4 ms·

It's great for people who want to be in the Windows ecosystem. The problem is, almost no one wants a completely Windows experience anymore. Microsoft is great

by steven2012 13y ago

It's great for people who want to be in the Windows ecosystem. The problem is, almost no one wants a completely Windows experience anymore. Microsoft is great at strategically leveraging their monopoly and creating a forced marriage between two separate experiences, and making both of them worse, much like forcing IE into Windows, Windows Mobile into Windows 8, etc. The problem for Microsoft is that this is no longer 1997. People have legitimate choices and are spurning Microsoft like never before. Their monopoly no longer buys them any strategic advantage anymore except in enterprise software. They can keep trying to create a unifying UX experience, but no one cares. Their Metro UX in Windows 8 has been a disaster. The inertia that Microsoft counted on to make IE the #1 browser no longer works anymore. The best thing to do for the engineers and for shareholders is to break the company apart and let each division fend for themselves. Let them make the best product they can, not stymied with one hand tied behind their back because they have to maintain this terrible lineage back to Windows.

tstrimple 13y ago
Whether a person wants a completely Windows experience or not has no bearing on unification being beneficial overall. I personally don't believe that they are worse experiences. The Windows Phone UI is loved by pretty much everyone who uses it. It's a similar story with Windows 8. Read reviews from people who are actually using the operating system and not just reacting out of fear of change. One of Microsoft's strengths is how diverse their portfolio is. Adding to that the fact that Microsoft products are working together now better than they ever have before. Breaking the company apart is simply ridiculous.
- steven2012 13y ago
  You are free to believe what you want. However, Windows 8 is an unmitigated disaster. Surface is an unmitigated disaster. Windows Phone is absolutely ignored. Bing is largely ignored. Internet Explorer has lost large swaths of marketshare. Microsoft is trying to unify an experience that no one cares about. They're building products that no one wants to use. And the reason no one wants to use them is because they are being stymied by this ridiculous notion that they would have a common experience, but an experience that no one wants to use because they are stymied. When Surface came out, I very much wanted to buy one for my parents, because it looked like exactly what they needed. I spent 45 mins at the Microsoft Store, and I didn't end up getting it. It was terrible. Sometimes, I didn't understand which way to swipe, I didn't understand why there was Flash but some websites wouldn't work, and then sometimes I would get the Windows task bar, and didn't know why. Compare this to the iPad which is almost a perfect experience, because it's so much easier to use. Microsoft has stymied themselves by trying to take the core Windows experience, and then hammering it into the tablet experience. And then they take this really shitty experience, and then hammer that back into the desktop experience. It's like taking a photocopy of a photocopy. If they allowed their teams to make the best product they could, they might succeed in the same way Google has succeeded. But forcing everyone to pray at the temple of Windows is what is ruining Microsoft in 2013 and beyond. They need to split up and forget this unification delusion.
  - tstrimple 13y ago
