While Microsoft was preoccupied with its conquest for desktop supremacy, something crazy happened. They called it the mobile revolution. This was when the notion that an iPod was only a music player and a computer was only something used at a desk quickly faded away. It was a time when devices were getting smaller, smarter, and sexier. Microsoft, unfortunately, didn’t get the memo.
Apple did. Apple took control of mobile with the iPod Touch and the iPhone, notebooks with Macbook/Macbook Pros, digital distribution with iTunes, and third-party developers with the iOS ecosystem. Everything Apple did right, Microsoft didn’t do at all.
The only company that offered a challenge to Apple during this computing revolution wasn’t Research In Motion, Dell, Palm, IBM, Sony, or any other consumer electronics manufacturers; Microsoft, for who knows what reason, was also unable to open its eyes and realize the disaster that Windows Mobile had become. But Google — of all the companies — stepped up to the plate and batted a homerun with Android. Microsoft sat on the sideline and waited for the world to pass them by.
Now we are left with four companies that have potential in the mobile arena: Apple, Google, Research In Motion, and Nokia. Research In Motion and Nokia are struggling to find direction. Apple and Google, however, are doing quite well.
Microsoft, again, goes unmentioned.
Left Behind
It’s far too easy to call this a case of “too little, too late.” But it describes the situation perfectly. Microsoft’s complacency and unwillingness to explore new products in the mobile arena has taken them out of the game entirely. They are now on the outside looking in with a product — Windows Phone 7 — that lacks major backing. Instead of being in a third or fourth place position, they are biding for the last remnants of consumers who still believe in Microsoft. It should have never gotten this bad.
Teams within Microsoft should have been assembled to evaluate the competition — meaning they should have been evaluating the iPhone with great attention to consumer response to understand how consumers reacted to it. Microsoft could have then made an effort to integrate some of Apple’s ideologies and successes into their own products (just as every other company tends to do). Of course, it is easy to state that a company should do this when said company has full control over its hardware and software, like Apple, but it can be somewhat difficult when this isn’t true. But that is no excuse. Even Google, creators of Android, have created their own hardware to set a precedent for what is expected amongst third-party manufacturers.
Microsoft, though, has only had a few memorable hits with Windows Mobile. The Samsung Omnia (which ran Windows Mobile 6.x) was an incredible device in its own right —it deserved a platform like Windows Phone 7… back in 2007.
In 2011, however, the mobile landscape looks quite different. If you are a developer, you are either aligned with iOS, Android, or, preferably, both. If you are a consumer, you are rocking an iOS device or an Android device (we all know Blackberry isn’t cool). If you are a phone manufacturer — who isn’t Apple — your only serious option is Android at this point in time. There is no reasonable incentive to go elsewhere, unless third-party applications are not your cup of tea, thus negating the purpose of a smartphone altogether.
But what about Windows Phone 7? To Microsoft’s credit, it is a spectacular platform. I’ve tried it and, if I were to own a WP7 phone, I would not be entirely disappointed. It does have many features that I consider to be “cool.” But Microsoft is still at least three years late to the party. Most of my favorite applications on iOS and Android are not yet even being considered for Windows Phone 7 — this makes switching a very difficult proposition.
Now, sure, people can understand that if you are working with a platform that millions of people rely on, making drastic changes could do more harm than good. But Windows Mobile wasn’t that platform. It might have had a great run in the beginning, but a year after Steve Balmer was proved wrong about the iPhone, all bets should have been off. Windows Mobile should have been scrapped.
But they waited, and now Microsoft is attempting to sell manufacturers on a new platform without the backing that Android and iOS have in terms of demand from consumers and interest from developers. So, is anyone really shocked that Microsoft isn’t doing so well with selling these devices?
But wait, all of this was only the beginning of Microsoft’s issues. It’s about to get far worse.
Abandonment
What happens if, say, third-party manufacturers turn their backs on Microsoft? What happens if they cut them out of the loop entirely? What happens if these manufacturers stop packaging computers with Microsoft’s operating system and, in turn, stop selling Office?
Well, then you have a disaster in the making that could devastate the Microsoft empire. Guess what? This grim reality is beginning to come true.
HP announced that they are going to be producing laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones that feature the webOS platform instead of Microsoft’s products. The company isn’t giving up on Microsoft entirely, but this is a serious step for a computer manufacturer to take, and it sets a tone for the future.
