5 ms·

> who dragged down Microsoft Did he?

by zerr 8y ago

Fnoord 8y ago
By being unable to use his warchest on a changing market. As an example: missing the smartphone boat twice (once with Windows Mobile vs Symbian, and once with Windows Phone vs iOS/Android). Another example: Microsoft search / Bing. Microsoft kept Office relevant though, made Azure relevant, and are reinventing themselves from a proprietary to a data company (like Google, Facebook, and Amazon) who also do a lot of open source (like the previously mentioned companies). But I suppose Nadella takes credit for that.
- CSMastermind 8y ago
  Bing has proved to be one of the best investments that Microsoft ever made. Ballmer's failure as it related to Bing was trying to build an advertising platform to compete with Google and failing.
  - TheWiseOne 8y ago
    Genuine question - how is Bing a good investment? Isn't it essentially a non-factor in the search market?
    - alttab 8y ago
      My guess is the algorithms and infrastructure serve search functions across all of their products. The "search market" is really the "Display advertising" market, and sure, they suck at that because no one goes to bing. But bing isn't worthless.
      - can16358p 8y ago
        I've lost trust on them the day they were busted copying results directly from Google (https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/)
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
    - warty 8y ago
      It's a huge guinea pig for .net, windows server, and azure - a perfect example of eating your own dog food.
- doitmw 8y ago
  On the other hand there's not much evidence that MS could've won (or at least secured a place in) the smartphone wars with any other CEO. Many other big companies tried and failed miserably.
traskjd 8y ago
My opinion, fwiw: Financially, no. Optically, yes. (and, in fairness to the latter, in a manner which was diminishing longer term value creation also. However he totally does not deserve the reputation he generally has with developers. Like a lot of things, folks love to view them in black in white, when in reality it's a rainbow).
ddebernardy 8y ago
As one who can recollect the old days where one had to pick up the phone and read catalogs to source a supplier, I'd suggest he didn't do that bad - MS is still around and generating billions, after all. But he botched a few potential growth vectors along the way - think mobile or SaaS.

> who dragged down Microsoft Did he?

by zerr 8y ago

> who dragged down Microsoft Did he?

By being unable to use his warchest on a changing market. As an example: missing the smartphone boat twice (once with Windows Mobile vs Symbian, and once with Windows Phone vs iOS/Android). Another example: Microsoft search / Bing. Microsoft kept Office relevant though, made Azure relevant, and are reinventing themselves from a proprietary to a data company (like Google, Facebook, and Amazon) who also do a lot of open source (like the previously mentioned companies). But I suppose Nadella takes credit for that.

CSMastermind 8y ago
Bing has proved to be one of the best investments that Microsoft ever made. Ballmer's failure as it related to Bing was trying to build an advertising platform to compete with Google and failing.
- TheWiseOne 8y ago
  Genuine question - how is Bing a good investment? Isn't it essentially a non-factor in the search market?
  - alttab 8y ago
    My guess is the algorithms and infrastructure serve search functions across all of their products. The "search market" is really the "Display advertising" market, and sure, they suck at that because no one goes to bing. But bing isn't worthless.
    - can16358p 8y ago
      I've lost trust on them the day they were busted copying results directly from Google (https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/)
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - warty 8y ago
    It's a huge guinea pig for .net, windows server, and azure - a perfect example of eating your own dog food.
doitmw 8y ago
On the other hand there's not much evidence that MS could've won (or at least secured a place in) the smartphone wars with any other CEO. Many other big companies tried and failed miserably.

traskjd 8y ago

My opinion, fwiw: Financially, no. Optically, yes. (and, in fairness to the latter, in a manner which was diminishing longer term value creation also. However he totally does not deserve the reputation he generally has with developers. Like a lot of things, folks love to view them in black in white, when in reality it's a rainbow).

ddebernardy 8y ago

As one who can recollect the old days where one had to pick up the phone and read catalogs to source a supplier, I'd suggest he didn't do that bad - MS is still around and generating billions, after all. But he botched a few potential growth vectors along the way - think mobile or SaaS.