3 ms·
They are afraid of: Google, cloud computing, online office applications, Linux, OS X, and any competitor who can develop applications faster and (arguably) bett
by bkbleikamp 18y ago
They are afraid of: Google, cloud computing, online office applications, Linux, OS X, and any competitor who can develop applications faster and (arguably) better than they can (i.e. 37signals products that are developed fast and appeal to a niche market that would never substitute a Microsoft product in place of one of 37signal's).
Their problem is software no longer takes millions of dollars and hundreds of people to create - it can be done by a small team with almost no budget. Also the distribution platform is the web, not retail.
They missed the memo a decade ago that things were changing and now they're playing catch up :)
- olefoo 18y agoThey did get the memo about the internet, don't you remember the genesis of IE? What they are dealing with now is a change in the nature of their core markets brought about by the internet; the locus of power has shifted from the producers of software to the consumers of software. And that is the memo they haven't quite picked up on yet.