'Burning platform' Elop: I'd SLASH and BURN stuff at Microsoft, TOO

Where's the roadmap?

Not entirely stupid. Selling off those divisions would net them a bit of money. I'm sure some idiot would be prepared to pay for them.

But it's clear Microsoft have run out of ideas, or at least are too scared of changing Office to ever implement any. (To be fair, the amount of whinging they got when they added the ribbon probably deterred them - but then I'm one of the four people who actually likes it, so I would say that...) From now on, it's subscriptions not selling software, holding your data hostage on their servers, and giving up on anything ever coming to make Office better. Oh, and handing your data to the NSA. They know they have no improvements to Office in the pipeline anyone would pay to upgrade to.

It's not fit for business users, but I'm excited about Apple making iWork free, with no uploading your data to Apple's servers. If anything could make Microsoft realise that they need to make Office easier to use and more predictable, it's that.

Xbox is a dead end

It's never made them any money when you factor in development and warranty costs. Each time they believe it will be OK next time. Xbox one is third time lucky, and now that's all turning to crap too, with specs that put it only a bit better than current gen and a truckload of features that aren't ready or aren't available outside of the us.

I can really see Xbox being let go. Hopefully a hardware company will pick it up and do a proper job with it, not the disaster that Microsoft made of it.

You Missed an important detail...

This Gartner source was an anonymous source who has an "insight" into what Elop is thinking.

Seeing as its the run up to a CEO selection this is definitely a story that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. This source might just have read about Elop's tenure at Nokia, spoke to some ex-colleagues and decided that gave him/her enough "insight" into his way of thinking, it may be an ex-colleague at Microsoft or Nokia that has an axe to grind, it could be someone that favours one of the other CEOs trying to spread dirt or it could be someone trying to sell Elop to the shareholders.

Bloomberg is read by stock analysts who in turn advise shareholders. Most shareholders are in it for the short term gain and quarterly profits are more important than long term sustainability. Having someone as CEO who would sell non-profitable segments would raise the quarterly returns and thusly raise the share price making the shareholders happy.

There's also more to a products worth than its profitability. Google and Apple make losses on Android and iOS (R&D costs vs a zero sale price) yet if anyone even contemplated selling them off their arse would even hit the floor on the way out the door. The Xbox brand is still Microsoft's most loved brand and it pushes Microsoft product and services while also getting people adjusted to newer tech (its no coincidence the Xbox360 and XboxOne use a metro inspired UI) and not having a presence gives Valve, Google and Apple an opportunity to take that foothold. While Bing loses Microsoft money, they'd lose a lot more if they had to licence the service from Google or Yahoo, not just in money terms but in overall control of the Windows platform. Siri and Google Now are merely advanced search engines that run query commands for Android and iOS but are integral to how the platform works, without their own service Microsoft will fall further behind.

IMHO

I don't think XBox will last past this generation anyway. Not because it's not good (even though I am a sony fan personally) but because of the convergence. They're moving to combine their platforms, they've already moved to combine marketplaces and the hardware of the bone is already pretty much a PC rig. I personally believe that this generation is the gen where Microsoft are going to try to pull all their xbox fans to the PC market now that they've dug their hooks in. Steam are already launching the steambox, and with Microsoft making a foray into hardware I can see them following suit, releasing a new windows 9/10 (or whatever it's called by the time the new gen ends... lets say windows X) so yeah, releasing windows X, on a new rig called teh xBox which is a prebuilt PC running windows X.

Only competition then would be the steam box,leaving the console space for sony and ninty, which would probably try to hold on to the glory days for one more generation. If either of them decided to join the PC console space I'd see it being Sony, attempting to release their own 'tweaked' version of the steambox with steam, and their own proprietory store as an extra hooked in .

I wonder how much Nintendo would pay for Xbox

It must be clear to them that the Wii U is a flop and the cost in money and time to bring a successor to the market must be substantial.

Google will miss you Bing

Surely Google will rather Bing still be around - else the EU folk will be more of a pain banging on about competition.

OT

That reminds me, is an article summarizing Ballmer's reign planned? (Or has one been released here and I missed it?)

I'm no manager and don't really see the ins and outs of big business, but to me this slash and burn seems a little OTT considering the position Microsoft currently hold, they done 'need' the money...

Yes there is some restructuring to be done and some streamlining, but binning off a product that generates a lot of publicity (XBOX) seems a bit drastic, office on ios? Good idea, but then that is the final nail in RT's coffin... office is the selling point for surface.

Bing - hmmm.... yes I can see the point of binning that off, Microsoft will have Nokia maps to fall back on for mapping, so hopefully enhance that product...

Pruning branches makes a tree grow bigger, but cut too many and the whole lot wild just die... I think Elop could take a more cautious route....

