“It’s been almost 20 years since IBM’s Lou Gerstner got an elephant to dance. Now Microsoft, one of the companies that forced IBM to confront its problems, finds itself in need of a new dance partner who understands the realities of 21st-century computing,” Tom Krazit writes for mocoNews. “Steve Ballmer is not that person.”
“Microsoft is at a crossroads, not the first one it has stared down in its 36-year-history, but perhaps the most important,” Krazit writes. “It is both enormously successful and astonishingly off-course at the same time, generating billions in profits off of Windows and Office but ill-prepared and out-gunned in making the transition to a new style of computing that old rivals like Apple and Google are appearing to lock up for themselves.”
Krazit reports, “It took a new CEO from a completely different industry who was willing to question every single part of IBM’s business and culture in order to prime the company for a new era, and IBM remains one of the strongest tech companies on the planet as a result. Perhaps not as top- of-mind as it once was, but secure in its own identity and now once again more valuable than Microsoft. Microsoft needs such a leader.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Steve Ballmer is that leader. His strategy just needs more time to unfold. We urge Microsoft’s board to continue with Steve Ballmer’s vision for as long as it takes.
Visionaries like Monkey Boy don’t come along every day
MDN, You , my friend are diabolical, and I like it. I like it a lot.
+1!!!
I feel like these Microsoft doom and gloom scenarios are a bit overblown. The company isn’t going anywhere, Office will still be a vital part of it, and frankly Windows isn’t going away in the immediate future either.
Yes they have problems, but its like saying since Toyota has some problems they’re going to shut down…. not going to happen, microsoft is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Microsoft will be able to coast on its Windows & Office monopoly for a long time to come particularly when IT doofuses still act in lockstep with it. But that only means Microsoft will be standing still while other more nimble companies in the tech sector whizz past it at a hundred miles per hour.
A whale takes a long time to die but while Microsoft lies floundering grasping for breath, others will step in and skin it alive.
Standing still.
Exactly like they’ve been doing since the release of Windows 95.
Karma may not be instant in this case, but it’s still a biitch!
“A whale takes a long time to die..”
And it takes even longer to rot. Given how large MS is, it’s going to take a long time for its proponents to realize what has been obvious to the rest of us for years.
What you say is true. At the same time, however, Microsoft appears particularly vulnerable. Microsoft is a corporate giant standing next to a cliff. A buggy whip manufacturer watching the first Model T’s chugging by the factory.
Many Mac users have noted Microsoft’s increasing vulnerability over the past decade. Vista was a wake-up call for the corporation, and Microsoft reacted reasonably well with Windows 7. You also correctly note that Office is still doing well, although it is a mature (and still bloated) knot of products that need a complete rethink and rewrite. But Microsoft has sunk billions into video games, internet search, mobile OS, etc. with relatively poor results (as determined by the bottom line). Microsoft is a three-legged stool supported by Windows 7, MS Office, and enterprise software and services. How long before one of those legs becomes weak enough to tip the company on its side? How long, for instance, before a critical mass of enterprise and government customers tire of paying exorbitant fees for software licenses and email? I think that time is drawing near.
As a representative of the Whipmakers Guild I have to object to you trotting out this old analogy. It’s been disproven in countless case studies. Did the industry hit a roadbump so-to-speak with the popularization of the automobile? Yes. But in the 20th century we thrived by adopting the very same approach taken by Apple more recently. Market share is not everything. By focusing on a niche market, and putting margins and profit first, America’s whipmakers are in a better position today than ever before. The S&M market is thriving today. You can’t imagine the cash piles our leading manufacturers are sitting on.
So please, let’s put this old myth behind us and look at the positive way the whip industry handled the rapidly changing market.
yes…what happened to stage coaches in 29th century….mmm…I wonder!
Shall we call you ‘WhipTang’ ??
How about “Fluffer?”
But Zune Tang is joking. Right?
: )
Can you spell d-e-n-i-a-l? Toyota is clearly a leader in the automotive industry, problems or no problems. Microsoft is clearly behind the times and groping blindly, without a clue. Read it and weep.
However, Microsoft has shown ZERO ability to create a profitable business outside of its Windows and Office products. It has lost money on Xbox, and is failing miserably in mobile devices and its search engine Bing. Even the acquisition of Skype was greeted with a collective, “WTF?!?”
The reality is Microsoft has mature products in Windows and Office with little room for growth or expanded feature sets. Everything else looks like acts of desperation, like trying to hit the winning lottery numbers before you run out of dollar bills.
I have full confidence in Ballmer, he’s the face of the Post-PC Era.
“The company isn’t going anywhere…”
That’s precisely the problem.
Agreed. Same ‘Ol Same ‘Ol
May Ballmer stay in power, for as long as it takes. So Say We All! 😉
I’ve long said that Microsoft in 2020 will be like IBM today. Not top-of-mind, but important in back office, etc.
With IBM’s resurgence, I may have to rethink that. MS won’t be so successful.
This is not the Monkey Boy that you are looking for. Move along.
The Office monopoly will wither away-at least as we know it. Time takes care of such things and the clock is a tyrant.
Microsoft Lacks “the vision thing” & the cracks are showing. They are still trying to straddle the whole IT/electronics world and it will not end happily if they do not change their plans.
Leave Mr. Ballmer alone!!! Etc.
No, Microsft needs to die already —
just like American Liberty!
At a crossroads? That was over a decade ago. They took the one of least resistance, the road to irrelevance.
I’m Canadian, so at dinner the first toast always goes to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. But the second toast is, as I’m sure it is in your house: “May Steve Ballmer remain CEO as long as it takes!”
I’m Canadian too, and I’ve never done that nor seen anyone else do such a toast!
But I fully support the sentiment behind your second toast!
