Microsoft CFO bullish in Windows convergence and comms plans Microsoft’s CFO Peter Klein took to the stage at the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference on Wednesday to outline where Redmond is headed in the next 3 to 5 years – and it’s all going to be about cross-platform. “What we're trying to do is develop a complete set of experiences across all device types, be they TV, …
I'm super-happy to see that Microsoft continue to prefix all positive mood adjectives with 'super-'. If sales go as well as predicted, I'm super-excited to forecast a switch to hyper- in 2014.
I wonder if Ms execs are coached to use this language? It's all a bit odd really.
The problem as I see it is that MS doesn't keep up with the market as they should. Times have changed. Not only do we have Linux, we now also have entirely other systems (tablets for example) which make it easier for people to ditch Windows and "move on".
Another problem; when MS finally realizes that they missed an opportunity this aspect becomes key, no matter what. The ends don't justify the means!
But most of all MS needs to break the cycle of "bad - good - bad - good". Desperately (!!) IMO. Its still on today. Windows Phone: It has potential. If you use your phone as a tool and not as a means you don't care that "you can browse Internet by going into "programs -> Swipe to 2nd page -> Start "Browser" and then hit "OK"". What you want is to pick up the phone, click "Internet" (or any other easily recognizable option) and you're online.
That is what MS managed to deliver IMO. Only problem; they left too much out so that the first 'winphone experience' was plain out bad. Your own ringtones? Not possible. Using your phone for several programs at once; not possible. Sure; Mango came along, but its the first impression which counts the most!!
Here in Holland we've had 2 "official" introductions of the Windows Phone. First "Sorry, no Dutch yet" and second: "Dutch! but sorry; not special Bing features yet".
After a 'failed' first release a majority of people will no longer care. That is lost revenue. Sure; you may win them back eventually, but at what marketing costs ?
MS needs to get their act together IMO. And although I'll honestly admit that I grew a liking towards certain MS products (Win7 / Office 2010) I'm convinced that in the end we will all profit here, even if you don't like MS. We already lost Sun as a competitor; the less competitors we have left, the more easy it becomes for "others" to dictate the market.
At the time of writing I'll take Microsoft over Oracle any day of the week.
> growing revenue per users while keeping a rein on costs
It is not specified _whose_ costs are being reined. Microsoft's apparently, they wouldn't want to restrict the clients'. Or perhaps what they are trying to do is growing MS's revenue by taking it from their 'partners'. So clients can only buy software from Microsoft, or via Microsoft with a large percentage being kept by MS.
Forget about buying software from anyone else.
by tying its whole future into the doomed windows 8, microsoft would alienate it's users and ensure its own demise. the question is, given the massive incompetence of MS recently, are they even capable of shooting themselves in the foot any more? I suspect they couldn't find their own arse with both hands
I don't know, maybe the fact that in the fastest growing segment in technology (Mobile) - Microsoft has seen their market share go from one of the leaders to working very hard to stay a bit player.
And the fact that they are betting the farm on a interface that has so far been totally rejected by the consumers (and the reason doesn't matter) is not what I would call a sign of brilliance.
If you don't the last few years in this space is not a sign of incompetence then based on your standards I think you must work in some low level government job.
I can think of some.
Bob.
Buying Danger for Sidekick, upgrading the servers without having a backup and losing user data.
Releasing and dumping Kin.
Paying $10million to Seinfeld for a series of adverts.
The adverts themselves.
Zune, especially the brown one.
Their marketing where they frequently talk about 'the next version' while the one they just released hasn't gained any traction. Basically this says: "just wait until the end of the year".
Vista.
Microsoft has always been a follower and has implemented others' ideas. MS-DOS 1 was a clone of CP/M, MS-DOS 5 and 6 were to catch up to DR-DOS 5 and 6 (but were a year or so later), Windows was only started after seeing a demo of DRI's GEM. WinNT followed OS/2 NT and was to be MS's 'Unix'. IE was to stop Netscape. IE 8 was to catch up to FireFox. Vista was trying to implement features from OS/X.
That worked previously because the cycle time was measured in years. Whenever a new product became available MS could announce their vapourware and have the market wait for a year or two for MS to implement its copy.
Market cycles in mobile is now measured in quarters or months. MS talks of Mango, of WOA tablets, of SuperPhones (with dual core!) and this is for the end of this year or next year. Mobile users won't wait for that, and by then there will be a new generation of competition that will have moved the goal posts yet again.
In the first edition of 'The Road Ahead' Bill Gates did not mention the internet (later printings amended this lack of vision). At the time MS thought that _they_ controlled the direction of computing, but in fact they held it back for 20 years. They would like it to still be the 90s.
Dude, re-read what you wrote there. That's not a qualification, that's an opinion.
Bob was a failure from a usability perspective alone. It was a huge success as a learning experience. An attempt at objectivity rather than a rant would've made me respond to your points. Alas, bovvered? Me?!?
>Windows 8 hasn't even been released yet, so how is it doomed? And how does is alienate users it doesn't even have yet?
Windows 8 is self-destruction. It takes time and effort even from the inside to kill a monster this big. Those revenues and profits, committed developers and customers aren't going to just go away for a tepid product - it has to be truly bad. They must be driven away with shifting targets, fragmentation, anti-customer policies, self-incompatibilities and actively bad products. They've done well quitting the mobile customers but not as well in the consumer desktop. Enterprise desktop and server are stronger than ever.
They've broken their 30+ year marriage with Intel and AMD was never all the way in their bed.
Microsoft must now estrange HP, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, LG and other PC partners to kill their own viability and fade into history. Being domestically abusive isn't going to do it - they've been that for decades so they're upping their game to psychotic and an obvious threat to survival for their PC partners. At MWC Nokia will show a W8 tablet that will alienate Microsoft's PC consumer and enterprise partners being an obvious benefit of special attention, inside information and efforts traditional PC partners can't get at any price.
W8 server breaking app compat should seal the deal with everybody else. W8 server will have new features to maintain the pretense that they're trying but will be impossibly selective about hardware support and ridiculously buggy. They must pretend they have some successful strategy and are trying because that's the game they're in.
The Windows customer base has proven time and again they're not going to go away if the product is a security disaster that can't withstand 4 minutes of exposure to the Internet. Sterner measures are required to drive them away. They can achieve it. I believe in them. The monster will be killed.
It's the "Beowulf" problem. Read my post history for why this is the goal.
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