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Over the past 10 or so years Microsoft has been a behemoth moving glacially on whatever inertia it had left. Recently, it seems like the behemoth is starting to

by mtrimpe 14y ago

Over the past 10 or so years Microsoft has been a behemoth moving glacially on whatever inertia it had left. Recently, it seems like the behemoth is starting to regain control of itself and is demonstrating independent movement. Sure; they're nowhere near being as focused purposeful as Apple is, but you can no longer say they are truly stuck in their ways. Whether that will translate into something tangible is another question, but it's hard to deny that something fundamental isn't changing at Microsoft. Heck, I can't even honestly diss people's Windows mobile phones anymore, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

huggyface 14y ago
Over the past 10 or so years Microsoft has been a behemoth moving glacially on whatever inertia it had left They completely overhauled Office. They've built wholesale online experiences, cloud services, and have purchased and entered new markets. They took the gaming market and owned it. They continued to make incredible progress with their development tools and runtimes/platforms. The only difference this time is that they're risking it all because they're so afraid of Apple. They are essentially betting both their gaming and desktop experiences to desperately try to claw back in the smartphone industries. It is an incredible gambit that I think will prove to be a profound failure, but I think it's incorrect to see that as progress, any more than a salaryman betting it all on Red.
- archangel_one 14y ago
  > They completely overhauled Office Overhauling the Office UI is pretty much inertia; they seem to keep fiddling with it and honestly I think I'd prefer that they just left it alone. >They took the gaming market and owned it. Xbox360 is a distant second to Wii and only a nose ahead of PS3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars#Worldwide_sales_figures_6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars#Worldwide_sales_fi...). While it's certainly done better than its predecessor, I think describing it as "owning" is a bit of an exaggeration.

by mtrimpe 14y ago

huggyface 14y ago

Over the past 10 or so years Microsoft has been a behemoth moving glacially on whatever inertia it had left They completely overhauled Office. They've built wholesale online experiences, cloud services, and have purchased and entered new markets. They took the gaming market and owned it. They continued to make incredible progress with their development tools and runtimes/platforms. The only difference this time is that they're risking it all because they're so afraid of Apple. They are essentially betting both their gaming and desktop experiences to desperately try to claw back in the smartphone industries. It is an incredible gambit that I think will prove to be a profound failure, but I think it's incorrect to see that as progress, any more than a salaryman betting it all on Red.

archangel_one 14y ago
> They completely overhauled Office Overhauling the Office UI is pretty much inertia; they seem to keep fiddling with it and honestly I think I'd prefer that they just left it alone. >They took the gaming market and owned it. Xbox360 is a distant second to Wii and only a nose ahead of PS3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars#Worldwide_sales_figures_6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars#Worldwide_sales_fi...). While it's certainly done better than its predecessor, I think describing it as "owning" is a bit of an exaggeration.