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Like any strong company, Microsoft needs to acknowledge and act upon new trends, not theorize and hope that markets will adjust and have a space open for their

Like any strong company, Microsoft needs to acknowledge and act upon new trends, not theorize and hope that markets will adjust and have a space open for their Oldies-but-goodies products. If Microsoft wants to stay relevant, they need to have an organized structure of market research, design, and innovation through all levels of the company. If Microsoft continues treading tech water, they will be nothing more than a giant software library, skittishly sucking up new ideas and hoping for the best. Innovation on a broad scale is not easy, but it would keep microsoft in the forefront of the tech industry and set it ahead of their trendy competitors. Acknowledgment of mediocrity is the big first step, and a culture of innovation and design will follow.

pohl 16y ago
Acknowledgment of mediocrity is the big first step, and a culture of innovation and design will follow. That is an enormous first step for an organization whose most prominent trait is arrogance. I'd like to see them come around, though, and provide some competition.
- evangineer 16y ago
  I remember the halcyon days of Microsoft. Despite the odd anti-competitive dirty trick on their part, their real edge boiled down to being able to out-strategize and out-execute the competition. Their current approach to extracting intellectual property rents via patent licensing isn't the Road Ahead, it's the Road to Obscurity!
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    It's less a road than a well... Good riddance.
rbanffy 16y ago
> Acknowledgment of mediocrity is the big first step, and a culture of innovation and design will follow. I don't think you can start a culture of innovation with a "we were never really good at it" attitude. They can innovate and build stuff nobody has done before. They just haven't, so far with the exception of Kinect, been able to build stuff nobody built before that people also wanted to buy.

pohl 16y ago

Acknowledgment of mediocrity is the big first step, and a culture of innovation and design will follow. That is an enormous first step for an organization whose most prominent trait is arrogance. I'd like to see them come around, though, and provide some competition.

evangineer 16y ago
I remember the halcyon days of Microsoft. Despite the odd anti-competitive dirty trick on their part, their real edge boiled down to being able to out-strategize and out-execute the competition. Their current approach to extracting intellectual property rents via patent licensing isn't the Road Ahead, it's the Road to Obscurity!
- rbanffy 16y ago
  It's less a road than a well... Good riddance.

rbanffy 16y ago

> Acknowledgment of mediocrity is the big first step, and a culture of innovation and design will follow. I don't think you can start a culture of innovation with a "we were never really good at it" attitude. They can innovate and build stuff nobody has done before. They just haven't, so far with the exception of Kinect, been able to build stuff nobody built before that people also wanted to buy.