3 ms·
Microsoft's value has been falling because it is obvious that software commoditization threatens their revenues. Windows and Office isn't packed with growth po
by hapless 17y ago
Microsoft's value has been falling because it is obvious that software commoditization threatens their revenues. Windows and Office isn't packed with growth potential. No amount of "vision" or "leadership" will defy fate.
Many products launched during Ballmer's tenure have been successful. More importantly, Microsoft has been able to move away from their core business.
* Sharepoint (A billion dollar product and a multi-billion dollar industry.)
* Axapta (purchased)
* Great Plains (purchased)
* Solomon (purchased)
* Xbox/Xbox 360
* BizTalk
* .NET (An application stack to compete with J2EE, unthinkable in 1999.)
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During the same period, a number of Microsoft products went from minor items to major contenders in their industries.
* MS SQL was a Sybase clone in 1999; in 2009 it's a price/performance champ.
* Exchange was only used in "Microsoft shops" in 1999. Today it's the de facto standard.
- protomyth 17y agoIs the the Xbox 360 profitable by itself, or are they still using the Mac BU to cover the losses?
- btilly 17y agoThe Xbox 360 never had to make profit to be successful. The reason the product was introduced is that Microsoft saw itself going head to head with Sony in a number of markets, and so they wanted to undercut Sony's big cash cow, the playstation. As long as Microsoft reduced Sony's profits more than Microsoft lost money, the mission was accomplished.
- protomyth 17y agoOk, you pretty much stated my big problem with Microsoft. They don't have a great idea for a new product, but their competitor of the week has a product that they want to stomp. What business does Microsoft have going after Sony?
- gloob 17y agoCosting Sony money would reduce the amount of money Sony could spend on other ventures. At least a subset of those "other ventures" are things Microsoft is actively interested in. Disclaimer: I have no actual experience with either Microsoft or Sony when it comes to this sort of thing, so I might be way off target here.
- btilly 17y agoThey were head to head in a lot of places. Both wanted to create the next DRM standard, Sony was pushing Blu-ray so Microsoft pushed back, Microsoft wanted to push its software into portable devices, and Sony didn't want them there, and Microsoft was afraid that the Playstation would grow up into a general purpose computer in every household and undermine the PC market. So Microsoft saw a company going head to head with them in a lot of key areas, and they decided to weaken the threat.