James T. belongs to the ethnic minority Canadians-who-really-really-wish-they-were-Englishmen. 😉
Yea and England has no hold here in the good ole independent USA- Fed. Reserve eh
N.M. Rothschild , London – Bank of England
You guys have very destructive perspectives on business and life. Like dysfunctional. You want to see people fail.
Anyway, all this bullshit and for what? For a company who is profiting over $5 billion each quarter, what, with the success of Windows 7, Kinect, and XBox.
Ya, what a reason to say their CEO has to go. MS has a long future. How bright that is I don’t know. But they’re doing fine under his leadership.
Next.
I like your strategy. I like it a lot.
I hope there are many, many more out there who think like you do.
“MS has a long future. How bright that is I don’t know. But they’re doing fine under his leadership.”
– For as long as it takes!
El oh Elle.
MS is super huge – everyone can agree on that, I’m sure.
But that just means that it’s going to take a really loooooong time for its proponents to realize that its really a stinking, rotting corpse.
It’ll take a long time to really catch the stench, but its already too late.
May Ballmer reign for as long as it takes!!!
Yeah, and it won’t be all that long until Microsoft is making 4 billion a quarter! Then 3 billion! Woo hoo! They’re a totally healthy company!
Totally.
I can’t tell if Fghn is doing a schtick or not. I mean, my first reaction is “this guy’s so delusional it has to be an act”, but then I remember Microsoft-cultists truly are this delusional in real life.
Of course, there’s a third, more chilling option: he’s Steve Ballmer.
Couldn’t agree more. Ballmer 4eva
Oh, this is funny stuff. Keep it coming!
One more thing about Microsoft:
Apple doesn’t need a buffoon at the helm of Microsoft in order to compete successfully. Apple doesn’t need anything but a level playing field and Steve Jobs to beat the crap out of all comers. Real competition benefits everyone, but that’s not what we have in the modern business world. Instead, we get slavish imitation, bucket loads of hype and absolutely no imagination. Which is why Apple fans love the company so much. Whether they win or lose, Apple is always trying to do just one thing: Make better products.
I dunno… Microkia is being subsidized by Android right now…Mango is looking sharp. Let’s be careful here.
OK, I’ll bite… what’s Mango and why should we be concerned/careful?
It’s just another smart phone following the leader, following in the steps of the preferred fruit..
mango smango fandango…
What FUN it will be, not watching Microsoft kick out Ballmer, but watching them try to find a Steve Jobs clone. It can’t be done and I’m going to sit down and enjoy the show!
The problem is Microsoft.
And they want to be where everyone is at the moment.
For them to reinvent themselves, which they need to do to survive, they need a cultural change in the whole organisation and start focussing on where everyone else WILL BE.
As steve jobs said “skate where the puck is going NOT where it is”
We are witness to a convicted felon trying to become legitimate. A felon who made a living as a pickpocket and has struggled the last ten years to go straight.
His PO checks in on him frequently and this put quite a strain on his criminal enterprise.
The biggest hurdle has been gaining the trust of the consumer who aren’t sure they can trust letting Microsoft into our homes.
Microsoft is still saying, “Has anyone seen the puck?”
Microsoft: “What the puck?”
Actually it was Wayne Gretzky who said “skate to where the puck is going not where is is” and the correct quote is:
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
Apple is so good at its game that it recreates the puck each time it plays the game!
or to put it another way:
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.
Wayne Gretzky
I’m not prepared to write off Microsoft, nor any company who’s been plagued by a string of failures, especially those who can afford to brush it off and keep going.
Mark my words, Mango will not only exceed, but it will pump new life into Nokia. Wait and see.
While your all busy patting each other on the backs, Apple is taking notice of Mango and is preparing to confront Microsoft publicly.
Microsoft will do more to hurt Android than Apple ever could, simply because this was never really about Apple v Android, it’s always been Apple v Microsoft and once Mango makes its debut, it will finally provide the Apple haters a true alternative.
Stockholm Syndrome will soon flare up and the tens-of-millions of victims will rejoice.
…will not only succeed…?
Yeah, you know, auto-correct chooses words for me. It usually gets the last word if I don’t proof my work.
So sue me.
I’m not so convinced. Apple and Google are the forerunners in smartphones and take all the mindshare. Consumers don’t have any real reason to stay with Nokia and Windows has lost any cool factor it ever had. Microsoft’s biggest mistake was using the Windows brand name for its phone.
“…Windows has lost any cool factor it ever had.”
I’ve never thought, ever, that Windows was cool.
Mango,naming after a fruit eh, how very original … “Apple haters” righto
There are only two things Microsoft has done in the last 5 years that has been any sort of relevant to me:
1. The xbox platform
2. Force me to use silverlight for Netflix.
Only one of those is a choice.
Leave Ballmy alone! I mean it!
MicroSoft is the McDonalds of today’s products. You know … just “good enough”. Sadly they think their adherence to the lowest possible standard equals greatness. They may have done some innovation along the way, but didn’t innovate to get where they are, they stole from Apple, Netscape, etc, and bullied many others out of business. Thanks to their particular delusions, they will suffer a slow gradual fade into irrelevance. This is just the beginning of bad news for Ball-boy. The inevitable dissatisfaction has just begun to swirl, and once set in motion, the tornado is coming.
Microsoft … Ballmer … Irrelevant! … move on ….
i once asked a techie at a large company why he always encouraged the management to but Windows computers. “Because they break!” he said.
MS should have bought Skype for 16B not 8B. Ya gotta spend big Ballmer! Just do it on your next purchase. Don’t forget to announce a new Zune BR/HD with 1000 new features!
I hope Ballmer appreciates all the loyal supporters he has here. We’re standing by him and his leadership right to the bitter end.
Son hopefully.