    Windows 8 has more users than all versions of OS X combined. If that's an "unmitigated disaster", what does that make OS X? Windows Phone has overtaken iOS in Latin America and holds the number two spot for mobile devices. Windows Phone has also overtaken iOS in Italy, and is less than a percentage point away from taking over in Germany as well. Across Europe Windows Phone market share has doubled from this time last year, while iOS continues to decline. Windows Phone is the fastest growing mobile OS worldwide. Nokia's customer satisfaction has surpassed all Android manufacturers and is right on the heels of Apple. None of this evidence supports your claim that Windows Phone is "absolutely ignored". Bing handles roughly 30% (Bing + Yahoo) of internet search traffic in the US. A far cry from being "largely ignored". None of this paints a picture of "an experience that no one cares about". Your statements show clear bias with no evidence to support it. You're certainly entitled to your opinions, but the sweeping statements you are making are simply wrong.
    - corresation 13y ago
      If OSX were coasting on a worldwide monopoly, where simply executing competently yielded hundreds of millions of automatic sales, you would actually have a point. Microsoft is not a startup. They were on top of the world, and they've only been going down. As to "fasted growing mobile OS", it's easy to achieve that when you have low single digit marketshare. For anyone else who read that and were surprised, note that Microsoft went from 2 to 4% marketshare. Android went from 75 to 81 (3x more absolute market growth, but from a relative perspective, no Android couldn't grow from 75% to 150%). It is the sort of skewed and misrepresented statistics that make the whole debate so odd.
    - steven2012 13y ago
      First off, you are getting the wrong impression about me. I'm a Windows user. I have some Apple products, like an iPhone, but I tried using Mac OSX for a year and hated it. I have a MacBook Pro at work, but I bootcamped it and run Windows 7 solely. I've been a Microsoft user since MS-DOS 3.3, so I don't care what OSX's install numbers are. I started my career programming for Windows 3.1 SDK, using MFC, etc, so I've been with Microsoft every step of the way. Windows 7 was a great OS after a disastrous Windows Vista. Windows 8 is again an unmitigated disaster. 88M users out of 1 billion install base? http://www.neowin.net/news/there-could-be-885-million-windows-8-users-but-is-that-big-enough http://www.neowin.net/news/there-could-be-885-million-window... Even Steve Ballmer himself said that Windows 8 was not selling enough. http://www.neowin.net/news/ballmer-states-that-windows-is-not-selling-well-next-gen-surface-in-testing http://www.neowin.net/news/ballmer-states-that-windows-is-no... No one wants to upgrade to Windows 8. That's why they are backing away from their Metro strategy. Yet another integration attempt that has completely blown up in their face. You are also wrong about Bing's search traffic. It's 18%. As I said, largely ignored. 4 out of 5 people ignore Bing. Bundling Yahoo as disingenuous since most people don't know it's Bing. I worked at Yahoo. I know how inertia works, and given that their search share hasn't changed much since they had their own search engine, it's being used by people that just don't care. You could switch Yahoo's backend to Google and no one would know the difference, because they don't care. Sure, Windows Phone may be a small success in Latin America, if you consider selling dirt cheap phones with no margin a success. It's still the #2 phone to Android and Windows Phone is still 3-6% marketshare worldwide. 94 people in the world out of 100 ignore Windows Phone. It's absolutely ignored. That may change in the future, if Microsoft gives away their phones for free. But as of right now, they are absolutely ignored. Microsoft is unable to create a single experience on any of their platforms that bring happiness to their users, except for X-box. I don't have an X-box one, but many of my coworkers are complaining like hell about Microsoft's need to change the X-box one's experience to more like Metro's. I can't speak to how accurate this statement is. If they were smart, they would be battling PS4 and trying to make the best gaming console they can, instead of having another agenda of some failed integration that is unnecessary.

