7 ms·

My take is that Nadella's Microsoft will push more products that work with already existing products in a continuing effort to create/enforce a closed ecosystem

by nealabq 12y ago

My take is that Nadella's Microsoft will push more products that work with already existing products in a continuing effort to create/enforce a closed ecosystem. This might be a shift in emphasis for MS, from revenue to user-experience, but the underlying instinct seems the same as it always was: lock-in the customers. And this has proven to be a great money-making strategy in the past. But for it to work it seems you have to control the dominant platform, and/or have a few really-great products, and/or have a killer brand. And MS has some of these: the desktop platform, workplace tools, a pretty-good brand. But the dominant platform has shifted, the brand is waning, and MS is losing its lock-in. A truly radical MS strategy would be to build products that communicate using standard protocols. To build tools that are part of an open ecosystem. That really would be customer focused. But it's not gonna happen. It's not a business model MS grew up with. It's not in their DNA.

AnimalMuppet 12y ago
Here's the thing: To get to the point where they could start trying to lock people in, Microsoft first had to build the platform that everybody wanted to be on. That was 30 years ago, but they knew how to do that, once upon a time. That's where they need to go now. Not back to locking people in, but back to building stuff that's so good, everyone wants to use it.
- EdSharkey 12y ago
  Nobody's put more good software into more people's hands than Microsoft. But since the early 2000's, I feel like they've lost their hardcore productivity edge. Their software has become this endless march of shiny things and fads. I rely less and less on their products every day. The old microsoft that didn't mind being hated was a good thing. They relished being the target and they drove competition whenever they didn't succeed in outright squashing it. I can't see how Microsoft can get back to being the big bad enemy again. Maybe they still are that for folks, I dunno, as a software guy, I don't feel them in my life and I haven't for years.

by nealabq 12y ago

AnimalMuppet 12y ago

Here's the thing: To get to the point where they could start trying to lock people in, Microsoft first had to build the platform that everybody wanted to be on. That was 30 years ago, but they knew how to do that, once upon a time. That's where they need to go now. Not back to locking people in, but back to building stuff that's so good, everyone wants to use it.

EdSharkey 12y ago
Nobody's put more good software into more people's hands than Microsoft. But since the early 2000's, I feel like they've lost their hardcore productivity edge. Their software has become this endless march of shiny things and fads. I rely less and less on their products every day. The old microsoft that didn't mind being hated was a good thing. They relished being the target and they drove competition whenever they didn't succeed in outright squashing it. I can't see how Microsoft can get back to being the big bad enemy again. Maybe they still are that for folks, I dunno, as a software guy, I don't feel them in my life and I haven't for years.