While HP is the first computer manufacturer close to Microsoft to produce a PC utilizing a competing proprietary operating system in recent time, I can promise you it won’t be the last. As the Internet becomes more important, Microsoft’s operating system becomes even less so.
There are plenty of alternatives to choose from already. One of them is MeeGo, which is Intel’s mobile operating system that Nokia recently abandoned. HP has webOS, which could eventually be licensed for use by other manufacturers. There is also Android, which has incredible momentum. We can’t forget ChromeOS, which might have a future if some of the larger manufacturers jump on board.
And there is always the potential for these companies to develop their own mobile operating systems: HTC, Motorola, and Samsung already create beautiful interfaces for Android, so who knows how long it might be before they take the next step and create a full-fledged mobile operating system? If they control the look, feel, and function of the device, they can become more Apple-like — and who doesn’t want to be more Apple-like?
But if you side with Windows Phone 7, you don’t become more like Apple. In fact, you put yourself in a position to be destroyed by competition like Apple. In fact, if manufacturers join with Microsoft, they might be getting screwed from the start — Nokia and Microsoft are practically in bed, and Microsoft has already announced that Nokia has special privileges to modify WP7 as they please; it doesn’t sound fair to others who are interested in manufacturing WP7 phones.
What Future?
What we are left with is a company that has no concrete plans for competing in the mobile industry. Microsoft has a smartphone platform, but they have no way to connect it to a tablet or desktop computer. They also have no operating system that is capable of competing on a tablet device — trust me, Windows 7 isn’t the solution.
So what does Microsoft have? They have a second-rate search engine, a smartphone platform that is several years too late, an operating system designed for a platform with a gloom-filled future, and something named Azure. Sounds terrific.
And while I must mention the Xbox 360, Kinect, and record-breaking $62 billion in revenue for 2010, I just can’t help but be disappointed. No matter how much money Microsoft makes, I can’t look at a Microsoft product any longer without feeling like I’m living in the stone age. Microsoft and innovation should not be used in the same sentence. The company is living in the past, and it is only a matter of time before the present and future catches up with them.
Update: It appears that Motorola is going to be creating a webOS-like mobile operating system or actually licensing HP’s webOS operating system. Not to gloat, but I pretty much called it. Like I said before, HP will not be the last, and now that Motorola is joining in, it, too, will not be the last. PC manufacturers will join in the efforts to create their own mobile operating systems.
So because they arent the number cell phone OS, all of MS (multi-billion dollar company which donates more to charity than most every other major company combined), you feel they are pretty much irrelevant? I think your opinion here boarders on (name your insult). Give time, MS will come out ahead in most ventures, imo. Love windows 7 because im a gamer and not a photosuite, youtbe jockey, or farmville nut, but I prefer android for my cell phone right now.
Gamers are pretty much all they have got left in terms of a valuable demographic isnt being threatened by all this other technology…. sort of, I get my SC2 fix on my mac just fine 😛
They have more then just gamers. Microsoft produces a lot of great products such as SharePoint and SQL server in addition to their OSs.
“Gamers are pretty much all they have got left in terms of a valuable demographic isnt being threatened by all this other technology”
you are an idiot,
they have wall street, they have every freaking business in the usa
with excel, word, access, sql server they are doing just fine
these businesses are NOT going to switch to open office; I work at the largest hospital in nyc, every computer there has excel and word on it and they’re just now upgrading to IE7 because so many of the medical apps are IE dependent
That’s a shame
Just upgrading too IE7? What about IE8 or 9? Those browsers are far better at running applications.
A lot of existing industrial and enterprise database and other apps were written to be tightly integrated with IE6. This was as companies were adopting XP a decade ago. These systems were expensive to build and implement so they were holding off on switching platforms and browsers for as long as possible as they could. But because of the major security flaws and the fact msoft is no longer supporting ie6 they are being forced to switch now.
To hear that IE6 is still being used in the largest hospital in NYC is downright scary. Reminds me of that power outage a few years ago in NYC in the middle of summer that was blamed on a power grid/substation having problems in Ohio. Supposedly it was really due to Chinese malware infecting a computer running Windows 98 at the substation.
Windows 8 is going to support ARM chips (the ones in like 80% of all mobile devices) out of the box. True laptop in tablet form. That means I won’t have to spend time and money finding a bunch of dry-hump mobile substitutes that ALMOST do the stuff I can already do on the desktop software I like using and am most productive with. Hell of a lot easier to develop for, too, and you don’t have to jump through Apples hoops, like with their app store. Frankly, they’re control Nazis.
