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I hope the new CEO has the courage and the power to set out a vision and stick to it for more than just a few years in a row. Microsoft under Ballmer has been

I hope the new CEO has the courage and the power to set out a vision and stick to it for more than just a few years in a row. Microsoft under Ballmer has been a study in short attention span. Changing themes, names, and directions every three to five years. When I was a Windows sysadmin back in the day, it was incredibly frustrating to build anything on the Microsoft platform because by the time you wrapped your brain around the new way of doing things, the next server OS release would change everything. From what I've seen since I moved on to a different career, that pattern hasn't changed. Apple's success has come from a laser focus and constant improvement for the past 17 years. Microsoft used to be similarly focused. Remember the old adage that Microsoft would get it right by Version Three, and wipe out the competition? Well, they haven't stuck to any particular plan for long enough to come up with a version three of anything in 15 years. Hell, Microsoft pioneered tablet computers, but after some promising early models and some decent push into the innovation required, they kind of just let that project wither on the vine until Apple came up with a workable model. Then MS desperately tried to pivot and turn everything, even the server OS, into a tablet-and-desktop-friendly mess. Remember Zune? Remember Live? Remember the Kin??

kvb 13y ago
I'm not sure this is a helpful diagnosis - Microsoft didn't have a short attention when it came to tablets (as you say, they pioneered them, and they haven't abandoned them), they just didn't get the form factor right, and many of the Live services have just been rebranded. Likewise, Apple has also demonstrated a short attention span at times. Remember Ping?
- marknutter 13y ago
  It's not that they didn't get the form factor right, it's that they didn't align as a company to make sure it was a success. To my knowledge, in-fighting between different divisions in Microsoft lead to the Tablet PC's ultimate demise and as an early adopter myself I definitely felt the pain of it. Tablet pen functionality in Office was a pathetic, tacked-on afterthought, for instance.
  - kvb 13y ago
    Good point - there were several problems with Microsoft's tablet approach, and you're certainly right that application software is one of them. The main thing I wanted to say is that "short attention span" and "abandonment" don't accurately describe what went wrong.
  - fumar 13y ago
    In those early iterations the stylus support was pathetic. In contrast, Today's stylus hardware/software integration on their Surface Pro line is great. I look forward to Microsoft finding their own perspective not only in hardware, but in software/search as well.
javajosh 13y ago
> Remember Zune? Remember Live? Remember the Kin?? We should be very careful about criticizing others for their failed products. The side-effect of experimentation and innovation is that some of the experiments will result in failure to find market fit. Market fit failure isn't a good thing for a company, but it's much worse to not experiment at all.
- danieldk 13y ago
  Moreover, it's surprising that the grandparent evokes Apple as a counter-example, since it discontinued iTools, MobileMe (or perhaps more importantly iDisk), Ping, Xserve, etc. With the exception of Ping, products that a large group of people relied on.
- hga 13y ago
  I'm most familiar with the example of the Kin, and it was not an example of "experimentation and innovation", but a case study in how Microsoft has largely lost its ability to execute on a proven concept. For that matter, the Zune was a (late) iPod clone; sure, it had some experimental features (that didn't pan out, but, hey, they tried), but it was hardly seriously innovative. It also was yet another example in how you'd best not trust Microsoft, as part of it they threw their PlaysForSure ecosystem under the bus. Hmmm, getting whole sectors of the world to trust Microsoft in the future is going to be a tall order for the next CEO, assuming he doesn't just punt on many of them, which might be the wisest thing to do.
  - dublinben 13y ago
    Both the Zune Pass and Zune Share were much more innovative than anything beyond the first iPod.
    - r00fus 13y ago
      Execution matters. Zune Pass died a few months ago. I can still use account credit I put on my AppleID from 10 years ago (in fact I still have a few bucks on one of my early accounts). A small startup that gets squished by larger competition has an excuse as to why it shut down services and let down it's customers. Microsoft has no such excuse. They failed to compete, then the failed their customers. Innovation is wasted if it's improperly handled.
pjspycha 13y ago
Microsoft is often being thumbed as being thickheaded and stubborn as well as unable to be flexible and quick enough to change with the market. "Short attention span" is definitely something new.
- cmelbye 13y ago
  Are those mutually exclusive? Couldn't they miss a trend and then eventually bring it to market late, and then change their minds about it shortly afterwards?
arethuza 13y ago
"Microsoft pioneered tablet computers" I always thought that was GO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp. Although I suspect more people know about GO from Jerry Kaplan's book Startup than from their products.
rlpb 13y ago
> When I was a Windows sysadmin back in the day, it was incredibly frustrating to build anything on the Microsoft platform because by the time you wrapped your brain around the new way of doing things, the next server OS release would change everything. [...] > Apple's success has come from a laser focus and constant improvement for the past 17 years. Really? OS 9, OS X, iOS? Sure, it's not quite the same number of platforms as Microsoft have done in that time. But I don't think that they're on polar opposites of the spectrum here as you suggest (nor do I think that being at one end of this spectrum is necessarily good).
- jimbokun 13y ago
  OS X and iOS share the same core. OS 9 was a stop gap while getting NextStep ready to replace Mac OS.
- skywhopper 13y ago
  I'm not sure I totally understand what you're saying, but I'll try to respond: When Apple bought NeXT and Steve Jobs took over as CEO, the OSX project was born at that moment. Before that Apple had been stabbing wildly in the dark for a solution to their outdated OS, with a bunch of failed efforts at a rewrite. Yes, they updated the old MacOS a couple of times, which needed to happen, but as soon as OSX was ready for prime timee, they made the switch. iOS is to some extent based on the same internals as OSX, but even if it were a completely different architecture, I'd say it's actually a good example of Apple's focus. Rather than forcing crossover and synergy where it doesn't make sense (ie, forcing the Metro interface onto the desktop and server, without actually providing Metro interfaces to their most popular desktop apps or server tools), Apple created separate OSes for devices that have completely different roles.
lotso 13y ago
The Zune is at the foundation of Microsoft's Metro design language.
- MartinCron 13y ago
  Yeah, Zune was a market failure, but it was a really great product that was totally underrated.
  - BlackDeath3 13y ago
    I tried to buy one not long ago and was sad that they had been discontinued. I don't know if this is still the case today (or even relevant in the world of smartphones) but I could not for the life of me find an MP3 player with an FM tuner in it. But the Zune had one, did it not?
    - MartinCron 13y ago
      I'm pretty sure it did have an FM tuner in it. Also, the new iPod Nano has FM, if you're still in the market. http://www.apple.com/ipod-nano/ http://www.apple.com/ipod-nano/
      - BlackDeath3 13y ago
        Very cool. Thanks for the link!
    - tanzam75 13y ago
      > I tried to buy one not long ago and was sad that they had been discontinued. I don't know if this is still the case today (or even relevant in the world of smartphones) but I could not for the life of me find an MP3 player with an FM tuner in it. But the Zune had one, did it not? A Nokia Lumia 520 is dirt-cheap and has an FM tuner. All you have to do is to pretend that it isn't also a phone.
      - BlackDeath3 13y ago

