3 ms·

I disagree. They stopped innovating after they killed all of the competition. They didn't need to any more. MS certainly don't have a vested interest in the in

by points 16y ago

I disagree. They stopped innovating after they killed all of the competition. They didn't need to any more. MS certainly don't have a vested interest in the internet - it goes against their core business.

bl4k 16y ago
I think its fair to say that Microsoft don't do complacency esp. in competitive markets IE team was torn apart as part of internal politics
- jfager 16y ago
  That's not fair to say at all. IE6 is a perfect example of complacency in a competitive market from years ago. Their mobile efforts to date are a perfect example of complacency in a competitive market today. They were years late in shipping Vista, years late in trying to meaningfully compete with Google, they've been long complacent with their Mac Office products, and some of their developer tools are atrocious. You don't get a pass because your internal bureaucracy and politics prevent your engineers from doing their jobs.
  - bl4k 16y ago
    Actually you are correct. I think if they had the option to, they would not have been complacent, but all the internal muddling stalled them on Vista (worst project ever) and IE. They only got their teams cleared out in the past 18 months and restructured and there is a lot more to do (Dean Hatchamovitch leads the IE team now, great guy who came in via sysinternals) So you are right that internal turmoil shouldn't be used as an excuse. I think they know that they can't be complacent though, the Vista slip must have cost a lot of market share to Apple.
mdwrigh2 16y ago
Adding to this, I remember reading an interview with one of the IE6 devs a couple weeks back where he talked about how Microsoft considered browsers finished after IE6, and basically just disbanded the team. Browsers and web innovation wasn't a goal for Microsoft once they had majority marketshare. They just wanted to make sure their product was the standard for the web, as good or as bad as it was.

by points 16y ago

bl4k 16y ago

I think its fair to say that Microsoft don't do complacency esp. in competitive markets IE team was torn apart as part of internal politics

jfager 16y ago
That's not fair to say at all. IE6 is a perfect example of complacency in a competitive market from years ago. Their mobile efforts to date are a perfect example of complacency in a competitive market today. They were years late in shipping Vista, years late in trying to meaningfully compete with Google, they've been long complacent with their Mac Office products, and some of their developer tools are atrocious. You don't get a pass because your internal bureaucracy and politics prevent your engineers from doing their jobs.
- bl4k 16y ago
  Actually you are correct. I think if they had the option to, they would not have been complacent, but all the internal muddling stalled them on Vista (worst project ever) and IE. They only got their teams cleared out in the past 18 months and restructured and there is a lot more to do (Dean Hatchamovitch leads the IE team now, great guy who came in via sysinternals) So you are right that internal turmoil shouldn't be used as an excuse. I think they know that they can't be complacent though, the Vista slip must have cost a lot of market share to Apple.

mdwrigh2 16y ago

Adding to this, I remember reading an interview with one of the IE6 devs a couple weeks back where he talked about how Microsoft considered browsers finished after IE6, and basically just disbanded the team. Browsers and web innovation wasn't a goal for Microsoft once they had majority marketshare. They just wanted to make sure their product was the standard for the web, as good or as bad as it was.