4 ms·
Microsofts failure is most evident in their stock staying flat or dropping the last years, while all their competitors stock has soared, including Apples. That'
by gnaffle 14y ago
Microsofts failure is most evident in their stock staying flat or dropping the last years, while all their competitors stock has soared, including Apples. That's the overall indicator of failure, and the one their owners care about.
But look underneath, and you find failure in every attempt Microsoft has made to branch out of their existing businesses, except for the Xbox.
Mobile? Lost to Apple and Google. Music? Lost to Apple. Instant messaging and identity (.net Passport)? Lost to Facebook. Tablets? Lost to Apple. There are countless examples like this.
Given all those failures, that nice cash flow will only be sustained until the Windows monopoly is replaced by something else. Windows 8 is Microsofts desperate response to something that threatens to do that.
- einhverfr 14y agoAt their height they had plenty of failures too. Bob comes to mind....
- einhverfr 14y agoBut my larger point is that if my business only grows to be the size of Microsoft and ends up with a steady profit that size I won't care about the failures, only count the successes at that point.
- gnaffle 14y agoOf course, but the question at that point becomes: How do you sustain those steady profits? DEC was hugely successful in its day, but was a failure in the 90s because they couldn't manage the transition from minicomputers to PCs.
- einhverfr 14y agoBy creating stuff that people find useful. Also I am less convinced than others that Microsoft is flopping on everything. Azure is certainly a good start for example.
- nl 14y agoAzure is certainly a good start for example. Seriously? Azure is what - 4 years old? It's still yet to see significant adoption outside places that were already .NET/Windows shops. Until that happens it's little more than another defensive play by Microsoft attempting to protect Windows revenue. (Yes, I know it can run Linux VMs. Again - is anyone outside .NET shops using it?)
- ladzoppelin 14y agoApple is using Azure for ICloud which is pretty huge. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/is-apple-really-using-windows-azure-to-power-icloud/9687 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/is-apple-really-using-wi... The Vanity Fair article is almost identical to the articles released before Windows 7 came out in 2009 predicting the same kind of stuff than never comes true. Windows 8 has the potential to be a huge so I am sure these cookie cutter "MS is doomed" articles are going to be more prevalent as we get closer to release.
- einhverfr 14y agothere have been folks on the PostgreSQL lists talking about their experience with Azure running Linux/PostgreSQL.
- locusm 14y agoAny links - we had huge perf issues...