“As Microsoft Corp prepares to unveil insider Satya Nadella as its new chief executive, investors and analysts are weighing how effective the 22-year veteran will be in re-igniting the company’s mobile ambitions and satisfying Wall Street’s hunger for cash,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters. “he world’s biggest software firm faces a slow erosion of its PC-centric Windows and Office franchises and needs to somehow challenge Apple Inc and Google Inc in the new realm of mobile computing.”
“Most agree that Nadella’s background in creating Microsoft’s Internet-based – or ‘cloud’ – computing services makes him a safe pair of hands to take the company forward, but there remains a question over his ability to make Microsoft a hit with consumers, or with impatient shareholders,” Rigby reports. “‘He is the right person to drive safe, right down the middle of the fairway, and continue Microsoft’s strengths,’ said Rajeev Chand, managing director and head of research at tech investment bank Rutberg & Co. ‘What we don’t know is will Nadella help with the consumer revival, or with the mobile revival. Mobile is an open hole in his background.'”
“One analyst calculated that Microsoft is losing $2.5 billion a year by keeping a full, native version of its Office suite unavailable for iPad users in the hope that its Surface tablets will become a hit with businesses, but there’s no sign of that happening,” Rigby reports. “‘They have to port Office to iPad, they have to do it,’ said Schadler. ‘That’s an important, immediate decision that Satya’s going to have to drive.’ …It is expected that co-founder Bill Gates will relinquish the chairman position, to advise Nadella on technology and allow another board member to take on the task of dealing with investor relations, an idea that has broadly been welcomed by investors.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Satya Nadella would be the wrong choice for Microsoft CEO. 🙂
It’s tough, if not impossible, to deliver the type of change Microsoft needs when you’re a lifer.
As for Office for iPad:
iPad and iPhone are already firmly ensconced into the Fortune 500 and SMB without Microsoft’s bloated morass of insecure spaghetti-code. The world is rapidly learning that it can live without Office and, by failing to pollute iOS devices with their crapware, Microsoft is spreading the news better than anyone. – MacDailyNews, January 30, 2013
The more people who learn the fact that they do not need Office and the quicker they learn it, the better. For all we care (being 100% Microsoft free for as long as we can remember) wait until you’re dead, Microsoft. The world would be a better place without you and your ilk. – MacDailyNews, March 1, 2013
The longer Microsoft dithers, the more people wake up to the fact that Office is not necessary. iPad is taking the enterprise by storm. No Microsoft Office needed. Take your time, dummies. – MacDailyNews, April 10, 2013
Microsoft had a chance to preserve one of their cash cows by making Office for iOS and Android. That window of opportunity is closing, if it hasn’t already. The world has or soon will realize that, no, actually you do not need Microsoft Office to word process or create spreadsheets and presentations. The failure to create Office for iOS and Android in a misguided push to sell tablets and phones running Microsoft OSes will be looked at as one of, if not the, biggest mistake Microsoft made during their ill-fated attempt to recover after being repeatedly, unmercifully steamrolled by Apple’s Steve Jobs with the iPhone, iPad, iCloud, App Store and the rest of the formidable iOS ecosystem. – MacDailyNews, July 12, 2013
Related articles:
Satya Nadella? Seriously, Microsoft? – January 31, 2014
Microsoft said to be preparing to name Satya Nadella CEO – January 30, 2014