Microsoft’s not great, but at least they make an effort to play nice with other companies. Adobe flash on the iPad anyone? Burn a BluRay disk with DVD Studio Pro? Of course not. And you know why? Everything made by Apple is at the mercy of the whims of a megalomaniac.
Seriously, I’m typing right now on a MacBook that dual boots OS X and Windows 7, so I feel you on the Apple products. They’re well constructed and were built to follow MOST important design and usability conventions, and maybe soon they will come up with a new idea that’s not just a bigger iphone, if Jobs doesn’t die first. Maybe then they’ll have some put out a REAL update to Final Cut Pro then.
But seriously, is anybody else getting sick of the Apple fanboy crap. Most of this article was written by hundreds of other people three + years ago.
It’s not apple fanboys, it’s called reality.
You know who are the biggest apple fanboys? iPhone/iPad clone creaters like Google, HP, HTC, Moto…. 😉
First off I don’t know why you needed to throw in the “if jobs doesnt die
First”
Comment way to be a prick.
Secondly you may think Apple is just making bigger iphOnes but the fact of the matter is they know have the second largest market
Cap in the world. They are killing it right now and they may not be doing what the super tech geek who wants to control every facet of their cell phone wants they are dominating not only with average consumers but with creative types as well.
I agree the article was speculative lacking substance and outdated. What was microsofts
Omg moment? The article doesn’t specify. If it is now wouldn’t it be more likely that it was when apple passed then in market cap? Wouldn’t tha be the OMG the company we thought we had relegated to a niche is actually starting to do bigger business then us. (yes I realize market cap isn’t the end all be all but for a wake up call
Moment I’d say it certainly fits the bill).
I’d say MS biggest concern is if people start really using tablets as their primary device. Especially with the advent of super high speed I/O thunderbolt (not just apple Sony is already signed on as are others) it is going to make it very easy drop your android/iOS tablet into a dock and have a keyboard monitor and optical drive and a machine that will really meet most peoples needs. If this happens with a large sector of the pro market already having non ms solutions they are in trouble. If computing stats status qui they will be fine their lead in desktop os won’t be threatened and windows phOne partnered wig nokia will
Carve out a solid niche.
Flash is proprietary, Apple are moving with Web Standards – HTML 5, CSS 3 .. In which they helped push forward.. Flash is a terrible idea for the modern web and multi-platform web applications.
“What we are left with is a company that has no concrete plans for competing in the mobile industry. ”
Sorry James, But I think your assessment is based on gut instinct than research.
If this was written a year ago, with in hindsight of iPad’s success, your assessment would have been more suitable.
But since the announcement of WP7 in 2010, things have changed.
WP7, though lacking in some features, is a solid OS, with great UI. It’s seamless, alive and smooth. It’s downfall are timing and marketing. But given Microsoft passed success in certain sectors, such as Windows, Visual Studio, SQL, Servers, XBOX, XBOX Live, and Kinect just to name few, Microsoft aren’t going to quit any time soon.
Currently, iPhone, though solid and simple, is hampered by iOS, which is currently stale, lacks certain integrations between apps, and has a very outdated and annoying notification system. Though there are rumors that a new notification system will debut on iPhone 5 with a much faster Safari browser (which is in iOS 4.3).
Android in the mean time is a mess. There is no UX between Android 3.0, 2.3, Chrome OS or any of Google’s online apps. Though individually some are great, like Android 3.0. Yes it’s buggy, but it’s flexibility outweighs it’s downfalls.
As for Blackberry and HP’s WebOS, they have some great UX in their tablet OS’s and they might succeed in certain markets, but globally and I can’t see them competing at all, as they don’t have a any market grip, such as Microsoft’s services and software, Google’s search, GMail and apps, and Apple’s iTunes and ecosystem.
Microsoft so far have a road map to penetrate the tablet and smartphone arena, or so called post-PC era.
1. WP7 has some exciting updates this year, such as IE9 hardware accelerated browser, which trumps all other mobile browser speeds, especially in HTML5. Also copy-and-paste, multitasking, Flash and Kinect integration. Also, don’t forget Nokia’s partnership, who have a grip on customer loyalty throughout Asia and Europe.