kvb 13y ago

I'm not sure this is a helpful diagnosis - Microsoft didn't have a short attention when it came to tablets (as you say, they pioneered them, and they haven't abandoned them), they just didn't get the form factor right, and many of the Live services have just been rebranded. Likewise, Apple has also demonstrated a short attention span at times. Remember Ping?

marknutter 13y ago
It's not that they didn't get the form factor right, it's that they didn't align as a company to make sure it was a success. To my knowledge, in-fighting between different divisions in Microsoft lead to the Tablet PC's ultimate demise and as an early adopter myself I definitely felt the pain of it. Tablet pen functionality in Office was a pathetic, tacked-on afterthought, for instance.
- kvb 13y ago
  Good point - there were several problems with Microsoft's tablet approach, and you're certainly right that application software is one of them. The main thing I wanted to say is that "short attention span" and "abandonment" don't accurately describe what went wrong.
- fumar 13y ago
  In those early iterations the stylus support was pathetic. In contrast, Today's stylus hardware/software integration on their Surface Pro line is great. I look forward to Microsoft finding their own perspective not only in hardware, but in software/search as well.

javajosh 13y ago

> Remember Zune? Remember Live? Remember the Kin?? We should be very careful about criticizing others for their failed products. The side-effect of experimentation and innovation is that some of the experiments will result in failure to find market fit. Market fit failure isn't a good thing for a company, but it's much worse to not experiment at all.

