“Vague justifications about under-performance of Windows Mobile or cancelled Courier miss the whole point [why Microsoft fired Robbie bach],” Horace Dediu blogs for Asymco.
“The chronic problems with Microsoft’s consumer businesses cited as causes for dismissal have roots in core processes and priorities which management changes will not address,” Dediu writes. “The failure of Zune was evident long ago. Windows Mobile has not been competitive with RIM for years, and failed to take significant share from Symbian, never mind iPhone. Tablets were the responsibility of the Windows team. Kin is a rogue project based on a bone-headed acquisition. From a P/L point of view, Entertainment was mostly Xbox, which although deep in the hole over its lifetime, was starting to break even.”
Dediu writes, “No, the reason I believe Bach lost his head is that HP bought Palm… HP is effectively filing for divorce. The blow could not have been more obvious and more cruel.”
Full article here.
>”From a P/L point of view, Entertainment was mostly Xbox, which although deep in the hole over its lifetime, was starting to break even.”
The problem with the Xbox platform is that software is 1/2 of the equation. While the software and online services are great, the hardware is sh*tty!
RRoD should be Microsoft’s new logo.