“Microsoft Corp.’s share price may not be the only casualty of the software powerhouse’s surprise earnings miss. It might also hit company morale, becoming the latest gripe of employees who are already disillusioned with product delays and a once high-flying stock that has stagnated for the past three years, analysts said,” Scott Hillis reports for Reuters. “‘There are some folks who have been there for a long time and who will resent the way things are being run as a bureaucracy. And maybe they were there for the big stock run-up and they’re seeing the stock not move now,’ said Matt Rosoff, analyst with Directions on Microsoft. ‘If you think things are not being run well, then yesterday will lend credence to your arguments,’ Rosoff said.”
“Microsoft shares tumbled 11.4 percent to $24.15 on Friday, their biggest one-day drop in 5 years, a day after the company said earnings would be hurt by increased spending to stay abreast of competition such as Google Inc.,” Hillis reports. “A company spokesman had no immediate comment on employee morale. Investors treated the move as the latest stumble by the Redmond, Washington-based company, which last month said it would delay the release of the next versions of its cash-spinning Windows operating system and Office software package. Minimsft, a popular blog run by a Microsoft employee who advocates a drastic slimming-down of the company, lamented the results, exclaiming: ‘Yee-ouch! Right in the kisser!’ Wryly remarking on the idea that Microsoft could eventually pull out of the doldrums, the anonymous author wrote: ‘It is always just a few quarters out. For what, the last five years?'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Schadenfreude… too… intense… here… quote…
How are monopolies lost? Think about it. Who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… Look at Microsoft, who’s running Microsoft? Right, the sales guy. Case closed. – Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004 (source)
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Grognard – You are simply WRONG! – I run a very successful design studio which creates millions of pounds (sterling) in profit every year. I have been using macs since 1992. We integrate perfectly with the poor saps who have to tolerate windows every day. Mas OSX is, most definately, NOT just a consumer OS.
Oh – and before you go on about “mac is for creatives only” – thats a crock of shite and you know it.
Grognard – Mac OSX does enterprise and SECURITY very well indeed. (See above) – Since 1992 I have had ONE virus and that was back in 1994 ( Can’t even remember what Mac OS I was using).
maczealot,
I’m glad you appreciated my handle enough to make it your own. Imitation = sincerest flattery and all that.
But I was here first!
You need to consider exercising deliberate thinking before stating what you cannot possibly comprehend. etc. etc…
Chewbacca Defense.
maczealot said “Don’t be surprised if shareholders demand a cull of top executives.”
Gates, Allen and Ballmer own too much of Microsoft between them to shift the current leadership unless one of them breaks ranks. Gates & Ballmer will never go against each other, so a revolt would have to come from Allen and include the institutional shareholders.
Under Ballmer, Microsoft is going nowhere but down, so here’s hoping they carry on as they are. With OpenDocument buy-in from so many vendors, it’s time for a more open computing landscape.
MSFT is now trading at the same price per share as it did at the end of the 20th century (see old stock charts).
Even backing back the dividends paid, MSFT has been a poor tech investment – if oportunity cost is worth anything to ya!
Just check out this five (5) year chart of performance!
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AAPL&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=MSFT
podboy, could not agree more.
When Microsoft users go on about the Mac being for creatives only and not for the enterprise, do they actually realise that design studios, all running on Mac’s are HUGE businesses?
I run an entire studio, and have some really heavy weight equipment throwing HUGE files around, as well as hosting the companies website and it’s all Mac based.
And, obviously, it all works. All the time. No IT support to speak of, most users pick up the Mac basics quickly and that’s all they need. The only downtime I experience is for system upgrades.
All most PC-based companies have to contend with is running a network, email & and accounts system, they can’t even do that properly or reliably in my experience.
PC apologists, who can’t and would never admit that maybe, just maybe they made the wrong investment by choosing the Windows PC (in money & time), troll out these arguements ad infinitum. They have not a clue how reliable, cheap (in the medium to long term) Mac’s are, and that they form the backbone to huge industry’s, bringing in serious amounts of money.
