Back
in 1981 there were practically no PC analysts. In fact, only four
people were given that designation by the media as we were all covering
larger computer systems for the four professional computer research
firms of the time and all of us were asked to add PCs to our research
portfolios. In this role I visited Microsoft's first real building, the
75-person red brick offices in Bellevue, Washington.
As
a result I've had a ringside seat over the years, watching Microsoft
jab, cross, and duck as it struggles to endure a changing market.
Unfortunately, it has missed pretty much every major trend in mobile
while protecting its PC franchise.
So
how did Microsoft get into its current position? It started out as a PC
company and rode that vision into the ground while the rest of the
market charged into the post-PC era. More importantly, I personally
witnessed two of the major strategic errors that sealed its fortunes as a
distant competitor to Apple, Google, and Samsung, whose operating
systems, devices, and services are now defining a new era of
personalized computing.
In
the early 1990s Microsoft's larger divisions were becoming more like
silos within its management structure, which meant various products and
services were each managed on their own. In most cases these silos had
their own P&L goals and responsibilities. This was both good and
bad. It was good because these groups were more focused on the
development of their products, but bad because they operated as
individual islands inside the company. People inside these groups would
often use their prowess and success in managing these products to gain
better positions inside the company.
This
led to cutthroat competition and fiefdoms as groups became more
powerful and their leaders less likely to work seamlessly with other
groups. There was no such thing as unity until Ballmer recently embraced
a concept you need to perform we have every Replacement parts for iphone 5 at competitive prices.he dubbed "One Microsoft."
In just one example, for many years the group behind Microsoft Office resisted moving its products to a service model,The best cases for iphone 5 remains
the most popular smartphone phone on the market. even though the trend
was clearly moving in that direction as early as 2003. Various other
Microsoft groups were grasping software as a service by 2005, but these
groups were basically at odds with each other. The Office software group
fought to protect its island and keep control of Office until late 2009
when it finally began working with the SaaS divisions.
Other
groups, especially those tasked with CE products, were considered
outcasts since all of the focus and money was on business- and PC-based
consumer products. Interestingly, Microsoft actually had the first true
consumer OS called Windows CE, which it developed back in 1996.Extend
the power on your best iphone 5 back cover with
the mophie juice pack. Had it developed this fully without trying to
make it PC-centric, Microsoft might have beaten Apple and Google to
market with a consumer OS that could have been used across all types of
devices, from tablets and TVs to mobile devices.
Microsoft's
second serious strategic error was in how it approached the market for
software and eventually services.Mobile Fun sell a huge range of samsung cases,
The company placed its full confidence in the PC, disregarding the
potential of other devices to become important consumer or business
tools. This is why Ballmer confidently predicted the iPhone would flop
when it was introduced in 2007.
Microsoft
also had one of the first true mobile operating systems: Pocket PC,
based on Windows CE. Released in 2000, it was aimed at next-generation
PDAs. Unfortunately Microsoft's PC-centric thinking continued with the
Pocket PC, whose UI tried to replicate Windows desktop on a tiny screen.
By
2003, after Handspring's evolved PDA, the Treo, essentially launched
the smartphone era, Microsoft repositioned the Pocket PC OS as Windows
Mobile. Still, it continued using the CE core OS, which remained
PC-centric until 2010 when Windows Phone finally debuted the new OS made
specifically for smartphones. But the need to work with the PC
environment meant the new OS still had a lot of baggage. Because of this
and its slow entry into the smartphone market, Microsoft's Windows
Phone remains a distant third to Apple's iOS and Google's Android.
Recall
Microsoft was actually also the first with a tablet. In 1999, Gates
used his Comdex keynote to declare that eventually a tablet would be the
main way people access information. But as in the past, its universe
revolved around the PC because of having to deliver backward
compatibility with existing PC applications, and any leadership position
in tablets vanished. This put Microsoft behind Apple and Google, which
developed separate mobile operating systems and user interfaces from
scratch.
While
you could argue it was noble of Microsoft to protect its PC franchise,
its fatal error was in trying to make its mobile products work and act
as PCs instead of giving them a clean OS and new mobile-optimized UI.
When
Steve Ballmer became CEO, Microsoft's market cap was $600 billion. On
the day he announced his retirement, its market cap was less than $270
billion. Although the PC market is likely to continue shrinking every
year, PCs will not go away any time soon,Find the perfect leather or
synthetic cellphone cases for
your phone. so Microsoft will continue to be the top software player.
But because of strategic errors it made and managed opportunities it
missed, Microsoft will likely always be a distant player in mobile
products. Meanwhile, the more nimble Apple, Google, and Samsung will be
driving most of the profits in this next major phase of personal
computing.
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