3 ms·

I think that works for a while but it catches up with you eventually. Once you miss enough next big things you just aren't prepared to react anymore.

by jsz0 17y ago

mbreese 17y ago
Case in point: The Internet. Microsoft has been reacting to that since 1995 and still hasn't gotten good at it. Given the ungodly amounts of money that they have put behind MSN/Live Search/Bing, you'd think that they'd have more mindshare than they do. This is a case where Microsoft was trying to react to the situation on the ground, rather than create the situation on the ground (like a Google). Another case would be digital music. After using partners to create MP3 players (which is their traditional strategy), they switched over to making their own (Zune). They just kept reacting to the iPod and iTunes Store. This meant they were playing by Apple's rules in the market, not creating the market.
- ismarc 17y ago
  The Zune's I've used are phenomenal products and much more suited to me than any of the ipods ever were. The touch-but-not-push button that also acts as a button, with the intuitive, clean, simple text listing for the UI is great. I personally really like the Zune (especially the brick shaped ones) for multitudes of reasons, the highest being that I can drop-kick it down a flight of cement stairs then land in a puddle of water and it be fine. What the iPod has is the iTunes store and household name (along the lines of Q-Tips and Kleenex). What Microsoft fails at is delivering an experience that makes an individual's entire experience easier. They are pros at providing tools, systems and support for the management of large deployements (e.g., corporate desktops/laptops, Apple and even Linux don't come anywhere close to the capabilities Microsoft provides in this regard), but they have always had problems directly targetting the consumer. The only direct-to-consumer product they have that they did good on in their own right is the XBox 360. They did this by being first and doing a great job of getting production companies on board for games. They did not go with the level of innovation that some companies did (PS3/Wii). It doesn't take innovation to lead the pack, or even just to succeed in an arena. It takes knowing who your target customers are and providing the experience that they didn't even know they wanted before they used it.
  - mbreese 17y ago
    I've never used a Zune, and probably never will... not because of anything that Microsoft has done, but because I'm well served in the iPod ecosystem. They might be great products, but that isn't my point. I'm not trying to say that Microsoft doesn't make good gear, but that in music players they aren't defining the market. So far, they are playing in a market that is defined by Apple. Even Apple in this regard wasn't very innovative. They took a concept that had already been proven in the marketplace (MP3 player), and made it better. I had an old Rio MP3 player back in the day, and it was a pain to get music onto it. When the first iPod came out, it was much more useful because it was easy to get my music on there. The innovation was in making it simple to buy music from iTunes and put it on your iPod. I'm curious to see what the new Zunes look like when Microsoft announces them next week. But I suspect that it will be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
- tybris 17y ago
  > This is a case where Microsoft was trying to react to the situation on the ground, rather than create the situation on the ground (like a Google). Hey, that's exactly what Google is doing in social networking.

I think that works for a while but it catches up with you eventually. Once you miss enough next big things you just aren't prepared to react anymore.

by jsz0 17y ago

I think that works for a while but it catches up with you eventually. Once you miss enough next big things you just aren't prepared to react anymore.

mbreese 17y ago

Case in point: The Internet. Microsoft has been reacting to that since 1995 and still hasn't gotten good at it. Given the ungodly amounts of money that they have put behind MSN/Live Search/Bing, you'd think that they'd have more mindshare than they do. This is a case where Microsoft was trying to react to the situation on the ground, rather than create the situation on the ground (like a Google). Another case would be digital music. After using partners to create MP3 players (which is their traditional strategy), they switched over to making their own (Zune). They just kept reacting to the iPod and iTunes Store. This meant they were playing by Apple's rules in the market, not creating the market.

ismarc 17y ago
The Zune's I've used are phenomenal products and much more suited to me than any of the ipods ever were. The touch-but-not-push button that also acts as a button, with the intuitive, clean, simple text listing for the UI is great. I personally really like the Zune (especially the brick shaped ones) for multitudes of reasons, the highest being that I can drop-kick it down a flight of cement stairs then land in a puddle of water and it be fine. What the iPod has is the iTunes store and household name (along the lines of Q-Tips and Kleenex). What Microsoft fails at is delivering an experience that makes an individual's entire experience easier. They are pros at providing tools, systems and support for the management of large deployements (e.g., corporate desktops/laptops, Apple and even Linux don't come anywhere close to the capabilities Microsoft provides in this regard), but they have always had problems directly targetting the consumer. The only direct-to-consumer product they have that they did good on in their own right is the XBox 360. They did this by being first and doing a great job of getting production companies on board for games. They did not go with the level of innovation that some companies did (PS3/Wii). It doesn't take innovation to lead the pack, or even just to succeed in an arena. It takes knowing who your target customers are and providing the experience that they didn't even know they wanted before they used it.
- mbreese 17y ago
  I've never used a Zune, and probably never will... not because of anything that Microsoft has done, but because I'm well served in the iPod ecosystem. They might be great products, but that isn't my point. I'm not trying to say that Microsoft doesn't make good gear, but that in music players they aren't defining the market. So far, they are playing in a market that is defined by Apple. Even Apple in this regard wasn't very innovative. They took a concept that had already been proven in the marketplace (MP3 player), and made it better. I had an old Rio MP3 player back in the day, and it was a pain to get music onto it. When the first iPod came out, it was much more useful because it was easy to get my music on there. The innovation was in making it simple to buy music from iTunes and put it on your iPod. I'm curious to see what the new Zunes look like when Microsoft announces them next week. But I suspect that it will be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
tybris 17y ago
> This is a case where Microsoft was trying to react to the situation on the ground, rather than create the situation on the ground (like a Google). Hey, that's exactly what Google is doing in social networking.