“Two successive Microsoft chief executives have long tried, and failed, to refute what we might call the Single-Era Conjecture, the invisible law that makes it impossible for a company in the computer business to enjoy pre-eminence that spans two technological eras. Good luck to Steven A. Ballmer, the company’s chief executive since 2000, as he tries to sustain in the Internet era what his company had attained in the personal computing era,” Randall Stross reports for The New York Times.
“Empirical evidence, however, suggests that he won’t succeed. Not because of personal failings, but because Mother Nature simply won’t permit it,” Stross reports.
“Maybe this was why Mr. Ballmer flirted with Yahoo,” Stross reports. “That prize, however, seems a mirage. You can’t merge-and-acquire your way around the Single-Era Conjecture. Just ask I.B.M., which gobbled up Lotus Development Corporation to no avail.”
“It’s Google, of course, that has developed the musculature to step forward and lay claim to being Microsoft’s successor as industry leader in the Internet era,” Stross reports.
“It’s no secret that Microsoft’s online businesses have failed to gain leading market positions. But what is not widely appreciated, perhaps, is that the company’s online initiatives have lately been doing worse than ever,” Stross reports.
“In the 2006 fiscal year, Microsoft’s online services produced a $74 million loss after the previous year’s profit of $402 million. Since then, the numbers have become uglier, as Microsoft’s online segment has added employees and absorbed growing sales and marketing expenses. In the 2007 fiscal year, the online businesses lost $732 million. In the next nine months, through March 31 this year, they recorded a loss of $745 million, almost double the amount in the period a year earlier,” Stross reports.
“According to Hitwise, an Internet research firm, Google’s share of searches in the United States has increased to almost 67.9 percent in March 2008 from 58.3 percent in March 2006. During the same period, Microsoft’s share has dropped to 6.3 percent from 13.1 percent,” Stross reports.
More in the full article here.
Microsoft made its fortune on the back of general tech ignorance in the 1980’s and ’90’s. “Hey a PC is a PC, right? And besides, Joe from work told me to get one of them Dells.” That level of ignorance, Microsoft’s lifeblood, has begun drying up. Everyone who gets a Mac and tells their friends and family about it increases the evaporation rate exponentially.
Direct link via YouTube here.
@ James
“We just don’t have advertising like that around these parts, LOL! Somebody should forward those to Redmond.”
Someone already sent them to North Bend, where Nintendo USA shamelessly ripped them off.
Take That To The Bank!!!
@LateRegistrant
Oh arent you the cleaver one. Apple may have their own loyalty base, but in the real jungle of business and day to day computing Apple is a babe in the woods, without a clue.
good luck on your continued indoctrination, der Fuerher is proud of you.
Crash = Terrorist Lover
“but in the real jungle of business and day to day computing Apple is a babe in the woods, without a clue.”
Stunning prose, honey. You really know how to say a lot without actually saying anything. I’m in awe.
Please, continue.
Sorry to say this to M$ fans, but …
a parallel can be made between M$ and the North American auto industry.
Old style products that don’t work well end up being replaced by machines that work and are of quality from elsewhere.
You know, people do get fed up with things that don’t work well even though they are sold, nay given, at garage sale prices.
In the picture above, Ballmer sure looks like he has egg on his face…. er, oh yeah.
Ha, ha! Holy crap! How do you find these things? Maybe we should just send Redmond a box of those fake mustaches. Now that I might be tempted to buy!
@Roberto:
In the video, it actually looks like he managed to duck them all . . . I think that’s just his face.
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Yes Vern Fonk, he would do a great job running Microsoft. He would handle all those PUI’s, programming while under the influence – of ‘nothing’.
We’ve always enjoyed his commercials in Vancouver, BC.
Thanks ChrissyOne
If you haven’t seen it, enjoy!
@ChrissyOne
Not your honey , and I am appalled you would be so audacious as to verbalize that. Now back to the discussion at hand
The Apple crew in here as stated before needs a reality check. Microsoft is so emaeshed in the fabric of the worlds business that switch to another platform would take better part of a decade and a vision that is not present by any other players out there.
Think about it 95.61 % of the worlds computing power, being handled by one platform. Apple doesnt have the aspirations for this, neither does Linux. Microsoft wanted this and they got it. And quite contrary to all this prognostication, they will not go quietly. They will adapt to the enviroment like Dos, 95 then 98, NT, 2000, XP 64bit Winows Server, Vista…….. Microsoft will evolve and shrink in some areas and expand in others.
Of course you der Fuerher cannot grasp this, he only like building beatiful things. Get his hands dirty on the mundane as everyday business, low cost intro computing, 1 Laptop per Child, Cloud, Expanded media content, surface computing and interaction, And please dont denegrate yourselves nad refer to the Iphone as surface computing. It would be a joke to think of that interface running anything but a second level smart phone, but I digress.
As I have said before Apple is good. However they will always be a small base, highend nitch, with the current thinking going on. Microsoft fills the other 95.61 % void nicely.
@Crash
I think the actual digression was initiated when you turned your computer on today. Hope you’re having fun in your low-end nitch (or niche, for those of us who can spell).
So are you saying that I shouldn’t tell anyone about our brief but torrid affair? You did things to me that I’ve never even read about, and now you try to deny me the memory of the most magnificent pleasure I’ve ever felt?!?! AND YOU NEVER COME TO SEE THE BABY, EITHER. Appalled?! You Bastard!!!
Okay, just walk out of my life forever. But when you want someone to paint your toenails and put the Mag-Lite in your butt, DON’T CALL ME!!!
“Microsoft fills the other 95.61 % void nicely.”
You suck cock for crack with that mouth?
@Crash, I see you’ve set aside some special time to humiliate yourself in public.
I’m already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth …Muwhahaha !!!
And Ive been ban for less.
People People People….. you are so easy to incite. Now where is your high standards? Lol der Fueher will be pleased with you.
However I see no one disputing my claims as stated. Must be true then.
Apple will fall again, Think Different People!
“Now where is your high standards?”
Obviously you have no idea who you’re talking to.
ChrissyOne , And you have no idea……
Man all this hating going on. You know people we are of a kindred spirit. I dislike Apple, and you dislike everything that is not Apple. We should really be getting along famously.
You wound me….
Yeah, and when I come poop in your pool, we’ll be even.
Don’t flatter yourself that you incite anything like hate, sweetheart. You’re barely a coffee break.
I was ban for less too once. Also, boned.
“You’re barely a coffee break.”
More like a small creamer?
I certainly didn’t cream.
ChrissyOne Chrissy Chrissy Chrissy to consider you would be a diversion at best…….
I’ve kept you here long enough, haven’t I? Who’s been diverted…?
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So long, visit my site if you’d like to talk again!
http://www.chrissyone.com
Are we still talkin’ about those ‘krayzee’ Seattle adverts?
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