2. IE9 hardware accelerated Browser is coming out near the end of this month. It’s simplified, hardware accelerated and runs HTML5 standards.
3. Bing Search is still gaining momentum, and has now surpassed Yahoo.
4. Chromeless Metro UI, based on traffic and transport signage and symbols, which everyone can understand, has had overwhelming positive reactions on WP7, and is going viral. It’s already on Zune software, and is heading towards it’s websites, services and Windows 8.
5. Windows 8 for x86 and ARM processors. It’s UI screenshots will be released in June, with a beta in September, and full release next year, is Microsoft’s Hail Mary. It will run on PC’s and tablets.
6. Microsoft services and UX. SkyDrive, Mesh, Answers (now overhauled), Microsoft Store, Office 365, XBOX Live and Windows Live Essentials just to name a few, are and have been slowly integrating it’s services and UX together. Also. with Nokia’s partnership, some of Nokia’s services, such as Ovi Maps, will integrate with Microsoft Services.
7. Oh and don’t forget some innovations they have in the pipeline so far 🙂 http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/
So, I would rephrase your “Microsoft’s Oh My F****** God Moment” to “Microsoft’s Oh We F****** Get It Moment, And Where Coming Back”.
+1000
How is it living in that alternative state of awareness you seem to have found?
Been working at Redmond for long?
Two things. One: Microsoft and “innovation” were rarely used in the same sentence, at least without snickering. Two: Microsoft many times started badly and yet came back to dominate through endless Windows-Office dollars subsidizing other products long enough (they can still do that for quite a while) and through market intimidation (which they may have largely lost).
Windows is only the most used operating system on the planet. The only serious operating systems out there for consumers are Linux and Windows. iPads are neat toys, but no one takes them seriously.
Anything to back this up? Other than Windows being widely used, everything is your opinion.
IBM used to be the most used operating system at one time also. Microsoft won’t die, just become another IBM, irrelevant to most people.
Mainframe > Desktop > Mobile
you’re right there os x can’t ever be enough for serious work, due to lack of security. microsoft invests millions yearly to improve security. it’s much safer than os x is. i argument that windows kind of combines both os x and linux.
lol. You think OSX is insecure? Take a good long walk around the White House or the CIA headquarters in langley. There’s a lot of glowing apples there.
UNIX is one of the most secure platforms on the planet.
Windows has NOTHING to do with Linux, which is a UNIX based operating system just like OS X is.
You shouldnt be commenting on tech blogs as you clearly are just making things up which arent based on any knowledge of any sort.
^ Mac Fan-Boy clearly…..
What is your source? TV? Hollywood? Just cuz you see a glowing apple on the West Wing or Covert Affairs means nothing.
Apple is nothing more than your PC with a crappy version of BSD running on it.
OSX *is* insecure. Far, far more than windows. You’re thinking of 5 years ago.
If you don’t like that source, google around.. there’s plenty of respected tech sources that will tell you the same thing
UNIX is secure, but OSX is not simply unix.
Hahaha! Great joke Nikola
Lack of security.. on Macs? That’s screenshot materal. LOL
(Awards Nikola the Medal for “Successful trolling”.) Sir, I hope my children grow up to be like you. (Cry’s)
You are evaluating a multi-billion dollar company based on a narrow set of devices and products you use.
They may not be the best at the devices you use, but you are really not seeing the bigger picture here. Can you imagine HP shipping WebOs to enterprise customers? Can you really picture yourself using ChromeOS at work (unless all you require for work is a browser)? All you know about Azure is its name, because you are not in the business that the product caters to, which is reasonable.
I can find 100’s of articles dissing the original Xbox when Sony was supreme and look where Microsoft is with the 360. My point is, calling a company with $40 billion in cash reserves irrelevant is borderline stupid. I take that back, it is stupid.
Apple took control of the notebook market?
In what alternate reality does techi live in?
The fact remains in the overall market, Microsoft still has close to 95% market share. They are not upset.
And no…as delusional as bloggers have to be to BE bloggers (as oppsoed to real wirters or journalists) even you can’t be so worthless as to think that desktop computers ad regular laptops are going to disappear. Because no…they won’t. Long after you are burined in a pauper’s grave at the expense of the state who is just happy to take your skill-less ass off the welfare rolls, people will be using a desktop computer.
