IT Professionals

Microsoft Of The Future

Posted by on Nov 1, 2010 | 5 Comments

It’s not all that often that I find myself sticking up for Microsoft. Lately it seems to have been held in my defense more times than I might care for under normal circumstances. Be that as it may, the fact of the matter is that Microsoft as it exists today is doomed. Not broke, not disappearing — its current model in the world stage is flawed and its belief is that it’s about to self-correct. The fact is we need to see Microsoft embrace the areas where it excels. And as we already know, it excels on the desktop and in the enterprise environment.

Now for the problem. Businesses large and small need growth to succeed. Much in the same way we need oxygen to breathe, businesses need growth to thrive as well. Unfortunately in recent years nearly every area Microsoft has reached out into has been a relative failure. By itself, this is not a terrible thing. Bing has gained some market share and is working closely with Yahoo. I hear someday over the rainbow, we really will see Windows 7 tablets worthy of competing with their Android and iPad counterparts. And last, Windows Phone 7. By itself, there is a lot to love about this mobile platform. Unfortunately once again the Microsoft marketing team has gotten a hold of it and the mobile OS is taking a beating in the reviews. Bundle that with key missing features and we have a false start. In other words, the needed features needed to have been included — no excuses.

Here in the coming years, I see Microsoft being faced with a very serious choice. The fact is it cannot afford to fail at mobile this time and the enterprise market isn’t big enough by itself. So maintaining future versions of Windows for the home user will also be key. Then finally, the Xbox. The Xbox has been a solid offering from Microsoft and it appears the brand still has plenty of life left within it. But on the less pleasant side of things, Microsoft needs to clean out its marketing department, allow Bing to break off into its own company, and in the end, focus at its core business: operating systems.

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  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/theoracle/ the oracle

    You base your assumptions on the idea that there is no state of stasis, where equilibrium holds and the world is fine.

    The idea that businesses either grow or die is a larger part of the utter greed that many people have a great love for, and it finds its way to respectability through that concept.

    It doesn’t have to be that way.

  • http://www.matthartley.com Matt Hartley

    I am looking at Microsoft’s current direction, their “way of doing things” and the likelihood of them changing in the near future. With that line of thought in mind, I stand by my statements 100%. If they want to maintain, they need to adapt or die — simple.

  • http://TechnologyChronicles.com Christian Jay Marshall

    I think Microsoft is doing just fine.

  • http://lotect.com Mike

    If Microsoft were serious about the future they’d take a page from Steve Jobs’ playbook, download a copy of Ubuntu and make that their next O/S. I played around with Windows 7 on someone else’s laptop – it is just as bad as Vista ever was. So tremendously frustrating to try to do or navigate anywhere. Windows that popuped up behind windows so I thought the installer hung but was just waiting for me to select which draconian features of Windows Live I wanted… Working on the Mac is just soooooooo much better. People of planet earth. Switch!

  • Randy Allen

    Microsoft needs to sit down and look at what they do well, and set out to do that really well. Those things are operating systems, office software, and XBox. Dump everything else and focus. New versions don’t have to be radically different, but rather comfortably reliable. Dump the old Windows and start over with a new OS and build it right, without support for 1995 programs and hardware. It brought Apple back from the abyss, why can’t it help Microsoft?