“The problem is that Microsoft is utterly incapable of innovation,” Taylor writes. “Over the past three years the company has spent about $25-billion on research and development.”
Taylor writes, “What do shareholders have to show for that investment? Vista, an operating system that users were frantically uninstalling within days of loading the cumbersome beast onto their laptops? Zune, the supposed competitor to Apple’s iTunes and iPod? Kin One and Kin Two, Microsoft’s answer to the smart phone? Two intense years in the making before they hit store shelves, they were pulled after two months and scrapped.”
“The stark truth is that Microsoft has rarely invented anything that mattered. It didn’t invent the operating system. It didn’t invent the graphical user interface. It didn’t invent the spreadsheet or the word processor or the Web browser,” Taylor writes. “It didn’t invent the gaming console or the search engine or the tablet PC or server software. It has, in short, invented nothing – or at least nothing of consequence. What other technology company in the history of business has invented nothing and survived for long? Many of them invented very cool things and still didn’t last.”
Taylor writes, “The company should stop messing around and behave like a utility: Cut costs, including R&D, focus on what it does reasonably well and give all the money it can back to shareholders to maximize their returns.”
There’s much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: And, the world awakens at long last.
May Steve Ballmer remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes!
agreed, yet I still don’t want to short it for some reason….
Zune tang will be freeze dried, ground up and used as a laxative.
For a company that is supposedly dead, they sure do make a lot of money. I hate microsh*t as much as the next person; probably much more. Their bad business strategies that are killing them sure doesn’t bring a tear to my eye. Nevertheless, just like apple who circled the bowl but made a comeback, never discount a rival until they are wound up for good. So I would hold off of the pronouncements of death just yet. Its remarkable how similar the journalist’s outlook is to Michael Dell’s famous words about apple.
If history has taught us anything it is this: the market leader never survives. Of all the companies in the top 100 of the market in 1900 about the only one left by 2000 was Westinghouse. They were never the market leader in price or innovation. They just kept chugging alone, happy seemingly to be second or third in their markets, and they survived. They left in their wake a large number of so called innovators and market leaders. Sure innovation is essential, but a large, loyal customer base and reasonably priced and reasonable quality products also helps. And often this is what the majority of consumers want: not the latest and flashiest, but solid, dependable and doing the things they want done (Cooper’s right that most people never become experts at the technology they use). So time will tell…
C1,
Apple made a comeback because Steve Jobs returned to save them.
Who’s gonna return to save Microsoft? Bill Gates? He’s no better than Ballmer, so that wouldn’t change anything.
I’d say MS already is wound up for good, it’s just that a corpse that large takes a while to fully decompose.
@C1: Cairo?.They should call it Beirut!.
Microsoft has been a leader in innovation throughout these years whereas rivals like CRAPPLE follow its tails.
From now on bing and decide. http://www.bing.com
There’s something to the RING of a Microsoft death knell that just brightens up my day!
I think it has something to do with ending the ongoing computer Dark Age.
This article is severely biased. Sure, Microsoft didn’t “invent” anything of major consequence, but neither did Apple.
Apple didn’t invent the GUI, the OS, the mouse, the Internet, the cell phone, the portable music player, etc., so one could make the same accusations about Apple not “innovating.”
People have been predicting the death of Apple for the past 20 years. . . I guess now they have decided to predict the death of Microsoft
Employee: “Mr.Ballmer,whats are next product?”
Steve Ballmer: “We’ll see what we can get from the next WWDC.”
That’s not true, Microsoft came up with InstaLoad all buy themselves! Oh wait, the article did say “…or at least nothing of consequence”.
My bad.
@ MDN: Kindly copy and paste this “muwahahahahah!!” to the end of your take
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‘Proud Puppy’ sez: “Zune tang will be freeze dried, ground up and used as a laxative.”
As an entomologist I must report that data indicates metamorphosis has taken place. Zune Tang has completed his life cycle as a maggot eating MS feces, become a chrysalis, and emerged as a fly that lays eggs on turds, now calling himself “I’m a PC”.
Same effect. Same inane hilarity. Boink and decide.™
I still love my xbox 360
Over 50% of all Xboxes are defective and returned for repair.
That’s Microsoft.
That’s a-gonna die.
That makes-a me happy.
For info, Apple invented the first ever tablet PC in 1993 called the messagepad.
Microsoft as usual followedin their trail copying Apples innovation.
re: Microsoft has been a leader in innovation throughout these years whereas rivals like CRAPPLE follow its tails.
From now on bing and decide. http://www.bing.com
—-
Ah yes… Bing, that dead duck useless search platform that Microsoft cobbled together because it couldnt out buy Google or Yahoo.
Sure gota love Microsoft’s ‘innovation’.
Excuse me while I leave the room in hysterical laughter! :DDDDD
Actually Microsoft DID invent something… bad products that no one needs or wants that dont sell.
Now THAT’s real innovation!
Every other business on the planet, from the single guy in a garage to the massive global business does a thing called ‘market research’.
Amazingly enough, if you do this before you launch a product you actually make a product that people want to buy, and infact you start making abit of money.
Amazing how a company so large has lost the basic knowledge of business.
The problem with all the PC commodity producers is that they treat a great invention and tool – the computer to be a cheap commodity. There are many things in life, e.g. water, air, love, sex, etc, when you take the values out of them, they become staid and unappreciative. Water is a very valuable item in life but because it has become so cheap and widely available, people tend to waste it. There are cars and cars but only those cars like BMW, Lexus which are considered as “scarce” will people considered them as desirable. So too are Apple products such as the Mac, iPod, iPhones and iPad. Apple understands the psychology of scarcity and that is why its products are considered as desirable. The PC commodity producers, such as Dell, do not understand this principle and that is why their products are being considered and treated as “garbage”.
The buy dissertation service will provide students with the masters thesis but the nice thought associated with this good topic students could find out only here.
M$ is the Soviet Union of technology.
@vsp
The PC commodity producers, such as Dell, do not understand this principle and that is why their products are being considered and treated as “garbage”.
No, they’re treated like garbage because they are.
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@GRANDxADMIRAL
…Cause that’s the smart thing to do with successful products – destroy and replace. That’s why Apple gave up on the iPhone 3GS. Oh wait, they didn’t.
It’s only smart when you succeed. Remember a little iPod called the Mini? At the time, it was Apple’s best selling iPod, they replaced it with the Nano.
I wonder how truthful this is:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/15785/whos_the_worlds_most_inventive_tech_company_based_on_patent_quality_its_microsoft
Microsoft is utterly incapable of innovation..Thanks
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