5 ms·

Agreed, Microsoft will be 'cool' when it loses 90% of its users, actually becomes a leader in developing new innovative products and gains a resurgence through

Agreed, Microsoft will be 'cool' when it loses 90% of its users, actually becomes a leader in developing new innovative products and gains a resurgence through that. Cool generally requires standing apart from the norm. When you're the biggest company in your market by a huge margin, you're the norm.

nailer 16y ago
And those markets (desktop OSs and desktop Office software) aren't growth areas anymore.
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  I disagree with this. In the next perhaps 20 years or so it's likely that more people will join the developed world than live in it today as countries like China, India, Chile, Indonesia, Poland, etc. become more developed (much like South Korea and Taiwan have done within the past 20-30 years). Developed economies create lots of office jobs, and office jobs use windows computers running office as a rule. There's a huge growing market for MS still. That's not to say that I am 100% confident that MS will gain all this as a matter of course, or that competition won't arise (I suspect we're on the cusp of a general purpose OS paradigm shift that may disadvantage MS), but the growth potential is very substantial and very real.
  - nailer 16y ago
    > Developed economies create lots of office jobs, and office jobs use windows computers running office as a rule. Sure, but even some traditional companies now have more web apps than desktop apps.
- electromagnetic 16y ago
  They aren't huge growth areas in the anglosphere anymore, Ed: although smartphones and tablets may change this, they're still growing in the west somewhat, but are exploding colossally in the developing areas of the world like India and China. These places still have huge piracy 'problems', but these will likely be resolved in the coming decade as these countries develop stronger intellectual property enforcement and will force all corporations to purchase legitimate licenses.
  - nailer 16y ago
    > They aren't huge growth areas in the anglosphere anymore, Ed: although smartphones and tablets may change this, These don't run desktop OSs.
    - electromagnetic 16y ago
      Yet. Given that smartphones and tablets are now being produced with more powerful CPU's than netbooks, it's really only a matter of time.
      - nailer 16y ago
        If the desktop kernels still remain (which they may not due to realtime needs) the userspaces still need to change for touch UI. So if it happens, I don't expect the current desktop champions to suddenly get good at mobile.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

nailer 16y ago

And those markets (desktop OSs and desktop Office software) aren't growth areas anymore.

InclinedPlane 16y ago
I disagree with this. In the next perhaps 20 years or so it's likely that more people will join the developed world than live in it today as countries like China, India, Chile, Indonesia, Poland, etc. become more developed (much like South Korea and Taiwan have done within the past 20-30 years). Developed economies create lots of office jobs, and office jobs use windows computers running office as a rule. There's a huge growing market for MS still. That's not to say that I am 100% confident that MS will gain all this as a matter of course, or that competition won't arise (I suspect we're on the cusp of a general purpose OS paradigm shift that may disadvantage MS), but the growth potential is very substantial and very real.
- nailer 16y ago
  > Developed economies create lots of office jobs, and office jobs use windows computers running office as a rule. Sure, but even some traditional companies now have more web apps than desktop apps.
electromagnetic 16y ago
They aren't huge growth areas in the anglosphere anymore, Ed: although smartphones and tablets may change this, they're still growing in the west somewhat, but are exploding colossally in the developing areas of the world like India and China. These places still have huge piracy 'problems', but these will likely be resolved in the coming decade as these countries develop stronger intellectual property enforcement and will force all corporations to purchase legitimate licenses.
- nailer 16y ago
  > They aren't huge growth areas in the anglosphere anymore, Ed: although smartphones and tablets may change this, These don't run desktop OSs.
  - electromagnetic 16y ago
    Yet. Given that smartphones and tablets are now being produced with more powerful CPU's than netbooks, it's really only a matter of time.
    - nailer 16y ago
      If the desktop kernels still remain (which they may not due to realtime needs) the userspaces still need to change for touch UI. So if it happens, I don't expect the current desktop champions to suddenly get good at mobile.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]