Pondering the Future of a Re-Org'd Microsoft 400
puddingebola writes "This story from Forbes touches on Steve Ballmer's announcement that Microsoft will reorganize. From the article, 'Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appears to be planning a major reorganization. His apparent objective is to help the company move toward becoming a "devices and services company," as presented in the company's annual shareholder letter last October.' What follows is an analysis of the current state of Microsoft's current ventures: shrinking PC sales, Nokia management calling for a change of course, Office 360 lagging, a $1 Billion investment in Nook, the losses on Xbox. Once again, if Microsoft starts to lose the revenue of Windows and Office, how long does the boat float? And what of the suggestion, on the verge of another update in the Xbox console, that Microsoft should sell the Xbox division?"
Better Idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Get your resumes ready guys! (Score:5, Insightful)
The only thing inhibiting Microsoft's growth is incompetence at the top.
Re:Sell the only post-pc success story MS has? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Better Idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux brings in a substantial portion of my income but statements like that hurt its adoption, not help it. In an "real" corporate environment, Linux isn't free. I've never met a CEO who wanted to base his/her business on unsupported software. By supported, I mean when something goes down, they want a throat to grab (and sue if things get really bad). The result is something like RedHat or OUL, which has support, not definitely isn't free.
Also, if you come into my office and the best pitch you have for Linux on your project is "it's free", you'll be asked to leave.
MS Languages and platforms a dead end (Score:5, Insightful)
VB6 migration path to VB.net: Fuck you. Recode.
Winforms to Web: Fuck you. Recode.
Silverlight to WPF: Fuck you. Recode.
WPF to anything:Take a guess.
Microsoft Office interface: Fuck you. Retrain.
Windows interface: Fuck you. Retrain.
Old Windows phone: Fuck you.
New Windows phone: Maybe we'll let your app on our store, and by the way. Fuck you.
Why anybody, at this point, would invest *any* time in any windows language or platform is beyone me. Think Android. Think iOS.
Re:Better Idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft's strong-point used to be that you could get stuff done with their GUI's without having to read much of the manuals. Average Monday-blawzay hangover employees could click their way to getting stuff up and going via GUI trial and error. While that's not necessarily a lofty advantage, it fit a need and companies liked that.
But they got away from that by stuffing their UI's and tools with "enterprise-level" gobbledygook because they want to compete on IBM's and Oracle's turf. Now they are the worse of both: bloated and bureaucratic without the reliability and support structure of IBM (relatively speaking).
I would recommend they go back to their roots of get-it-done GUI tools or front-ends. They could even do so for Linux front-ends for server admins who don't want to learn Linux command-lines and scripting. Again, I'm not necessary condoning such practices or employees, only saying there is a market (profits) for such tools and they have existing experience there.
Re:Better Idea (Score:5, Insightful)
> I've never met a CEO who wanted to base his/her business on unsupported software
Then you've not been around much. Plenty of companies outside of a very small set of "glamourous" ones will happily trade a little risk for a really big discount.
Don't try to conflate the Fortune 100 with everyone because it's simply not the case.
Re:MS biggest reorganization (Score:4, Insightful)
Wishful thinking. If I had moderator points, I would be torn between Funny and Insightful.
Re:Never Heard of Office 360 (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd buy an Xbox today if it could replace my office pc. I need word, excel, and support for network printers. The ability to pop in a game for a 15 minute break would be a key selling point over playing spider solitaire on my current system.
Considering the Xbox 360 already has HDMI support it is shocking no one on their development team has made this happen yet. I mean, it's a no brainer. The present day 360 is on par with a budget PC, but is all inclusive in a small form factor. It is ideally suited to be used as a PC in an office environment, a dorm room, a living room, and a bedroom. Why MS is stuck on keeping it a living room only gaming machine is beyond me. Yes, Kinetic is neat, but betting the next gen console's entire success on it is insanity. The notion of the xbox being a gaming console died with the integration of web browsers, social media and Netflix. Xbox is now a crippled PC that can only be used to waste time but never do anything productive. Uncripple it, that's all we're asking. Make the xbox the only computer we need.
The xbox has the potential to be Microsoft's iMac, plus games. This would be freaking awesome.