People use windows because they have to use it. I use many different operating systems, and I really hate all the illogical quality-control issues myself and my workers have when using windows OS. We “have to” use windows sometimes because our customers do.
Quality matters to most people, and that’s the shift you are seeing. When a company has to stop business to fix a stupid problem on a windows machine time and time again, that shows you that maybe you need to find better solutions than windows OS in the world.
That is what is happening now. It’s not you choosing to keep using windows… it’s the rest of the world wanting to use something BETTER than the what they’re used to getting with windows.
THEY DON’T CALL IT TECHNOLOGY FOR NOTHING. If you don’t INNOVATE, you’re lacking as a “technology” company.
That said, i think windows has gotten SO much better in the last few years. Win7 is just brilliant. It’s the most ‘quality’ OS out there. It’s a great blend of open, familiar, easy, and expandable.
Some commentary (real, no spam): http://abiro.com/w/2011/03/06/microsoft-doesnt-know-mobile-episode-5011/
What utter drivel, from end to end. I want my 3 minutes back.
Blaming it all on “Microsoft”, just that word, is pretty nondescript.
Microsoft is pretty damn huge, with division heads here and there and everywhere, most of whom don’t care much for the company, just for personal reputation and such. It’s not unheard of that one division head stops development on a certain feature because someone didn’t do some ridiculous request for them personally.
As far as upper level management is concerned, Microsoft should take a hint from Apple: 1 guy calling all the shots, and that’s it. With all these people fighting amongst themselves, they forget to work for the company.
Quite the rant. Personally I tink that Windows 7 was a great improvement, and success. Much like Windows Phone7, It just needs stuff like, multi-tasking, flash, Mobile hotspot, tethering, proper turn by turn navigation and broader codec support for video, atleast that would be on my list of requirements.
It can still get there, just give it a little time.
just because microsoft has fallen behind on the mobile market doesn’t mean that they can’t or don’t innovate. In fact I believe that the company has achieved enormous progress in terms of innovation through their kinetic tech, touchscreen table, and their new search engine. Being innovative doesn’t mean that your product is necessarily the one who controls the market (take nokia for example, they are still coming out with phones that wouldn’t even stand up to the first iphone, and they really missed an opportunity by not buying palm for their webOS).
Now personally I believe that apple has brought about the future much earlier than expected by most, except of course back to the future fans that are still expecting flying cars [not hybrid car planes] in 4 years time. However that doesn’t mean that others aren’t being creative and exploring the frontiers…and maybe microsoft can reach in that old bag of tricks and take another couple ideas out of apples hands.
Wow, I didnt realize Microsoft was so cool like that. Amazing.
This article is just a bit silly. Microsoft put their feelers out and decided they had better options. You can’t fault a company for not entering into a specific market when they have plenty of other sources of income. You may as well write an article about how Nabisco dropped the ball by not making a quality mobile OS.
you analogy doesn’t make sense “You may as well write an article about how Nabisco dropped the ball by not making a quality mobile OS” Nabisco didn’t used to have a mobile OS. Microsoft did… and had the number one mobile OS at that. Microsoft did drop the ball because they didn’t wanna be seen as following apple and instead stopped working on their software.
Microsoft is a victim of its own success.
They OWN the desktop.
They got to OWN the desktop not by pulling some frankly illegal, anti-competitive shenanigans but because their client base, businesses, didn’t want a repeat of the iBM vs. everybody debacles of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
Microsoft has never had a superior or even secure product.
That Microsoft is too stupid to know exactly what happened is Microsoft’s problem.
You have several good points with MS’s PC OS and mobile offerings, but you conspicuously ignore the solid hold MS has in the development market.
I’m sorry I don’t agree, companies change direction all the time. Innovation comes from healthy competition. I use a Windows based pc, an Android based phone and nothing Apple by my choice although my last phone was an iPhone. I don’t like the fact that you’ve taken Microsoft as a company and disregarded the xbox and its gaming brands up until the end. That in my opinion isn’t looking at the whole picture.
This is all a very nice opinion. Albeit a very narrow view.
ChromeOS will receive almost no support, meego is almost dead as it is, webos is being used in windows devices along side it.
Mr. Mowery – very interesting article. I just wanted to mention the RSS feed of this story isn’t publishing a description or an image. …might want to look into that.
I’m not a microsoft fan but.. there’s no way that a half baked os like webOS is going to
rule any space. It’s a nice play but god’s does the world really need 8 different system
OS’s… who’s going to develop for this new OS..
