“Microsoft’s had a tough year, and it’s not even half over,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld. “The software giant has retreated from flubs in licensing, the design of its flagship Windows operating system and most recently, innovations it wanted to bake into its new game console, the Xbox One.”
Keizer asks, “What’s going on? Is the company’s decision-making suddenly fundamentally flawed? As the PC industry goes through its largest-ever slump, is it so desperate that it’s trying to milk revenue wherever it can by forcing change — even when it knows customers will rebel? Has it taken to hauling up the white flag at the first sign of resistance rather than toughing it out, as the old Microsoft might have?”
“Philip Morton, a senior practitioner in gaming at Foolproof, a U.K. user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design consultancy, wasn’t sure which it was — though he leaned toward the latter — but he was certain Microsoft screwed up on the Xbox One,” Keiser writes. “People will accept change, Morton said, if it’s clear there are benefits to doing so that outweigh the burden of the change itself. While that may read as obvious, Microsoft either forgot it or knowing it, plunged ahead anyway. ‘Microsoft had a carrot and a stick, but it was all stick and no carrot,’ Morton said of the Xbox One plans, which were pitched as a way to simplify sharing games within a family or group of friends, and to make a customer’s game library available from any Xbox console. ‘Xbox has been successful despite Microsoft, not because of it,’ he said.”
Tons more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What isn’t wrong with Mcirosoft?
And a fish rots from the head down.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tayster” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Gartner: Apple to overtake Microsoft in total OS sales in 2015 – June 25, 2013
Apple Macintosh owns 45% of PC market profits – April 16, 2013
Steve Jobs’ revenge – April 12, 2013
Apple Macintosh on the rise as Windows PC market plummets – April 11, 2013
Gartner: PC Market posts 11.2 percent decline in Q113; Apple Mac sales up 7.4 percent in U.S. – April 10, 2013
IDC: PC shipments post the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, down 13.9% in Q113 – April 10, 2013
lol, even the NSA doesn’t have servers big enough to hold the answers to that question.
“What is wrong with Microsoft?”
That nothing is wrong.
“Keizer asks, “What’s going on? Is the company’s decision-making suddenly fundamentally flawed?”
Suddenly? No. The CEO has been on another planet for years.
Yeah, I noticed that
That question was gonna be all my post but decided to go with a more substantial one. Ha.
Either way don’t understand the difficulty of having a good strategy adequate for the times.
For now they will keep doing the reshuffling of the deck chairs, I guess.
It’s “Festering.”
As in Uncle.
42
Nothing is wrong with Microsoft. The best leader on the planet, Mr Ballmer, should just continue with his regularly scheduled management shuffling sessions. Also we all need to encourage him to spend wads and wads of products that no one wants, because its fun and he loves to do it. So Bravo Mr Ballmer. Keep up the good work and spend, spend, spend…..!
Are you high on crack or something? Balls Head Balmer does.not know what he is doing. Who in there right mind will pay $500.00 for the xBox One and games for $100,00 each? The 360 is way better. They gave their edge up to Sony and Nitendo. The only thing going right for them.Another laugh is Windows 8. Will 8.1 be any better? NO!!
No Larry, Jubei is correct. Ballmer is the best man for the job. I like what he is doing a lot. Please Mr. B, spend more money on new products and whilst you’re at it buy some more companies for several billion each.
Larry you and Jubei are both right. Ballmer is a boob and we love him for it. A guy who would have had trouble being a used car salesman but is instead a karmic joke being a CEO instead and, hah hah, a CEO of a prominent software & technology company at that “guiding” mankind to a brighter future. Under his leadershit Microsoft is of course doomed and those who reside at this site will not be sad when that day comes. (Well they might but with crocodile tears.) So for Ballmer and his date with destiny taking the company down the rabbit hole with him we are content to “wait for as long as it takes.”
New here, are you?
He’ll get the hang of it in a few weeks. 😉
I like his strategy. I like it a lot.
Suddenly flawed decision making? Try the last ten years at a minimum. Old Ballmy must really have some good dirt on Billy boy.
I do not understand their strategy. If Windows 8 is going to be their all around mobile and desktop OS, where does that leave Windows Phone 8? Are the apps being created for it going to be compatible with tablets running Windows RT and or Windows 8? Is MS going to abandon it’s developers and customers of Windows Phone 8 at some point?
At least Android apps run on both tablets and phones, and same with iOS.