Jumping the shark? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this Microsoft's jumping the shark moment?
Whenever I hear of a large software company suddenly saying they're now a devices and services company, I have to wonder if they have a good grasp on what's happening.
They keep thinking they're going to move everything to the cloud and subscriptions, but I'm not sure if their customers actually want that from them.
One does have to wonder if they're not just trying to figure out what to do next to stay relevant in some segments -- but you have to be sure to not destroy the main revenue streams you already have.
Re:Get your resumes ready guys! (Score:3, Insightful)
You mean Windows 8 is the greatest thing to happen for Apple.
Microsofts screw ups tend to benefit Apple more than Linux.
Re:Never Heard of Office 360 (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, whats the gain by using Microsoft?
Phtoshop and PC gmaes.
Re:Better Idea (Score:4, Insightful)
I think people who pitch "linux is free" have ...
Have what? read the dictionary?
Free means you don't pay anything for it.
You know those "win a car" competitions? Would you claim that the car you win isn't free since it needs petrol?
Would you claim that bending down to pick up $100 on the floor isn't free money since you had to waste potential earning time to pick it up?
Are you going to use a different value of the word "free" from everyone else. Try readinf "the free dictionary". Ha it's a lie: it's not free because you had to pay for internet access!
Re:Never Heard of Office 360 (Score:4, Insightful)
For a good chunk of the corporate world (or any other place that uses locked down computers) Microsoft Office is the standard file format. It is the way people communicate. As long as you can input and output to those file standards your fine. Just hope there is not anything Microsoft specific like VBA.
Not saying its right, just saying that it is the way it is.
Re:The circle of lifen (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is sometimes described as a company that came back from the brink, but for the most part still do what they always did: upper-middle-end computer-driven consumer hardware. IBM went from mostly hardware to mostly services.
I'd disagree - I think Apple did essentially re-invent itself when it switched from Apple Computer to Apple back in '07.
It realized it's future was mobile devices, and despite it's massively profitable iPod franchise, effectively cannibalized it completely with the touch-based offerings, iPhone and iPad. Prior to this change Apple was a Mac/iPod company, afterwards it was the iPhone company (and still is).
Re:Linux costs less. Linux does not cost nothing. (Score:4, Insightful)
Speaking as an certified accountant, you cannot possibly come up with a situation where you can install linux in a business for zero cost.
You ignored my argument: then you cannot even call $100 lying on the pavement "free" since it will cost you time (i.e. money) to bend down and pick it up.
Therefore you are not using the commonly used definition of the word "free".
You couls day "Linux costs nothing to acquire", but then again we have a perfectly good word for that: free.
The moment you have a single employee do any work on it you immediately will incur cost.
Doesn't change anything: Linux itself is free. Using it might cost money (no shit!).
Claiming that linux is free of any cost however is utter nonsense and easily shown to be false.
Seriously, this is not what any normal human speaking english means by free.
If you give something to someone "for free" you know like a present, they will not assume that it has zero lifetime cost, unless they are a very special kind of fool.
Just imagine that:
A: Hey look I got this I pad as a present. I love free stuff!
B: it's not free.
A: yes it is I didn't pay for it.
B: No, it's not free.
A: WTF?
B: you have to pay for the electricity to charge it. You spend more in gas in your car driving the extra weight around. Hence not free.
A: fffffffffffuuuuuuuuuu
B: [dies after having a copy of the complete OED land on his head]
Linux is free in any normal definition of the word.
If we use your definition, then nothing ever is free, and free becomes an entirely pointless word since it can be applied to nothing.
Re:Never Heard of Office 360 (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about Photoshop, but Gimp also has the worst UI of any software I've used on a semi-regular basis.
Re:Never Heard of Office 360 (Score:3, Insightful)
That's fine, but how many people out there actually use PSD files in their work? I'm guessing most office workers out there, and most home users, do not ever get PSD files sent to them, and if they did, they wouldn't know what to do with them. They can use Word and that's about it, perhaps a little Excel and Powerpoint for some of them.
People keep making Photoshop out to be some kind of killer application that nearly everyone with a computer needs to use, but I don't see it. Not everyone is a photographer or graphics artist.