MICROSOFT CALLED A FAILING GIANT...

Lazybones · January 03, 2013, 08:23:39 AM

http://bgr.com/2013/01/03/microsoft-criticism-steve-ballmer-280491/

If you are an enterprise customer you got hit with almost a 10-15% price increase across multiple Microsoft licences for this year.

I could see some truth here, however I don't see any sort of rapid change happening any time soon.

Mr. Analog · January 03, 2013, 08:31:31 AM

I know it's a bit tinfoil hat but I feel like this is what's happening...

Ballmer has been an embarrassment as a CEO, certainly a lot of great products have come out during his time along with a few turkeys (which, in a way is good) but the last few years have felt like wild flailing with loyal customers paying for missteps.

They need to do two things immediately:
1. Get a new CEO / image for the company. We want astronauts not ... monkeynauts (well, preferably Awesomenauts but y'know)

2. ADMIT FAILURE AND MOVE ON

...

They also need to stop announcing things too far ahead, I know investors love stroking themselves to product news every 3 months but seriously Apple has this figured out and customers love them for it: announce something, get people excited and OH LOOK it's for SALE right away.

Darren Dirt · January 03, 2013, 09:15:03 AM

Quote from: http://bgr.com/2013/01/03/microsoft-criticism-steve-ballmer-280491/
?[Microsoft] operates a well at the foot of a valley where a large population brings its buckets for water ... And Microsoft gets to charge a monopoly rent for its ?magic? water. Never mind that there are other wells elsewhere offering cheaper water. Many people are still in the habit of coming to this one place.?

Poetry.

Darren Dirt · January 03, 2013, 04:13:17 PM

I just hope before they completely collapse they get this project fully completed...
To build a holodeck: an exclusive look at Microsoft's Edison lab

Mr. Analog · January 03, 2013, 04:19:24 PM

Microsoft will never truly collapse I think, but they may end up a hollowed out shell of their former selves

Who knows? In a decade we'll all be shaking our fists in rage at Apple and rooting for Google after they survive a major collapse.

Tom · January 03, 2013, 10:32:13 PM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on January 03, 2013, 04:19:24 PM
Microsoft will never truly collapse I think, but they may end up a hollowed out shell of their former selves

Who knows? In a decade we'll all be shaking our fists in rage at Apple and rooting for Google after they survive a major collapse.

Funny thing about IBM though, they aren't exactly a hollow shell. Still one of the largest, most profitable mega corporations on the planet. They just don't have a PC monopoly any more. If anything they are a patent monopoly. If someone were to try and sue IBM for some patent or another, they'd slap em down so hard and fast they'd wonder what the heck just happened. I think they register more than 5000 patents a year or something insane.

The question is if MS can survive without its massive /massive/ margins. Should they start really going down hill, prices will have to come down, meaning smaller margins, and potentially cutting back their ops costs (which I can only imagine are huuugeee). And if they don't cut prices, or somehow make their stuff compelling again, well things will go bad for them.

Lazybones · January 04, 2013, 02:14:48 AM

Many Microsoft products are still more compelling than the alternatives, however they have not been advancing as fast as they should in many areas.

IBM makes many REALLY old products that have been in service FOR EVER... You will still see AS400 / iSeries systems as the primary back-end system for MANY retail outlets and banks... The technology has been around for ever, and IBM has been adding feature to it for got knows how long. Also they have some supper computing projects like WATSON and lots of tech like TAPE drives that EVERYONE still uses (many tape systems from DELL etc are just re-branded IBM systems). Lets also not forget cash registers.

IBMs however is almost never seen in small business and much of their consumer tech has been sold off "Lenovo".

I suspect Microsoft will erode from what we know now into a much different beast that will hang on and lead in a few key areas.

Mr. Analog · January 04, 2013, 07:26:35 AM

What I mean of course is IBM was once a tech innovator and now they're mostly tech consulting. They started making the shift in the 80s and stayed pretty much on top of their long product lines.

The point is that if Microsoft can't compete directly on the consumer level they will end up like IBM, supporting existing Microsoft stuff and consulting.