The only thing certain is that MS has a hot mess on their hands.
Actually, fish doesn’t rot from the head down. But I don’t disagree that MS is.
To CEO of Microsoft – Mr. Steve Ballmer:
Don’t listen to pundits. You should continue to do your best and sail Microsoft ship to where it suppose to be. You are the best CEO ever!!
We all hate iPhone – $600 something machine… don’t have a physical keyboard… WTF is that, right?!
I love your strategy, I love it a lot!!
/s
—————–
To the rest of us:
Shh… We should stop giving Microsoft free advices. I am afraid that one day Mr. Steve Ballmer may actually start to listen to the rest of us and make positive changes!
@iinnsbrucktaos
Agreed. Those whom have endured the ‘pc revolution’ since post-DOS, and suffered the Spindler/Amelio days after a poor licensing deal….have nothing but well wishes for the ‘continued success’ of Steve Ballmer.
I live in Redmond WA, and while I endured that too, relish my front row seat to the implosion…err, continued success of that gloriously delirious fat sweaty bastard.
Their empire was built of FUD and deception, and karma is a bitch….
Their best people and days are far behind them. The salesman is fulfilling ‘that other Steve’s’ clear, accurate reading of the future.
There are many times when Apple ain’t all that sharp, so I don’t drink that koolaid either. Still, this bowl circling MS are doing has been relished and yet thought of as sad. Besides the Mikey Dell-meme, they were the evil empire, bloodthirsty and able to drive Apple to compete and exceed. “For the most part, they earned it”, was the quote I recall.
I for one miss a little of that competition.
So, to Steve Ballmer, I raise this glass in a toast:
You’re doing great, but your job isn’t done! Make it a pretty implosion for those with the better seats.
It is very simple what is wrong with Microsoft:
They are not selling what people want to buy. Do you really want to buy another copy of Office? Do you really want to buy an unfamiliar operating system that has no benifit from what you have now? Do you really want to buy a cheap laptop with a crummy screen?
I had another take on it: I needed to replace my windows work laptop that needs to run XP. I can’t buy XP. My company’s license says they can’t put it on my laptop. Win 8 doesn’
t run it. I’m stuck with XP mode that sucks under Win 7. I have no clue what will happen after Apirl ’14 when XP ends. I wouldnt be surprised if we got Chrome and ran everything “in the cloud”. That’s good until you don’t have a good Internet connection. Foolishness.
Contrast this with my iPad, I wanted to buy one and I’m glad I did. It is that simple. MS has a problem. When the I.T. doofuses figure out what I have already figured out, MS is done. They could be bankrupt by 2020. The average user is sick of their cr*p and is looking to be productive without them.
Wow, if you have to ask, obviously you do not know the subject of that question.
Microsoft ‘suddenly’ getting it wrong. Hell where have these people been, when wa the last Time they did anything right, certainly not under Ballmer. They have relied on their monopoly moves from the eighties ever since but the difference is that now they don have a Monopoly that they can easily impose any more. Both Google and Apple will overtake them in OS share quite soon so how can they force their customer any more an they haven’t lived in a market where their customers chose them objectively since the erly 80’s.
M$ isn’t going to disappear, but it is fun to watch them as mistakes they made (some going back to the early 90’s) come back to haunt them.
I’m still laughing about their “Plays fer Sure” fiasco !
Gotta tell you, it’s been a tough year for EVERYBODY.
Healthcare Reform isn’t going to make it any better.
This is a trick question, right?
What’s wrong with Microsoft is arrogance. In addition to this Xbox thing, look at Windows 8. Microsoft targeted new tablet customers while essentially ignoring its core customers, people who just want a “regular” PC and do NOT want to touch the screen as part of the user experience. To them, the latest version of Windows is a kludge that says, “just deal with it” and buy a new PC with a touch screen.
Microsoft thinks their existing customers will just “just deal with it” once again, and meekly comply… However, THIS TIME, longtime Windows users now feel more at home using the latest version of Mac OS X, compared to Windows 8. Once Windows users are made to feel (by Microsoft) that using a Mac is a viable option to Windows, a significant percentage will “get a Mac.” And that’s all Apple needs to keep growing Mac sales year after year.
“Is the company’s decision-making suddenly fundamentally flawed?”
Suddenly?
It’s the sales guy, nuff said.
Microsoft – sinking into a deep, deep hole of irrelevance