As monkey boy onces said.. Developers, Developers, Developers.
just because you make it does not mean they will come.
I’m currently supporting 4 different OS’s. Lunix, Windows, iOS, Android..
HP is not my first choice as a leader in any thing.
Like a bad marksmen they keep missing the target…
Delivering poor quality and just crazy design choices. I personal feel webOS is
another one of those craze choices.
I laff when I though that Microsoft would succeed in the gaming space because they
were so late to the table… In the end they now rule this space.
Beating Sony and Nintendo like a red head step child.
I don’t think they will be able to beat Apple in the Mobil phone space or even
Google’s android but webOS does not have a chance.
Question, as a developer with experience with these platforms, who has the better developer support and developer tools, M$ with WP7, Apple with iOS, or Google with Android?
This was a bullshit article from start to the end. There’s not a single mention anywhere of Windows 8 and it’s hybrid capabilities with the coming WP8 and tablets. The article is clearly subjective and ignorant, probably also written by a regular iPerson. Boring as shit and with bad journalism.
I gotta be honest, ur full of BS my friend. Apple and innovation aren’t to be used in the same sentence either. Apple has never done anything original. All they have done is, like microsoft, taken the ideas of others and make some sort of coherent-semi coherent product out of it.
Microsoft took the big plunge and actually did tablets back in the day (2001) when all we had was resistive touchscreens, underpowered processors that ate up all your battery and no real formula or examples to work off of to see what made a usable tablet.
Yes they actually tried, they took a risk.
ffwd to 2008, apple looked at that, saw what worked and what didn’t and made a product that worked best as they saw it in the context of the technology that had arisen over those few years.
It doesn’t do “real work” but its something for them to keep working at and refine. Their followers are those who can afford overpriced pointless gadgetry so despite it being a purposeless toy, they will still buy it.
Looking back, microsoft was late to pretty much everything and outdid apple in so many ways it was funny, but because of the market bais towards apple, microsoft never got any recogntion.
The Zune platform, blew the entire ipod lineup to bit in terms of refinement useability and INNOVATION!! Features available in the Zunes since day one, apple was only introducing in gen 5 of the ipods.
Windows Vista and 7’s UI is a lot more “put together” and refined than OSX Aqua. Functional and not pointless eyecandy.
Windows Phone 7, moving towards the idea of bring all your data together in a cohesive meaningful way, apple isn’t that far thinking. They do great UI concepts and platofrms, but most of what they use, were already created by Stardock Software years before and made available on windows through their desktop enhancement software. Heck, stardock invented the Dock and the Widget as well as did a lot of work in developing context menus!!
I’ll say that apple did do a lot of things right, but the credit they receive is disproportionate for what they have done, and what they have done, isn’t even their own and they give no credit tot he pioneers who laid the groundwork for them.
1) HP’s Web OS is cute, but I highly doubt it will ever be capable of running full blown applications, like autocad and high end games. HP makes most of its money selling thousands of PCs to offices and governments that need windows OS and software. WHICH COMPANY WOULD RUN WEBOS???
2) why would samsung, htc create an OS? Do they want to lose money? an OS is nothing without support from developers to create apps, and a skin that they create is nothing compared to the OS + platform, they dont have the resources. MSFT has the largest developer network in the world they have invested heavily in india and china to create MSFT developers.
3)WP7 is not even a year old, and it has already surpassed hp/Palm in market share, the app store is growing very fast, faster than android did and it will have more apps than BB soon, if not already.
4)MSFT invented the tablet and they are currently producing a hybrid of wp7 and win7 it wont be better than the iPad at the start but it will be equal or better in the future. Android tablets suck, but they will slowly get better too. i’m an android user but i will be switching to wp7 next year. android is too clunky and the UI is awful.
5) “Now we are left with four companies that have potential in the mobile arena: Apple, Google, Research In Motion, and Nokia. Research In Motion and Nokia are struggling to find direction. Apple and Google, however, are doing quite well.”
umm.. Microsoft practically owns Nokia which has the biggest marketshare in the world which will be building WP7 phones.
6) second rate search engine is eating into googles marketshare, its currently 2nd in the world, to me its UI is better and cleaner than google’s its search results are really good and with integration with KAYAK and many other companies will make sure it continues to eat google’s marketshare.
