3 ms·
Huh? They've delivered lots of stuff. Some bad stuff, some good stuff. The real problem is the lack of cohesion.
by contextfree 15y ago
Huh? They've delivered lots of stuff. Some bad stuff, some good stuff. The real problem is the lack of cohesion.
- georgemcbay 15y agoI agree. It is the lack of cohesion that is killing them in the 'cloud'. Not just in the sense that there isn't a unified UX for all their stuff (though that is also true), but they are so non-unified that they often have multiple products that do the same basic things, causing end-user confusion and quite simply too many choices. [eg. Sync, Live Mesh, SkyDrive... which is right for 'me' if I'm a non-techie and don't understand the subtle differences in each? Who knows... I'll just use Dropbox!] (FWIW I'm a big fan of Windows Live Mesh, but I've known more than a handful of non-techies who were just confused by it when I suggested it due to the related-but-different products that pop up when they are trying to learn more about it). This does seem to be a problem they are aware of given the unification work they've done with the products I used as an example, but they still have a very long way to go on this.
- angstrom 15y agoIronically, the cohesion has little to do with technical knowhow or marketing. Microsoft effectively lost a decade due to their anti-competitive practices and maneuvering in the late 90s. They were maneuvering to unify the desktop/Internet and easily could have. Instead, the penalties resulted in a lot of backtracking and some very cautious positioning that cost them the competitive edge while tiptoeing through the legalese.