3 ms·
Microsoft is not, and never has been, a consumer company. They’re a business that does things for other businesses. They understand that really well. MS has ha
by MBCook 4y ago
Microsoft is not, and never has been, a consumer company. They’re a business that does things for other businesses. They understand that really well.
MS has had one successful consumer product: the Xbox. That seems to have been given total autonomy. And they have still screwed up a few times (Xbox One launch) by falling into old patterns.
Apple was a user company under Jobs. Is still kind of is (they clearly don’t care about businesses), but not as much, and I’m getting a bit worried.
- Yoric 4y agoI have friends who worked at Microsoft Xbox. As far as I understand, they indeed work like a completely separate company from the rest of Microsoft.
- MBCook 4y agoI know it was purposefully stated that way. Gates recognized “normal Microsoft” would ruin it. And I think they still tried by trying to get it based on normal Windows at one point as opposed to something highly custom based on the same kernel.
- alexsereno 4y agoI think the real tell for Apple’s future will be who Tim Cook chooses to replace him. Financially, Apple is incredibly strong. You could argue that operations was Apple’s weakest point when Jobs left, and that Cook was the right choice to cement profitability and the ops side of the business as CEO. Now it’s time for some new product lines to cannibalize existing products and bring the company forward. If Tim picks another business / operations guy to run the company instead of a product person, I do think the product first culture and DNA Jobs left will die out over time.
- emodendroket 4y agoThe Surface is fairly successful, isn't it? At least I'm assuming they're not plugging away st a total failure after all the time still.
- MBCook 4y agoThat’s just a Windows computer. They’re well reviewed, but I’m not sure they’re very consumer focused. I know plenty of business users use the too. The Surface models with an ARM (can’t remember the name) were clearly more consumer aimed, but those flopped. Really I meant more non-computer. WebTV never set the world on fire (though it seems to have been more popular than most people realize). Zune was supposed to be pretty good, but initial marketing kind of killed it. And WMP wasn’t exactly loved software the way iTunes was. Remember when iTunes was great? The Active Mates toys didn’t take off, though that’s not a surprise. Spot watches! And shoving Windows CE in the Dreamcast didn’t help. I’m struggling to think of things MS has done outside of computers, peripherals, and the Xbox. There are probably tons, they’d try anything in the 90s.