4 ms·

Like Microsoft is dying?

by lsb 16y ago

potatolicious 16y ago
A bit, yeah. Granted, given their size and cash in the bank they'll hobble along for quite a while longer - decades perhaps - but their days as a fast-growing industry leader are almost done (if not so already). One of their two cash cows is doing well, the other (larger one) is losing market share rapidly to a competing desktop OS, as well as having its profitability absolutely shredded by low-cost computing (read: netbooks). Their cash cow is almost milked out, and their desperate forays into other fields have been met with little success. The Xbox division is the only bright spot in a long, long, list of failures (even that has profitability issues, but at least the product is winning) - Zune? WinMo (though we will see how the new version does)... Seen any Surfaces around lately? Their domination of the internet browser has not been so for years now, and keeps slipping ever further. For now, their customer base seems to be heavily reliant on the stickiness of existing institutional installations - this historically does not bode well for the company, when a large portion of your income is from customers who are legacy-locked into your product. It seems peachy until a more agile startup comes and eats your lunch.
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  Ok, not to digress too much, but Microsoft is not an industry "leader" and perhaps never has been. A leader has to know where they're going. Microsoft expands "vegetatively", trying everything and putting money behind what wins. DOS sold well for 10 years; Microsoft pushed DOS. And NT, and CE, and Windows Mobile. They "lead" until margins; then they abandon and rush off to whatever is winning this quarter. This is nothing like leadership; its what a follower does, except in this case Microsoft is following their own shadow. It leaves us all spinning from technology to technology trying to guess if this next great thing is going to last.

4 ms·

Like Microsoft is dying?

by lsb 16y ago

Like Microsoft is dying?

potatolicious 16y ago
A bit, yeah. Granted, given their size and cash in the bank they'll hobble along for quite a while longer - decades perhaps - but their days as a fast-growing industry leader are almost done (if not so already). One of their two cash cows is doing well, the other (larger one) is losing market share rapidly to a competing desktop OS, as well as having its profitability absolutely shredded by low-cost computing (read: netbooks). Their cash cow is almost milked out, and their desperate forays into other fields have been met with little success. The Xbox division is the only bright spot in a long, long, list of failures (even that has profitability issues, but at least the product is winning) - Zune? WinMo (though we will see how the new version does)... Seen any Surfaces around lately? Their domination of the internet browser has not been so for years now, and keeps slipping ever further. For now, their customer base seems to be heavily reliant on the stickiness of existing institutional installations - this historically does not bode well for the company, when a large portion of your income is from customers who are legacy-locked into your product. It seems peachy until a more agile startup comes and eats your lunch.
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  Ok, not to digress too much, but Microsoft is not an industry "leader" and perhaps never has been. A leader has to know where they're going. Microsoft expands "vegetatively", trying everything and putting money behind what wins. DOS sold well for 10 years; Microsoft pushed DOS. And NT, and CE, and Windows Mobile. They "lead" until margins; then they abandon and rush off to whatever is winning this quarter. This is nothing like leadership; its what a follower does, except in this case Microsoft is following their own shadow. It leaves us all spinning from technology to technology trying to guess if this next great thing is going to last.