify too much, expanding into fields where they had no expertise and could not compete. Maybe MS should stick to what they know and strengthen Windows.
I’ll stay with MS Windows for the time being.
I just wish Linux could be more compatible for the stupid. I’ve tried it and everything goes fine until I have to research how to do something. I’m too old to spend my life looking for how to make something work.
#16, that is exactly my experience as well.
#18, we’re not stupid. We just see little benefit in all those hours spent Googleing for crumbs of information about countless command-line tools, repositories, configuration files. It isn’t 1980 anymore, and learning that stuff doesn’t make me feel smart.
I gave Linux a chance recently by buying an EEE PC with Xandros Linux. After a few months of frustration I sold it and bought one with Windows. What a relief.
Microsoft will simply become like the phone company. Not going away, really, just very slowly being routed around.
#4 so I guess you think that apple is better because they don’t use DRM on anything right. Right??
Their ENTIRE business model is about locking people into the ‘apple ecosystem’ using DRM.
If they dump the Balmer POS they might have a chance of improving their situation.
Microsoft as a brand has lost it a few years ago. They need to streamline, come out with products with strong useful features. Try hard to be think about the users’ need.
I look at Adobe products as an example. Look at Photoshop. I thought CS3 had it all, but they manage to come up with more new and improved features in CS4.
Now take a look at Office 2007. The freaking ribbon UI is non logical (randomly, some buttons are big, some are small, some got text, some don’t, etc). No, it doesn’t help newbies, and it sure as hell doesn’t help me. And the need to become open with their the new open xml-lish file format is driving me nuts. Forget this open nonsense. The software can export to other formats, so it’s all fine and well.
And for the love of all that is holy, could MS get its act together and give us complete and simple way to get info about their products? If you’ve tried to browse through microsoft.com, you’ll understand quickly why MS fails with web related products/services.
There’s nothing wrong in diversifying your business, but when you are known as the biggest software company in the world, one would expect you to deliver excellent software.
#8: Actually, I buy mostly on quality, but Apple’s decision to allow their OSX to run only on overpriced Macs cuts them right out of my possible buying list.
Linux is so “flexible” that there are 400 ways to shoot your eye out with that OS, sorta like its big brother Unix.
Windows is a (mostly) happy medium, in the sense that it’s not locked to a specific brand of hardware, and reasonably safe to tinker with (though I did manage to misconfigure my Windows laptop today, then figured out what I’d done wrong and fixed it).
# 22 WanKhairil hit the nail right on the head with
“There’s nothing wrong in diversifying your business, but when you are known as the biggest software company in the world, one would expect you to deliver excellent software.”
But that’s exactly what they have almost never done. The key to their success was Gates’s ability to keep lots of very smart people working very hard and his almost paranoid maneuvering to get the company ahead and keep it there.
# 14 Bill said, in part:
“I really think their OS is being hindered by the PC hardware.”
Actually, that was one of their genius moves. I can shop around for hardware from thousands of manufacturers, buy at flea markets, thrift stores, swap with friends and cannibalize old machines with confidence the hardware can be made to work without PhD-level engineering skills.
What the company really needs is two or (preferably) three geniuses each able to inspire their thousands of designers, programmers and engineers to work very hard, along with one or two ‘politicians’ to keep those two or three top geniuses getting along with each other. (Kind of like neutrons in an atomic nucleus keeping the peace between all those positively charged protons.) One of the geniuses should be in the field of business strategy and planning and overall product direction; one should be the programming design genius; and one should be the user experience genius. That last one they never had and still don’t have, and Gates filled the first two roles.
IMHO, YMMV, TTFN
#16 Coding in Visual Studio without Resharper is like coding with mittens on. TFS is a frickin’ nightmare – source code repository, build management, the works.
Every MVP I know who actually codes for a living goes with Resharper, NUnit, Subversion, Rhino.Mocks, NCover, and CC.NET. OK, I lie, some like MBUnit. There’s a whole lot of open source there.
.NET 3.x is a great framework and runtime. C# is a nice language (closures, about time). The tools just blow.
Well, I certainly hope M$ Folds, so I don’t have to look at Ballmer’s Tounge anymore !!!
I’m too old to spend my life looking for how to make something work. AMEN to that. That was what happened to me when I bought my mac. I am sure it was a fine machine and if I had hours to learn a new OS it might evan be better then windows. But when you have a house to build you do not want to look for the hammer.