Grognard, you are delusional (probably 16 years old), and you types go on about that WE are a cult, just re-read back to yourself what you’ve just wrote, the ramblings of a PC zealot who’s head is stuck in the sand.
I know this will sound like blashphemy on this Mac site, but Microsoft is far from dead.
A business is either growing or dying. MS’s latest news isn’t exactly the model of health.
Companies like MS die slow, agonizing deaths. It takes years, even decades, but eventually that massive momentum runs out.
I think they know that, and are working very hard in silence
MS can’t do absolutely anything in silence. All ideas go straight from whiteboard to press release (like in Apple’s Bad Old Copland days).
Promise-then-deliver is a disastrous business plan. What happens when the inevitable problems come up? You get Vista.
MS is dying but it will take some time. Eventually the shareholders will wake up and realize that investing in the biggest software company wasn’t such a good deal financially.
Schwinn once ruled the world of bicycles by being able to set trends, sell the most bikes and tell vendors what they must make. Eventually their size got the better of them and it all came tumbling down much faster than anyone would have predicted. Two bankruptcy’s later they are still around but mostly as a brand name stuck on imported bikes.
Business history is full of large companies that collapsed under their own weight.
I love reading the MiniMicrosoft blog. There are some real problems within that company. Rome (the empire) was destroyed from within. While Rome the city remained, things were never the same.
Microsoft won’t disappear entirely, but it’s not going to be the same as it was, that’s a certainty. People expect more than it can deliver and a great number will defect, even if it isn’t to Apple.
Everyone but the most hard-core Microsucks apologists will freely admit that they use Winblows and Office (rather than the Macintosh platform) because of perceived (and sometimes real) compatibility issues between work and home, or themselves and their friends/coworkers. (Real compatibility issues do arise with Outlook) For most people there really isn’t a readily available alternate to Word or Excel. I know there are great open source apps out there, and they work well, but for the average user, they seem too “generic”. This is why Apple needs to create their own “Office” and stop relying upon the Microsucks version to convince people to switch. People simply refuse to believe that the Windoze version and the Mac version of Office are compatible. Ironically, when a file can’t be properly recognized, it is usually because of Winblows.
Microsoft has grown so big that in interest payments alone it could survive.
What’s killing Microsoft is complacency. You get a job at M$, you pretend you work, but don’t take a chance in doing anything.
All the hot talent goes off to start their own companies to make a killing.
Here is Microsoft’s secret plan :
Visa as a consumer OS to compete against Apple,
A separate really secure Enterprise only (totally new code) OS .
MS will sell Vista in half a dozen different versions, including enterprise ones. The underlying code base is the same. If they were to have 2 different code bases, one from the legacy Windows and a totally new one that was secure and bulletproof as you point out, why wouldn’t they sell it to everyone? This is what everybody says they lack, so they now have a secure OS and will sell it only to enterprises?!?
Besides, enterprises do not need the secure part of the equation only. They must be able to run their legacy apps (which were developed with the old code base) in this new theoretical secure Windows. So, if this is the case, it’s the same problem Apple faced when trasitioning from OS 9 to OS X. How Apple solved this? With Classic. Then, MS would have to come up with a Windows Classic sandbox so users could run all their previous apps and then they would be able to sell this new secure Windows to everybody.
The vista version will be the copy of OS X with a copy of the I life package all integrated with a copy of Office- ‘personal edition’… Bundled with a dell for $799. The software will be ‘typical’ miserable software on the cheapest hardware, so the masses will embrace it because of the prices and features, not how well they work together…
Actually, this is the current model of Windows sales out there. No need to wait for that one. You get a shitty Dell box with Windows OEM on it, which Dell paid MS a few bucks to install, and lots of third party apps, which again Dell paid a few bucks for to its software partners, pretending to be as good as the software packages Apple provides for free when you get a new Mac, but of course failling miserably at that.
The enterprise OS -restricted to Organizations, not to the general public. It may even be unix based, but will have really tight security, and written from the ground up so that banks, insurance companies, schools, research labs, Government Bureaus etc. will want to stay with Microsoft. It better be good or they might really lose the war on this one. I think they know that, and are working very hard in silence (taking a book from Apple)
They could, in fact, be working on something like that. They do have some very clever and talented people working inhouse, but the company is in a mess now. It’s become bloated and unmanageable like their OS, what an irony, heh?!?
