4 ms·

I partially agree. I think it's a combination of 2 things (the second being more or less the same as what you are saying): 1) Their brand reputation became tox

I partially agree. I think it's a combination of 2 things (the second being more or less the same as what you are saying): 1) Their brand reputation became toxic over time. Windows ME was seen as a bad product. XP prior to service pack 1 was seen as a bad product. Normal people knew what the blue screen of death with. Normal people made jokes about the quality of Windows. Correct or not, their market dominance (seen as insurmountable) contributed to it. By the early 2000s, no one liked Microsoft. Windows Mobile was just as good as the competition (pre-iPhone). It might not have been dramatically better, but it was just as good. In the 90s that would have been enough for them to swallow up the market completed, but it didn't happen here. People were slow to adopt smartphones in this time period. 2) They are just an old company. As you said, they are slow to get to market. It's the ship you can't turn around. Google is a lot like Microsoft in their ability to form partnerships, but unlike Microsoft is very nimble and able to adapt to the market, has the courage to try something completely new (Chrome OS was laughed at just a few years ago), and has the right amount of cockiness to make it happen (usually). There can only be one Google/Microsoft in technology. If you accept that, how can Microsoft possibly win?

bunderbunder 14y ago
> Their brand reputation became toxic over time. This. Combined with their failure to realize this. I strongly suspect that Windows Phone would have been more successful if they hadn't given it a name that evokes innumerable products with which everyone has a love-hate relationship at best. > They are just an old company. They're 362 days older than Apple.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  > They're 362 days older than Apple. This Apple is really NeXT.
  - seanmcdirmid 14y ago
    No its not. Culturally, its very similar to the pre-Jobs Apple, just with a lot more focus.
  - rbanffy 14y ago
    Which, in turn, had a lot of the original Apple Computer.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  > Combined with their failure to realize this. Something potatolicious explained so wonderfully.
AnthonyMouse 14y ago
>There can only be one Google/Microsoft in technology. I don't buy it. A decade ago Google and Microsoft were on different planets. It's totally possible for one company to sell operating systems to everyone and a different company to provide ad-supported services to the same people. The mistake Microsoft made was to take Google's nominal preference for open standards and open source technologies as a declaration of war. So they started pushing Bing solely for the purpose of pissing in Google's oatmeal and started astroturfing and lobbying against them left and right, and the next thing you know Google is putting more resources behind Google Docs, they release Chrome and take a huge chunk of Internet Explorer's market share, and by the time Google realizes that Apple is poised to take over the expanding mobile device market in ~2006 the chances of them looking to Microsoft to act as a check on Apple's power would have been such a ridiculous suggestion that I doubt they even considered it, so instead we saw Google's full might behind Android which is obviously what did Microsoft in for the mobile space and what may destroy them yet. Microsoft's mistake was to attack something they couldn't kill, and in so doing they turned what might have been a thorn in their side into a major war. And it's a war they're losing.

bunderbunder 14y ago

> Their brand reputation became toxic over time. This. Combined with their failure to realize this. I strongly suspect that Windows Phone would have been more successful if they hadn't given it a name that evokes innumerable products with which everyone has a love-hate relationship at best. > They are just an old company. They're 362 days older than Apple.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
> They're 362 days older than Apple. This Apple is really NeXT.
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  No its not. Culturally, its very similar to the pre-Jobs Apple, just with a lot more focus.
- rbanffy 14y ago
  Which, in turn, had a lot of the original Apple Computer.
rbanffy 14y ago
> Combined with their failure to realize this. Something potatolicious explained so wonderfully.

AnthonyMouse 14y ago

>There can only be one Google/Microsoft in technology. I don't buy it. A decade ago Google and Microsoft were on different planets. It's totally possible for one company to sell operating systems to everyone and a different company to provide ad-supported services to the same people. The mistake Microsoft made was to take Google's nominal preference for open standards and open source technologies as a declaration of war. So they started pushing Bing solely for the purpose of pissing in Google's oatmeal and started astroturfing and lobbying against them left and right, and the next thing you know Google is putting more resources behind Google Docs, they release Chrome and take a huge chunk of Internet Explorer's market share, and by the time Google realizes that Apple is poised to take over the expanding mobile device market in ~2006 the chances of them looking to Microsoft to act as a check on Apple's power would have been such a ridiculous suggestion that I doubt they even considered it, so instead we saw Google's full might behind Android which is obviously what did Microsoft in for the mobile space and what may destroy them yet. Microsoft's mistake was to attack something they couldn't kill, and in so doing they turned what might have been a thorn in their side into a major war. And it's a war they're losing.