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This is actually a feature of MSFT, and not a bug. (I’m not a MSFT apologist, and have had my issues with them too) They could have kept on the Ballmer path a
by mathattack 5y ago
This is actually a feature of MSFT, and not a bug. (I’m not a MSFT apologist, and have had my issues with them too)
They could have kept on the Ballmer path and been a Windows and Office company forever, milking the existing base. That path would have likely turned them into IBM. Less relevance, less R and D, and tons of share buybacks.
Instead they bet the farm on emerging computing models. They pulled their money and top talent from the legacy products, and moved them into the new world. So the newer stuff is improving (Azure isn’t AWS but it’s a credible #2) and the old products lag. That’s just a result of the priority decision. They had the courage to starve their cash cow.