At the Zino Zillionaire Investment Forum, Bob Herbold, Microsoft’s former Chief Operating Officer discussed “how Apple outflanked the entrenched player, Sony, in the music business. No mention of how Microsoft missed that opportunity, but Herbold uses the Sony example to show that companies that stick with existing business models are doomed to make big mistakes,” John Cook reports for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Cook reports, “Herbold, who spent seven years at Microsoft before retiring in 2001, said that Steve Jobs did some very smart things by creating a small, secretive group within Apple to develop the iPod. He said that Sony fell into the trap of ‘sticking with yesterday’s business model,’ allowing an opening for Apple to exploit. Apple, he said, has used the iPod advantage over the past seven years to revitalize its desktop computer business. ‘At one juncture, we thought it would totally die. It has not,’ he said.”
“Herbold said that Microsoft is hiring plenty of people, but one of the big challenges is that it has not been able to launch profitable new units that complement its existing businesses,” Cook reports. “Microsoft also faces big hurdles as it attempts to transition to delivering software over the Internet.”
Full article here.
I give up!
So much for linear projections and yesterday’s business models.
Dave
“Herbold said that Microsoft is hiring plenty of people”
Throwing more warm bodies at product development isn’t their problem.
The fish rots from the head down.
Hmmmm.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> More and more people are willing to talk about how Microsoft has and had major problems.
In 3-5 years Microsoft will be like IBM, in the game but an after thought.
I feel better already.
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en
MDN = until . As “until” then.
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Here’s what a troll spewed on another thread:
“If Microsoft Crap is as bad as you say, they are the true marketing geniuses, not some pathetic 2% of the market for the last 20 years computer company.”
Where does this anger and fear come from? Jealousy and/or buyer’s remorse? Cognitive dissonance is that painful?
Hmmm…
1: Create story that Apple was going to die to get Mac community to circulate.
2: Praise Apple beating Sony in MP3 player market (Sony not really trying)
3: Drive wedge between Apple and Sony to get Apple to support HD-DVD from Microsoft.
Smooth and you all fell for it.
Well, Apple understands that the best way to get the income it wants is to give the user what he or she wants by making computing as fun, powerful, beautiful, and intuitive as possible. Microsoft only understands proprietary formats, DRM, underhanded/illegal monopolistic activities… Has Microsoft noticedthat its platform is hemorrhaging users to Apple? And that almost no one who switches to Apple has any intention of going back to Windows? I use Windows machines at work, but have been a loyal Mac user for 23 years. Using OS X, I’ve crashed once in three years. On a bad day at work, I’ll crash three or four times a day at work using Windows. I swear, after using Windows all day at work, I feel like hugging my Mac when I get home.
If current market trends continue, Apple could have a larger market cap than Microsoft in a few years. And with the Vista fiasco and every thing else Microsoft is screwing up, it doesn’t seem to be learning the error of its ways. For some enlightening information about the nasty(!) and boneheaded things Microsoft has done over the years (and how Apple has basically done the opposite of whatever Microsoft has done) check out the many, many great articles on http://www.roughlydrafted.com.
Microsoft never had to be any good. Most people who jumped in the PC game back in 95-97 used “what we use at work”. OR…”what my friend uses”. So…”I can use his software”. Plus PC’s were so everywhere and somewhat cheaper than Apple’s. Now, today is a different story. Tech savvy kids are the rule, not the exception. people are into digital photog, dig vid, tunes on their machines. All Apple sweet spots. Apple’s are cheaper now…very competitive, some say less expensive pound for pound. There exists a real possibility that Apple could get 20 percent or better market share up the road. Microsoft and the PC box crew don’t have anything new. It’d a great time to use a Mac.
I’m a firm Apple supporter, but I do have to say that Microsoft has massive potential to hurt Apple. Fortunately for all of us, they seem to have the $$$ and are in the Great Brain Depression. The money’s there, but they waste far too much time dumping it into idiotic ideas. Apple knows what they’re doing and they’re doing it extremely well.
The real question is this: When can I pre-order Leopard?
“He said that Sony fell into the trap of ‘sticking with yesterday’s business model’ . . .”
Remember Polaroid?
Kodak and Xerox also come to mind as dinosaurs like Microsoft.
MS should hire him back as a consultant, he sure has them pegged
Here’s a list of Herbold’s nine traps:
3: Drive wedge between Apple and Sony to get Apple to support HD-DVD from Microsoft.
HD-DVD isn’t a Microsoft product.
“Tech savvy kids are the rule, not the exception.”
And there are millions of them. And they’ll all want and get an iPod nano, shuffle or touch. The halo effect will continue and grow.
@Macromancer
I admire your choice of words, keeps me laughing
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“We thought (Apple) would totally die. It has not.”
thank you Captain Obvious!
