“While the mainstream media is conspicuously quiet on Microsoft’s track record in consumer electronics, I’m more than willing to share! Considering how many industry giants have partnered with Microsoft in WMA and PlaysForSure–including WalMart, Napster, MTV, WMA hardware makers, and RIAA label members–it would appear that Microsoft is a leader in successful consumer electronics technology. That’s not the case,” Daniel Eran writes for RoughlyDrafted.

Eran writes, “All of these partners hooked up with Microsoft simply because they had no idea of what to do on their own. Few even experimented with their own independent technology plans; they simply picked Microsoft because the company seemed like a safe bet at delivering technology. They obviously didn’t do their homework.”

Eran writes, “The big secret they missed is that Microsoft hasn’t ever earned significant profits in the consumer hardware business, nor has its executives proven any business acumen in delivering what consumers want in hardware or creative entertainment, excluding, of course, Microsoft’s impressive and highly sophisticated keyboard and mouse division.”

All Microsoft has delivered in the consumer electronics industry is a long string of failures:
• Phones & PDAs
• Tablets, Handheld PCs & Origami
• WebTV, Ultimate TV, and MSN TV
• Xbox game console
• WMA and PlaysForSure (“Zune is too little, too late.”)

Full article with much more here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son" for the heads up.]

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