danieldk 13y ago
Moreover, it's surprising that the grandparent evokes Apple as a counter-example, since it discontinued iTools, MobileMe (or perhaps more importantly iDisk), Ping, Xserve, etc. With the exception of Ping, products that a large group of people relied on.
hga 13y ago
I'm most familiar with the example of the Kin, and it was not an example of "experimentation and innovation", but a case study in how Microsoft has largely lost its ability to execute on a proven concept. For that matter, the Zune was a (late) iPod clone; sure, it had some experimental features (that didn't pan out, but, hey, they tried), but it was hardly seriously innovative. It also was yet another example in how you'd best not trust Microsoft, as part of it they threw their PlaysForSure ecosystem under the bus. Hmmm, getting whole sectors of the world to trust Microsoft in the future is going to be a tall order for the next CEO, assuming he doesn't just punt on many of them, which might be the wisest thing to do.
- dublinben 13y ago
  Both the Zune Pass and Zune Share were much more innovative than anything beyond the first iPod.
  - r00fus 13y ago
    Execution matters. Zune Pass died a few months ago. I can still use account credit I put on my AppleID from 10 years ago (in fact I still have a few bucks on one of my early accounts). A small startup that gets squished by larger competition has an excuse as to why it shut down services and let down it's customers. Microsoft has no such excuse. They failed to compete, then the failed their customers. Innovation is wasted if it's improperly handled.

pjspycha 13y ago

Microsoft is often being thumbed as being thickheaded and stubborn as well as unable to be flexible and quick enough to change with the market. "Short attention span" is definitely something new.

cmelbye 13y ago
Are those mutually exclusive? Couldn't they miss a trend and then eventually bring it to market late, and then change their minds about it shortly afterwards?

arethuza 13y ago

"Microsoft pioneered tablet computers" I always thought that was GO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GO_Corp. Although I suspect more people know about GO from Jerry Kaplan's book Startup than from their products.

rlpb 13y ago

> When I was a Windows sysadmin back in the day, it was incredibly frustrating to build anything on the Microsoft platform because by the time you wrapped your brain around the new way of doing things, the next server OS release would change everything. [...] > Apple's success has come from a laser focus and constant improvement for the past 17 years. Really? OS 9, OS X, iOS? Sure, it's not quite the same number of platforms as Microsoft have done in that time. But I don't think that they're on polar opposites of the spectrum here as you suggest (nor do I think that being at one end of this spectrum is necessarily good).

jimbokun 13y ago
OS X and iOS share the same core. OS 9 was a stop gap while getting NextStep ready to replace Mac OS.
skywhopper 13y ago
I'm not sure I totally understand what you're saying, but I'll try to respond: When Apple bought NeXT and Steve Jobs took over as CEO, the OSX project was born at that moment. Before that Apple had been stabbing wildly in the dark for a solution to their outdated OS, with a bunch of failed efforts at a rewrite. Yes, they updated the old MacOS a couple of times, which needed to happen, but as soon as OSX was ready for prime timee, they made the switch. iOS is to some extent based on the same internals as OSX, but even if it were a completely different architecture, I'd say it's actually a good example of Apple's focus. Rather than forcing crossover and synergy where it doesn't make sense (ie, forcing the Metro interface onto the desktop and server, without actually providing Metro interfaces to their most popular desktop apps or server tools), Apple created separate OSes for devices that have completely different roles.

lotso 13y ago

The Zune is at the foundation of Microsoft's Metro design language.

MartinCron 13y ago
Yeah, Zune was a market failure, but it was a really great product that was totally underrated.
- BlackDeath3 13y ago
  I tried to buy one not long ago and was sad that they had been discontinued. I don't know if this is still the case today (or even relevant in the world of smartphones) but I could not for the life of me find an MP3 player with an FM tuner in it. But the Zune had one, did it not?
  - MartinCron 13y ago
    I'm pretty sure it did have an FM tuner in it. Also, the new iPod Nano has FM, if you're still in the market. http://www.apple.com/ipod-nano/ http://www.apple.com/ipod-nano/
    - BlackDeath3 13y ago
      Very cool. Thanks for the link!
  - tanzam75 13y ago
    > I tried to buy one not long ago and was sad that they had been discontinued. I don't know if this is still the case today (or even relevant in the world of smartphones) but I could not for the life of me find an MP3 player with an FM tuner in it. But the Zune had one, did it not? A Nokia Lumia 520 is dirt-cheap and has an FM tuner. All you have to do is to pretend that it isn't also a phone.
    - BlackDeath3 13y ago