I ain’t touching HD-DVD with yours!
I wonder want the iPod will evolve into next.
I’m thinking and iWatch – 1000 songs on your wrist. Flash memory would probably be compact enough in the next few years. Plus the watch face could display song title etc.
A few years later we could have the iPod video Watch – with video phone capability.
And what will M$ be doing? Probably trying to eek out a few more buck from Vista and Office.
In other words Herbold bet the farm his strategies would put the final nail in Apple’s coffin and having failed at that, it was Herbold who retired to write a book using his previous employer’s foibles as fodder for his talking points.
Herbold developed his list of nine traps during his tenure at Microsoft wherein the challenge from day one has been to provide software as a service. THAT IS the business model of Microsoft.
When Apple decides to transition wholly to a software model, as hardware becomes more and more irrelevant, as evidenced by the popularity of its ever-shrinking all-in-one products, Microsoft will be dumbfounded as Apple capitalizes on what has eluded Microsoft; software that actually works without creating more problems than its worth.
“The real question is this: When can I pre-order Leopard?”
The answer to the real question appears to be… now.
Smalldog:
http://www.smalldog.com/product/70005
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Mac-Version-10-5-Leopard/dp/B000FK88JK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6879606-5189432?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1189608289&sr=1-1
You are welcome.
Microsoft vs. Apple. What it boils down to is that Microsoft, like the North in the Civil War, has tons of both human and material resources and the cocky attitude to match. Apple, like the South, is outranked but it keeps on fighting. It picks its battles strategically, maximizing the use of what it has to put the hurt on Microsoft who, like the Union’s Grant, had so little concern for the losses of his soldiers that he earned the nickname of “the Butcher”. History tells us that the early years of the Civil War were characterized by a lot of Southern victories and that the turning point of the war in the favor of the Union forces wasn’t until Gettysburg in 1863. However, unlike the Confederate States of America, I don’t see Apple losing and fading off into the pages of history.
Probably a bad analogy, but I couldn’t think up a better one.
effwerd….
Microsoft is one of the main proponents of HD-DVD. They’ve tied all their products too it, so in effect, they own it.
Apple pushes superior technology:
SCSI & ADB over parallel and serial ports.
3 1/2″ over 51/2″ floppies.
USB and FireWire over parallel and serial ports.
Apple built-in Ethernet, Airport wireless and CD burners long before the Windows clone stuffers did.
About the only area where Apple lags is in the area of graphics cards.
Blu-ray is a superior technology. It has at least twice the capacity of HD-DVD. HD-DVD retains some backward compatibility with some current hardware… don’t ask me what. Blu-ray does not.
Retaining backward compatibility is huge part of Microsoft’s OS problem. They insist on supporting legacy hardware and software. While this may be nice for many of their customers, it’s bad for technolgy.
For instance:
The Mac System 1 shipped as a 24-bit system. Mac System 7 was fully 32-bit in 1990. I believe that Windows hit that only a few years ago. Isn’t there still legacy DOS code buried in there? Leopard will be fully 64-bit. Whereas Vista and XP require SEPARATE 64-bit OS AND applications.
Cutting loose old tech can be painful for users, but that’s the price of progess.
Me? I prefer forward motion. Look what systemic stasis gets you? Vista and Palm. Nein, danke!
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
@Mark
You raise an interesting point; “Microsoft only understands proprietary formats…”
From day one, while living in the dorms, Gates was always frustrated by those who would filch his software creations without paying for it. It became such an issue for him, he actually put up flyers (his brand of EULA) around campus decrying this practice.
For Gates the issue has always been about money. Get the money first and worry about the software shortcomings later.
Those flyers have evolved into WIndows Genuine Advantage.
HD-DVD isn’t a Microsoft product.
Most certainly it is, they got their paws deep in that bitch.
Google “HD-DVD Microsoft Toshiba”
@Mr Reese
Unfortunately for Microsoft, they are at the mercy of the hardware makers and always have been. Like the fable, Microsoft is the frog who is giving the scorpion a ride across the river; make nice or die and in the end they both drown because the nature of things.
Microsoft and its partners are in a catch-22; hardware makers want to use the latest technologies but Microsoft won’t support it until the masses are willing to pay for it and they can’t pay for it until Microsoft supports it!
Apple isn’t constrained by such madness and can not only adopt the latest technologies but have the luxury of time and resources to invent them.
XBox is an homage to Apple wherein Microsoft decided to give Apple’s business model a try but the one thing that keeps undermining any progress in that arena is DRM.
DRM is foolish and destructive and could bring down the house that Gates built.
Where does this anger and fear come from? —No Squirt for You
Some people, when they get caught with their pants down, just can’t help getting pissed off at anyone who notices.