Also not to mention Bing maps which will be combining with Navtech to create an even better map. it has many features that are missing in google like bird’s eye view.
7) Microsoft owns the enterprise.
8) msft isnt innovative? kinect will revolutionize input devices, they are bringing drivers for it to windows, basically it is minority report. google introduced the shitty google tv and apple tv is also a shitty, compare it to XBOX 360. which is the number 1 media center and also windows media center is the world’s number 1 media center software. Did u know CONAN was gonna have his show on xbox 360 if he couldnt get a deal with tbs?
9) MSFT has a long term relation with facebook, it powers its map (facebook places) and its search features.
i can still see so many errors here and there, but i think i proved my point.
what ur saying is what if everyone stops using windows, office, server, bing and all of their cloud services, xbox 360…ect
This article is ridiculously biased. I never heard the words of a more shameless apple fan boy so proudly spoken. The truth is that comparatively Microsoft and Linux are your only options in an enterprise business environment. Apple products are cute toys, but far from enterprise business solutions.
Microsoft came late to the console gaming market, and now look where the Xbox brand is. They brought in GUI later than others (Xerox and Apple) but look what happened to Windows after that. Hell, they certainly weren’t the first with an office suite, but we all know what happened there. I’m not saying MS are awesome, nor am I saying they’re terrible… and I would agree that they are lacking in innovation at the moment. But the market for tablets and smartphones is *still* in its early stages – Gizmodo ran an article recently showing that the install base for PCs is around 1.3 billion users, while for smartphones and tablets combined its only approx 400 million. Microsoft is a company that, if anything, is patient. They should have been quicker to the mobile market, and their attempts at a tablet/touch centred OS are pretty poor, but these markets are in no way set in stone yet. I’m biding my time before making any snap judgements in this particlular arena.
M$ has never been an innovator. they are ALWAYS late to the party.But fashionably late. from the first windows OS, to videogames, to mobile. They sit back, watch their competition and then make a move. sometimes it works out well (rocky start with the xbox, but the xbox 360 is doing very well) and other times it fails (Zune).
They make mistakes along the way, but they usually end up doing well with their products. keep in mind that android had a similarly slow start, and we won’t know if WP7 is a success or failure for another year or two.
I’m pretty much in love with Apple products nowadays, but seriously, who believes Microsoft is going to be a complete failure in mobile? They have no need to succeed in the arena with in a year or two. How long did they take a loss with XBox before it became THE gaming console?
They may not be innovative, but they will come up a “good enough” solution to grab significant marketshare.
I’m pretty much in love with most Apple products nowadays, but its hard to believe Microsoft will be a complete failure in the mobile arena for long. They don’t need to succeed in a year or two. How long were they willing to put with a loss for the XBox till it become THE gaming console?
They will come up with a “good enough” solution that will get them a decent marketshare.
its not that bad…. obviously and i mean it is extremely obvious… microsoft new its place and decided not to waste the money putting out second rate hardware and the software. might as well let your competitor complete the project and then completely copy them. Who couldnt tell Microsoft was out the door after IE stopped being number one back , i dont know 5-7 years ago.
This article is poorly researched, but I suppose it is not trying to pass off as real journalism, right? No mention of the Nokia alliance? Really?
Now, let’s get this straight – few companies are as innovative as Microsoft is. Simple fact as measured by number of patents generated. The poor success of Microsoft with operating system refreshes and with creating a timely mobile platform reflects poorly on management, but you need to decouple the notion of innovation from success in those areas. Looking at Microsoft’s work with Kinect and Surface, at the amazing languages work done on the .NET platform (e.g. LINQ), and technologies such as StreamInsight, VertiPaq, and much more, there is no doubt that innovation lives at the borg.
In short: Generalizing from a lack of a viable mobile and consumer strategy to lack of innovation is just unprofessional emoting.
Another tired article about how Microsoft dropped the ball.