Somewhere else in MDN I posted that they should DROP the present Windows code base and start anew. And they should base it around Unix or buy what’s left of BeOS and turn this into a new Windows, secure and rock-solid. They have the money, they have the people, so why don’t they do it? THIS WOULD BE LIKE CONFESSING YOUR OS IS CRAP.
Why would you start anew if you tout your products as the best suited and well designed on the market???
So what do they do instead? The pretend that it is possible to FIX Windows, but fortunately for us Linux, Unix (Solaris, BSDs, etc.) and Mac users out there, they can’t, and we’ll grow and they’ll shrink in the future. How much we can’t tell yet, but that’s for sure.
I know a lot of people think Microsoft sucks, but a lot of people that actually work for Microsoft are sincere, hardworking, and very smart. Its the way they are channeled by the organization that makes the product so unappealing to us Mac users.
Agreed.
I know I HAVE to use Microsoft product everyday. Over the years I have learned to make it work for me.
I have used Dos 5, Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98 and NT4. The only ones that were somewhat stable were Dos and NT. Guess why? That’s right, they were completely different beasts than Windows 3.x/9x. I have not used XP yet but I’m told is way better than 3.x/9x, but then, I’ve been using Macs for 12 years now, why would I change from a much better OS to XP?
Applications like Excel and Word are reliable. Clunky and Cumbersome, but reliable.
Your mileage may vary, but for me MS has always let me down in the worst moments. When you need to send an article to your editor in 30 minutes and Word starts freaking out, what do you do? At places I worked at, usually that meant calling the IT guy and changing machines as fast as possible so I could get my WORK done, while the IT guy would take the machine to the lab and bring it back a few hours later, many times with a wiped hd and a newly installed Windows + Office package… (to be continued)
(continued)
Mac Os is consumer only. And Microsoft will compete here with Apple. p OS X isn’t ready for enterprise – yet.
Bullshit. Macs are for everyone, it’s just that it is really hard to change old habits and all the money previuosly spent on licenses, in-house developed apps, etc. As soon as the Mac starts making strides into some big companys (like that Japanese bank of some weeks ago), then things start to change. Everyone deserves a better experience that, unfortunately for MS, Windows can’t provide.
So any comment on my two software theory? ‘It won’t be XP on every computer this time around”
Sorry, but apart from your idea of a newly written Windows and the fact that MS does have some very talented people working for them, everything else doesn’t hold any water.
Hmm I guess I need to write a more crafted opinion. Some how many of you felt that I didnt’ think the MAC OS could compete in enterprise. I HOPE Apple does! not that it can’t. But I maintain that the OS including the fine I-life package that certainly is compelling enough for me to have an Imac at home (my only computer by the way) does not meant it is the same software to be used at say state liquor stores, or DMVs , airline reservartions, Banks etc…… This is what I meant by Enterprise.
The Mac OS is perfectly serviceable in dentist office, law offices, design studos, smaller plumbing supply companies, etc. say up to about 100 machines. I suppose it could be scaled up from there, but I really don’t know that much about it . I mean I photo and I chat IDVD are great products. But your teller or your airline reservationist doesnt’ need them.
If Apple were to really push enterprise, they certainly have the basics to do so. I-life is only the fluff over a really great OS, And if Apple goes enterprise I would support it completely. Maybe this is part of the grand strategy, and why the moved to INTEL chips in the first place….. Apple clearly executes their concepts much more successfully than any almost any other high -tech firm. Sony and Microsoft are the examples of how NOT to deliver products in high tech…
Like I said I’ve been using Apple computers since 1986 (so much for the 16 year wise crack). I have never purchased any other computer other than an Apple product. I have to USE Dell and Microsoft daily because my job requires it, and as such I have learned to make it work for me. Not sense complaining about it… but I do grumble under my breath and all my colleagues do know that I believe Apple products to be superior.