tstrimple 13y ago

Whether a person wants a completely Windows experience or not has no bearing on unification being beneficial overall. I personally don't believe that they are worse experiences. The Windows Phone UI is loved by pretty much everyone who uses it. It's a similar story with Windows 8. Read reviews from people who are actually using the operating system and not just reacting out of fear of change. One of Microsoft's strengths is how diverse their portfolio is. Adding to that the fact that Microsoft products are working together now better than they ever have before. Breaking the company apart is simply ridiculous.

steven2012 13y ago
You are free to believe what you want. However, Windows 8 is an unmitigated disaster. Surface is an unmitigated disaster. Windows Phone is absolutely ignored. Bing is largely ignored. Internet Explorer has lost large swaths of marketshare. Microsoft is trying to unify an experience that no one cares about. They're building products that no one wants to use. And the reason no one wants to use them is because they are being stymied by this ridiculous notion that they would have a common experience, but an experience that no one wants to use because they are stymied. When Surface came out, I very much wanted to buy one for my parents, because it looked like exactly what they needed. I spent 45 mins at the Microsoft Store, and I didn't end up getting it. It was terrible. Sometimes, I didn't understand which way to swipe, I didn't understand why there was Flash but some websites wouldn't work, and then sometimes I would get the Windows task bar, and didn't know why. Compare this to the iPad which is almost a perfect experience, because it's so much easier to use. Microsoft has stymied themselves by trying to take the core Windows experience, and then hammering it into the tablet experience. And then they take this really shitty experience, and then hammer that back into the desktop experience. It's like taking a photocopy of a photocopy. If they allowed their teams to make the best product they could, they might succeed in the same way Google has succeeded. But forcing everyone to pray at the temple of Windows is what is ruining Microsoft in 2013 and beyond. They need to split up and forget this unification delusion.
- tstrimple 13y ago
  Windows 8 has more users than all versions of OS X combined. If that's an "unmitigated disaster", what does that make OS X? Windows Phone has overtaken iOS in Latin America and holds the number two spot for mobile devices. Windows Phone has also overtaken iOS in Italy, and is less than a percentage point away from taking over in Germany as well. Across Europe Windows Phone market share has doubled from this time last year, while iOS continues to decline. Windows Phone is the fastest growing mobile OS worldwide. Nokia's customer satisfaction has surpassed all Android manufacturers and is right on the heels of Apple. None of this evidence supports your claim that Windows Phone is "absolutely ignored". Bing handles roughly 30% (Bing + Yahoo) of internet search traffic in the US. A far cry from being "largely ignored". None of this paints a picture of "an experience that no one cares about". Your statements show clear bias with no evidence to support it. You're certainly entitled to your opinions, but the sweeping statements you are making are simply wrong.
  - corresation 13y ago
    If OSX were coasting on a worldwide monopoly, where simply executing competently yielded hundreds of millions of automatic sales, you would actually have a point. Microsoft is not a startup. They were on top of the world, and they've only been going down. As to "fasted growing mobile OS", it's easy to achieve that when you have low single digit marketshare. For anyone else who read that and were surprised, note that Microsoft went from 2 to 4% marketshare. Android went from 75 to 81 (3x more absolute market growth, but from a relative perspective, no Android couldn't grow from 75% to 150%). It is the sort of skewed and misrepresented statistics that make the whole debate so odd.
  - steven2012 13y ago
    First off, you are getting the wrong impression about me. I'm a Windows user. I have some Apple products, like an iPhone, but I tried using Mac OSX for a year and hated it. I have a MacBook Pro at work, but I bootcamped it and run Windows 7 solely. I've been a Microsoft user since MS-DOS 3.3, so I don't care what OSX's install numbers are. I started my career programming for Windows 3.1 SDK, using MFC, etc, so I've been with Microsoft every step of the way. Windows 7 was a great OS after a disastrous Windows Vista. Windows 8 is again an unmitigated disaster. 88M users out of 1 billion install base? http://www.neowin.net/news/there-could-be-885-million-windows-8-users-but-is-that-big-enough http://www.neowin.net/news/there-could-be-885-million-window... Even Steve Ballmer himself said that Windows 8 was not selling enough. http://www.neowin.net/news/ballmer-states-that-windows-is-not-selling-well-next-gen-surface-in-testing http://www.neowin.net/news/ballmer-states-that-windows-is-no... No one wants to upgrade to Windows 8. That's why they are backing away from their Metro strategy. Yet another integration attempt that has completely blown up in their face. You are also wrong about Bing's search traffic. It's 18%. As I said, largely ignored. 4 out of 5 people ignore Bing. Bundling Yahoo as disingenuous since most people don't know it's Bing. I worked at Yahoo. I know how inertia works, and given that their search share hasn't changed much since they had their own search engine, it's being used by people that just don't care. You could switch Yahoo's backend to Google and no one would know the difference, because they don't care. Sure, Windows Phone may be a small success in Latin America, if you consider selling dirt cheap phones with no margin a success. It's still the #2 phone to Android and Windows Phone is still 3-6% marketshare worldwide. 94 people in the world out of 100 ignore Windows Phone. It's absolutely ignored. That may change in the future, if Microsoft gives away their phones for free. But as of right now, they are absolutely ignored. Microsoft is unable to create a single experience on any of their platforms that bring happiness to their users, except for X-box. I don't have an X-box one, but many of my coworkers are complaining like hell about Microsoft's need to change the X-box one's experience to more like Metro's. I can't speak to how accurate this statement is. If they were smart, they would be battling PS4 and trying to make the best gaming console they can, instead of having another agenda of some failed integration that is unnecessary.