I can't see Elop being the right man for the job

At Nokia Elop wimped out. They had all these competing products and projects, and rather than sort out the mess and go with something they had, he dumped the lot and went Windows. A perfectly rational decision, in my opinion, despite the conspiracy theories. However, could a better CEO have been able to bang some management heads together, sort out the tangle, and make use of all that lovely R&D Nokia had so far wasted?

The reason I say this, is that Microsoft seems to be in the same mess. There are all these different management fiefdoms, and upper management don't ever seem to settle the bun-fights between them. Rather they seem to sit back, and see who wins. Which is usually nobody. The only recent exception seems to be Sinofsky, who half-managed to get Metro through the bureaucracy, on many different devices, although it wasn't as merged as he said/planned.

The difference is that MS still don't have the same level of competition on their main money-spinners, Windows and Office. Although it's getting there. Whereas Nokia were already deep in the doodoo when they called Elop in.

MS need a visionary as well as a manager though. They need someone to cut through the middle-management mess, but they also need to decide what they are. Are they a boring business services company, with server tools, Office and Windows for corporate desktops, or are they a consumer company too?

There's nothing wrong with cutting all the consumer stuff, accepting that 50% annual growth is no longer possible - and just sticking to the corporate market. They could just sit in that market, with 90% of deskops hoovering up the cash, and keeping the customers happy. Then, by all means, dump XBox, Bing and the like. On the other hand, there's been a lot of corporate cash spent on getting control of the TV, and computing into the living room. MS have done pretty damned well here, with the XBox, and if they lose the consumer PC market, but win the smart TV market, they could still be happy bunnies. Although the smart TV market is probably DOA, given how much nicer it is to control a tablet than a telly. But the XBox is a direct route to consumer computing nirvana, if you've got a credit card and you're hooked up to teh telly, then you're set to sell movies, and who knows what else. Seems a shame to throw it away...

In conclusion, they should give the job to me.

Is it just me.....

...... I quite like Bing!

What I don't understand is...

Why doesn't Microsoft start their own Microsoft+ Service you can use your Microsoft account to log-into the what would only be the BIGGEST Social Network of all time by simply installing Windows.

I mean look at how successful Google have forked up YouTube recently by tying all your Comments, and Votes to your very own Google+ Account! I do believe that MicroSoft IMHO have really missed a trick here!

And, as to Office on Android or iOS? WHY?!?! When 2/3'rds of the Screen is overran by the OSD Keyboard would you want to use a Program like Office on a Tablet? WHY! I'd rather silt my Wrists first.

As to ditching the XBOX Brand. As some other minds have chimed in. The Day of the "Unique" Console seems to be over. The PS4 and the XBONE contain more or less the same Hardware in them. At least as far as the ATI APU goes. Given that pretty much anyone can buy these "Chips" from AMD, granted they are slightly different! It should make things like the Ouya or say Valves Steam Box more easier & affordable to build, and then compete with both MicroSoft, and S0NY on their level. When you start to see it from this angle it kinda starts to make more sense.

Microsoft can't ignore a billion Android devices

They need Android to survive, it's the new Windows.

Burning platform.

in the case of Xbox, it literally is.

I hear event the new one got so hot, they had to move the powersupply outside the box to a 2002 style power brick.

Burning Platforms Everywhere!

This guy seems to go from disaster to disaster.

What's Microsoft Always Done Best? Monopoly!

So let's really hit this Office thing like we never hit it before!

Err.. Right. Maybe. But that's old Microsoft, isn't it? Doing something that it certainly won with in the past, but times change, and isn't the whole point that MS should be changing?

Madness

It would be madness to port Office to Android.

I remember thinking years ago, when java first came out, that Java would not conquer the desktop, but it would mean that people who didn't like MS could migrate their apps AWAY from Sun onto Linux. That's what happened and look what happened to Sun.

If Office moves to Android, the only reason I and millions of others buy MS disappears. A particularly dumb business strategy. No wonder Nokia went down the proverbial.

It would be madness to port Office to Android.

I remember thinking years ago, when java first came out, that Java would not conquer the desktop, but it would mean that people who didn't like MS could migrate their apps AWAY from Sun onto Linux. That's what happened and look what happened to Sun.

If Office moves to Android, the only reason I and millions of others buy MS disappears. A particularly dumb business strategy. No wonder Nokia went down the proverbial.

Oh great

Now when Microsoft makes him the CEO they are going to have to block Monster.com and LinkedIn at the firewall.

So, we have someone who thinks they can read Aesop's Fables Elop's fancy. I really don't think so. If Office went global it would result in a very quick death for Windows (no bad thing). Surely even the numptiest numpty could see that.

I hope Bing stays around

Not that I use it, but we certainly don't want to be handing Google any more of a monopoly than they already have in search!