But in the end, I do have a job to do, and simply get on with it.
Al Jazzoo:
Brevity may be the soul of wit; however, there are occurrences when economy of words indicate nothing more than undeveloped erudition and/or puerile analysis.
EdgeleyExile:
Did I explicitly mention Gates and Ballmer, or did you infer this? Would you care to enlighten the rest of us concerning your understanding of Microsoft’s organizational taxonomy?
grognard,
Please take a look at those sites:
http://www.apple.com/server/
http://www.apple.com/services/consulting/
And let me know if you change your mind about Apple and the enterprise market.
AFAIC, Apple offers a much better solution to everything computer related. It might not work for every client for one single reason: legacy code.
But the technology is there.
PS.: No need to post about MS Exchange please…
LEGACY LEGACY LEGACY
Legacy is what ties MS to an Old OS. Once they drop the legacy support and people realize that “Hey, I’ve got to buy ALL NEW SOFTWARE” – those folks will definitly consider picking up a Mac.
1. MS can NOT continue down the road they are on forever – supporting old software- it’s an anchor that will drag them to the bottom of the drowning pool.
2. Apple will run the current version of Windows XP – (i.e. and run Windows legacy software)
3. The option of buying a Mac that does support Windows legacy software becomes a viable opportunity to get a Mac replacement for that old PC. Those folks already have the XP CD (or other Windows CD)
4. Swtich – from PC to Mac – so long Microsoft.
MDN magic word – SOON
maczealot – Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!
Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I’m a lawyer defending a major record company, and I’m talkin’ about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you’re in that jury room deliberatin’ and conjugatin’ the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.
Microsoft is a dinosaur that needs a change at the top. Unfortunately that won´t help Microsoft.
As far as an investment the old rule is the leaders of the last bull market are not the leaders of the next. Microsoft made lots of people rich back in the 1990s, but those days are gone and never to return.
Microsoft´s biggest fear is not Apple, but Google. Imagine if Google offered a free web based program to replace Word? Whew – that would be the death knoll for some serious money to Microsoft.
Al Jazzoo:
If you cannot argue, equivocate.
If you cannot equivocate, avoid confrontation.
If you cannot avoid confrontation, employ absurdity.
If you cannot employ absurdity, plead ignorance.
If you cannot plead ignorance, feign idiocy.
If you cannot feign idiocy, exploit it – maybe someone will feel pity for you.
Linux is looking good on the server, still sucks on the desktop, too geeky, there is too many distros and no developers.
M$ has already launched it’s famous “embrace, extend and extinguish” campaign against open source.
Linux DOES NOT SUCK on the desktop! Maybe like 5 years ago, but these days, it’s simply not the case.
Microsoft will not beat Linux with it’s triple E strategy because Linux is not controlled by any single entity, protecting it from corporate destruction. I predict that Linux will become the commodity standard for desktop PCs (not the Mac) in another 5-10 years. Windows is TOO expensive as compared to Linux and Microsoft simply cannot compete with Linux on price point. And since Linux and the OSS community push the innovation envelope right along side Apple, Sun and IBM, Microsoft will not be able to sustain it’s monopoly power forever unless computer users become nothing more than mindless drones to the Redmond faction!
Too bad this is Mac Daily News. I don’t care about microsoft, but half of the stories that the punks who run this site put up are about microsoft. Gross.
For those that doubt enterprise possibilities of OS X, consider the extent to which it used in the academic world. Many large college/university networks are based heavily on Macintosh systems. They are often used as unix workstations — I personally use them for numerical modeling with Fortran and MATLAB. The scale of academic networks is comparable to what is seen in corporate computing, although the software certainly differs. The biggest limitations, however, are not on Apple’s side. Instead they arise from a lack of standard, dull business software available for Macs… information managers, collaboration tools, finance packages, etc. As soon as a few reputable software companies (perhaps even Apple) take the initiative to develop such tools, Macs will find their way into business computing. For industries relying on custom software packages developed in-house, Macs are already becoming a serious consideration. Microsoft has some serious competition, and truly they will have a hard, if not impossible, time maintaining their high market share.