“There’s hardly a single tech industry trend line pointing in Redmond’s favor right now, and some of those curves are about to get a lot steeper, real fast,” McDougall writes. “So it’s hardly surprising recent Microsoft-related news has been pretty much on par with where things stand for the company these days—mostly all bad.”
McDougall writes, “Market research group NPD recently found that 13% of iPad users bought the Apple OS-based device instead of a Windows PC. That’s a hugely significant number for a product that didn’t even exist a year ago. Just wait until it gets more features, and comes down in price.”
“Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 will hit stores in November, but most analysts believe the offering, though slick in many respects, is too little, too late to meaningful bolster the company’s meager 5% share of the mobile OS market,” McDougall writes. “Where does all this leave Microsoft? Out in the cold within just the next few years unless big changes are made—and those changes need to start at the top.”
Read the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Windows Phone ’07 will likely be the last straw for Ballmer’s reign as Microsoft CEO.
Excerpts from a BusinessWeek interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004:
Steve Jobs: Apple had a monopoly on the graphical user interface for almost 10 years. That’s a long time. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly. But after that, the product people aren’t the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It’s the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what’s the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself? So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they’re no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn’t.
BusinessWeek: Is this common in the industry?
Steve Jobs: Look at Microsoft — who’s running Microsoft?
BusinessWeek: Steve Ballmer.
Steve Jobs: Right, the sales guy. Case closed.
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