I've been spending some time trying to understand what Microsoft is doing relative to Google, Apple and Adobe. I keep thinking that they've got some kind of master plan that isn't obvious, but is clever and futuristic. Then I run across videos like this one.
I apologize for the wacky editing. Focusing on his lips? Weird. In any case, the thing that jumped out at me was his verb tenses. The Internet "will be" the central content delivery system. The user experience "will be" multimedia. This was filmed on March 19, 2010 and he's gloating about keeping up with his son's basketball game via Twitter and then talks about how it "will be" a way to connect and communicate.
What planet is he living on? I just downloaded MLB AtBat for my Droid. It gives me video highlights of every baseball game and has one game a day on live video feed. It comes right to my phone which isn't running a single shred of Microsoft code. My friend has had it for a while and it was already on my son's iPhone. I was behind the times. And if I was behind the times, Steve seems to be living in the year 2006 or something.
The more I dig into this, the more Microsoft seems like a dinosaur.
4 comments:
I'm no Microsoft fanboy (is there such an animal?), but I think you are being too hard on them. They've entered a long and slow decline, not yet in their senescence, but still providing useful stuff.
The astonishing thing about recent Microsoft history is their shocking rout in mobile. This is the real untold Microsoft story. How did this happen? In my opinion, this should have resulted in public decimation for everyone involved.
Jeff, I keep looking for evidence that the exist in the same year as I do and I can't find it. I've been a staunch defender of the PC as a platform and by implication, Microsoft operating systems, but peeling back this particular onion reveals one out-of-touch layer after another.
As for Windows Mobile 7, they are way too late. Android and iPhone have this one sewn up. Their failure with the Zune reveals another layer of rot. How can you be so consistently behind the times when you've got that much money to spend on product development?
"they" exist, not "the" exist. Drat.
It's an identity crisis. Microsoft is obsessed with being perceived as modern and hip. Their entertainment and devices division is barely making a profit, keeping its head above water after already losing BILLIONS already (1.26 billion loss in 2006 launching xbox 360).
I think that Microsoft needs to get back to its roots, as in making useful software for enterprise business customers. They've had their mid life crisis.
They are on the right track with things like docs.com. The odd part about docs is that its primary authentication is with Facebook. Huh? How many friends on Facebook do you have that you would want to create office docs with? Maybe they just figure Facebook is popular - so they should start working with Facebook.
What they should be doing is deploying Windows Azure as a server product (not just a service) that would let organizations create their own private cloud to serve up enterprise apps. Office 2010 and docs.com on the intranet would reassure business customers why they choose Microsoft.
The threat of Google coming in and stealing away their biggest cash cow is very real.
They also need a leadership change in a major way.
These days are over...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk
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