Microsoft makes just as much in revenue and makes more in net profit than apple…they dont rely on trends and fashion but on productivity…its why they are more stable than apple….Apple does a good job in innovation but rely heavily on being trendy and hip….if they design something that doesnt look good then theres little incentive to buy it…as hardware, production and price goes, i may buy an Ipad cuz i like its look and feel…but it will be trumped by the several Microsoft products i use everyday…as will the rest of the world…Microsoft is like China, you use their products all the time and don’t even know it….MAC OS security is a joke, nobody cares tho because its rarely tied to big business…
In terms of mobile computing on smartphones, Microsoft seemed intent on destroying itself. The last worthwhile Winmobile device is / was the HTC Touch Pro 2. And its already aging. Microsoft released its ‘newer better’ windows mobile device center, and you know what? You better hope you still are antiquated and not using a 64 bit OS, because WMDC does not sync with outlook etc if you are on 64 bit. Why? Because MS believed that most people are syncing their information with other services. Who would EVER want to sync to their home computer? When others tracked back the culprit, it turned out MS refused to update the 64 bit kernel to allow mobile integration. It would have been time consuming and no one wants that. Shortly after all of MS ridiculousness on this issue, I bought myself an EVO. Sorry. MS lost the entire mobile world because they refuse to listen to consumers. They should be careful lest they repeat history, because they certainly didn’t learn much from Windows ME, or Vista.
Blackberry not cool: I met with the VP of a global finance company a few days ago. He said he has 35,000 employees on Blackberries. He doesn’t know anyone who uses an Iphone.
brilliant rant mate, now lets the big kids write from objective articles with references. 99% of this piece are opinions, here I’ll do the journalism for you: https://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php Microsoft dominates the browser/OS world, (especially when you add up all versions) 39.69% and 83.63% respectively. Microsoft coined “the cloud” btw, and Microsoft Office dominates both Mac and PC as a software package: https://www.macworld.com/article/194355/microsoft_says_that_77_of_mac_users_use_office.html
techi, wtf, get some better journalists.. don’t pay for tripe like this.
BB isn’t cool but still owns the biggest share of the market……?
Despite all the comments here generally centering around hurt feelings for their favorite OS, device or company while blasting away at the competition like hurt children (I’m so sick of this, sigh…) Would love to see Android, WebOS, RIM (QNX-based OS), iOS and others continue to push forward as competing solutions on many more other types of devices.
Apple managed to do quite well for many years in the niche market (I know they ran into problems in the late-90s). I really think that todays’ needs allow for multiple players on smartPhones, Tablets and net/notebooks and wouldn’t mind seeing these major players expand into other markets (eg, Atrix = Android on a netbook). Love the competition and expect to see continued technological advancements as a result (even from stodgy old Microsoft).
This is really an exciting time and all the fanboys backing one particular company/OS over another are failing to see the bigger picture. If history has proven anything, when one company begins to monopolize a specific segment, progress begins to grind to a halt and that very company begins to abuse their power. I’d rather fault each individual company for it’s transgressions while applauding them for the specific benefits their solutions bring.
I haven’t seen anything like this since the earlier days of computing when we had Apple (Apple IIGS, Mac), DOS, The Amiga, Commodore, Atari ST – all competing at the same time… it was a great time. Today’s competitors, each deserve more support to insure that their respective technologies grow and blossom. ‘nuf said.
The only problem with your theory. You’re completely wrong.
Here are some things to think about before you open your filth hole again…
1) Microsoft is killing it in the gaming industry, which is huge. XNA runs on phones, XBox 360s and Windows PCs. You can code a game once and sell it three ways. Studios are making tons of cash on XNA right now. And the alternatives for PSP, PS3, Wii, etc. are painful to use, and don’t offer the same 3-screen advantage.
2) Windows Phone 7 is great and it’s just getting better. THE WINDOWS PHONE MARKETPLACE IS GROWING FASTER THEN ANY OTHER PHONE MARKETPLACE IN HISTORY. 500 NEW APPS EVERY DAY (as of a while ago, now even more). And have you heard about Microsoft + Nokia? Have you heard Windows Phone 7 has over a 90% customer satisfaction rating? If you honestly look at the phones on the market Windows Phone 7 represents the only real breath of fresh air. It’s different, modern, and more efficient.
3) Windows 7 is great. It’s the best version of Windows ever. Oh yeah, and Microsoft now has a unified code base for Windows, plus a real-time OS (WinCE) and a CPU based option that requires no operating system, the .NET Micro Framework.
4) Office 2010 is great. It’s the best version of Office ever. I use Excel more than anything else, but I love how much cleaner the UI is. In general most of Microsoft’s new UIs are looking pretty good.
5) IE9 is great. It’s the best version of IE ever. I’ve always had a “second” browser, Opera, Netscape, Firefox and now Chrome. But IE has always been my primary browser (well, since v3). Like it or not, it ain’t bad.