5 ms·

Six years ago Microsoft held a funeral for the iPhone, saying that they would have 80% market share and iPhone would have 2%. The main problem is arrogance. ht

• smaili 10y ago
  The parade included an impromptu marching band of Windows Phone team members, roller skaters, a unicycle, costumes, and a few home-made floats, including a hearse for competitors.
• tn13 10y ago
  You have to do such things to improve moral of your people. There is a good chance we will be saying exact same thing about SolarCity, Tesla, Uber and many others.
  • Gracana 10y ago
    Would that improve your morale? I'd feel like I was in a cult. That is some next-level corporate lunacy.
• asdfologist 10y ago
  That doesn't seem like arrogance to me. "It’s a great way for teams that have worked overtime to create a kick-ass product blow off steam and have a little fun." It's a lighthearted morale booster. What's the big deal?
  • robotresearcher 10y ago
    > What's the big deal? It was tasteless and disrespectful at the time and in retrospect it is laughably hubristic. You can celebrate a good thing without dissing another good thing.
    • macintux 10y ago
      Many of us thought it was laughably hubristic at the time.
  • origami777 10y ago
    Taken alone it could be viewed as light hearted. Taken in the context of their past behavior it's another example of arrogance. Look at what Ballmer said about Google and Eric Sshmidt in the early days. Look at their complete mismanagement of mobile. They always believed they could just swoop in and win the market. How else can you explain the many years after iPhone was launched for them to launch a competitive mobile OS. I would call their approach to mobile an embarrassment. How could the worlds largest software company release such crap for so long? How could they go to market with a confusing array of mobile options (looking at you RT)? They thought they could win just because of past performance, and thus had no sense of urgency or humility, and that is why I think this is arrogant.
• iaw 10y ago
  When Bill Gates was at the helm he skated a fine line of legalities in order to build a sustained monopoly. The ecosystem continued to evolve as his priorities shifted away from Microsoft and none of his replacements were able to adapt as dynamically as Bill did. Ballmer is the pinnacle example of this arrogance without evidence attitude. It's like the ghost of corporate Bill Gates will guide and give luck no matter how stupid the decision they make. It's sad because Microsoft could've evolved gracefully into a behemoth larger than Apple and Google, if only there had been an ounce of humility after Bill Gates left.
  • angstrom 10y ago
    As it stands Microsoft has basically become a staple commodity. Like proctor & gamble peddling soap products Microsoft peddles products for small/medium corporations. Xbox is the only thing keeping a foothold in the consumer space anymore. But they continue to make predictable money at it.
    • linkregister 10y ago
      Microsoft Windows is still the most-installed OS by far in the consumer desktop and laptop space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...
    • pcwalton 10y ago
      Despite the way it seems living in San Francisco, Apple's market share on desktop is under 10% (via browsing statistics). And Linux and Chrome OS have nearly an order of magnitude less market share. Windows is still, for all intents and purposes, completely dominant.
      • pjmlp 10y ago
        Regarding ChromeOS I never saw them here in Europe besides occasionall units at big surface stores. And they usually stay there for weeks before they vanish. It is quite easy to check if it is the same one, if they don't lock it. I never saw any trace of the success they appear to have in US.
• LA_Banker 10y ago
  You say "is" as though they haven't changed CEO's, undergone a complete organization rehaul, and oriented toward cloud services in the ensuing six years.
  • rezashirazian 10y ago
    This is a very good point. These are the fruits of past coming to bear, it would be interesting to see where Microsoft ends up in a few years with Satya Nadella
  • GrumpyYoungMan 10y ago
    Not quite. Terry Myerson was the head of the Windows Phone division at the time of that parade and its subsequent failure in the market and Terry Myerson is now in charge of the entire Windows division, including desktop (i.e. Windows 10) and mobile devices. (minor edit for clarification)
    • chj 10y ago
      This, I can never understand.
    • xenadu02 10y ago
      That's because the Windows division is in "milk it and wind it down mode". Windows is no longer the favored child so they need some rube to keep the gravy train running as they pivot everyone else to the next big thing. Windows won't go away but will just become less relevant. I doubt Microsoft even cares if Apple takes 80% marketshare in desktop/laptop PCs... as long as people keep buying Office licenses and using services running on Azure they'll make a ton of money and everyone wins. The mobile race is over. Apple and Google won, we are way too far along in the hockey stick graph to leave any oxygen for further competitors. The only question left for anyone else is how much money they want to lose before they give up.
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• lojack 10y ago
  If I was holding MSFT stock and they didn't have grand ambitions or shoot for the stars, I'd sell. Same goes for most companies.