There are certainly some issues at MSFT but some of the people that post in this blog are just over the top in their pessimism and whining. As I see it right now, the good, bad, and ugly of MSFT are: The good:
The bad:
- XBOX Kinect blew it away this past Holiday, over 35M customers now pay for the priviledge of XBox Live
- The enterprise business is strong, committed revenue is higher than it's ever been (MSFT has a global enterprise business that is really unmatched by anyone
- Office365 and Dynamics both are rapidly growing businesses with a ton of upside
- MSFT now has 11 distinct businesses that do over $1B in revenue - I can think of maybe one or two other businesses on the planet (GE, etc) that can say the same
- Largely because of this diverse portfolio of businesses, MSFT was able to grow revenue, operating income, and net income in spite of *declining* PC sales (MSFT is not a one-trick pony any longer, if it ever was)
- Even with weakness in the PC market the past couple of quarters, it's hard to argue with the success of Windows 7 with over 400M licenses sold
- MSFT's Cloud offerings collectively are second to none
- Bing has a long ways to go but has actually made some progress in the US search market against Google, which was once thought impossible
- As an employee, unless you are a bottom 20% performer, the new comp plan is a win. If you don't think so, then you don't really understand the change
- Say what you will about Ballmer, there are some senior execs at MSFT that are truly outstanding. Mattrick, Satya, KT, Qi Lu, PK, Lisa B - you won't find anyone better than these folks anywhere
- The Nokia partnership will be instrumental in getting a WP7 device in a lot of people's hands
The ugly:
- As mentioned, PC sales actually declined in Q4
- MSFT still hasn't figured out a way to win in India or China and doesn't seem to have a cohesive strategy for emerging markets
- WP7 is a good product but as others have alluded to, MSFT is way late to the party in terms of highly functional / attractive UI / rich app eco-system smartphones. The Nokia deal only allows MSFT some hope at playing catch-up at this point
- Employees will soon have to pay a contribution (and deductibles) for health care (thank you very much ObamaCare and the Cadillac Tax for bringing that to us)
- Although there are talented people still there, a lot of talented folks have left MSFT senior leadership in the past 18 months or so - Liddell, Elop, Muglia, Bach, etc, etc. Although Elop was instrumental in getting the Nokia deal up and going
There it is, from a high-performing L63 employee in a broad-based business role, trying to lay things out in a truly fair and balanced manner. Take it or leave it...."
- AAPL sold 20M iPhones and over 9M iPads in a quarter. In. A. Quarter. Let that sink in a moment
- While MSFT has plenty of other viable businesses, none is as profitable nor as core strategically as Windows. Windows was once an impenetrable fortress, but in the past year, AAPL has penetrated it with a single product launch. MSFT is destined to play catch-up in slates, and it sounds like nothing serious is coming out until Windows 8 in another 12 to 15 months (maybe)
- MSFT is still very strong in the enterprise but to the consumer, MSFT seems completely dead. MSFT has no consumer mindshare any longer
- Yes, there are some interesting possibilities with Skype and Lync and XBox (etc), but it is still not at all clear that shareholders will reap anything close to $8.5B of value
- GOOG still dominates search in the US and will for the foreseeable future. And their dominance is even greater internationally
- OSD as an org continues to bleed money and will continue to do so for at least another couple of years
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
FAILED CORP or BALANCED PORTFOLIO CORP - What's Right with Microsoft Strategy or lack off...
"....I expect that Mr. Turner will do the big picture for us. I like this comment regarding one point of view of how things are going for Microsoft:
Monday, September 26, 2011
What went wrong with Microsoft re-imagined.
ARS TECHNICA : Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today said the overhaul of Windows is part of a larger goal to transform the whole company, making every one of its businesses optimized for new hardware form factors and cloud services.
The Windows 8 user interface is a dramatic change from Windows 7, featuring Microsoft’s Metro-style tiles and optimization for both traditional PCs and touchscreen tablets.
Windows Server 8, now available in a developer preview, is also being upgraded to support the shift from local resources to cloud computing, featuring greater integration with Windows Azure. In all, Ballmer counted seven Microsoft businesses—Windows, Phone, Xbox, Azure, Office, Bing, and Dynamics—and said all of them “are moving to the cloud as their fundamental business model.”
“If Windows 8 is Windows reimagined, we’re also in the process, and Windows 8 is an important step of that, of reimagining Microsoft,” Ballmer said during the second day of keynote addresses from the BUILD developer conference.
"I won't suggest that Microsoft didn't copy or buy out successful products in the past. They did, and it worked. Why? They saw a good idea in the making at a local startup, bought it out, and then gave it the resources and support to turn it into a successful product.
That's a lot different from what Microsoft is doing now. Instead of recognizing good ideas and products before they become successful, it is continually trying to play catch up with innovative products, services, and companies which are already hugely successful. Just look at how Microsoft created Bing to compete with Google after fact, as well as the Zune.
More problematic is that the tech world is moving at a much faster rate now. In many cases it's not enough to simply provide a better product than your competitor. You have to be first to market (and many times redefine/create that market) to be successful. Think about how what the iPod did to the portable audio market.
I wouldn't say the battlefield is shifting. There is still a huge market for desktop PCs and laptops, especially in the business world. Rather, it is growing wider to encompass portable computing devices which are just now becoming practical due to advances in technology.
As to coming up with "magical genius ideas," Microsoft already has plenty of smart, innovative people working on great ideas (check out Microsoft Labs), but the upper management rarely takes these ideas and supports them. Just look at Microsoft Surface. How many years has that been in development? I know it started development WAY before the iPad.
Yet, why isn't it widely available? Why can't I walk into a store and buy it? The reason is simple: the upper management don't want to support it.
You will find the same lackluster attitude towards many of their lesser known products: give it a menial budget, rather than putting the full force of the company behind it and integrating its ideas with its other products.
These are clear symptoms of a visionless CEO and a bureaucratic power structure. " (sigh?)
- C | 11 days ago | permalink
APPARENTLY I AM NOT ALONE ON THIS ONE!
FULL STORY :
The Windows 8 user interface is a dramatic change from Windows 7, featuring Microsoft’s Metro-style tiles and optimization for both traditional PCs and touchscreen tablets.
Windows Server 8, now available in a developer preview, is also being upgraded to support the shift from local resources to cloud computing, featuring greater integration with Windows Azure. In all, Ballmer counted seven Microsoft businesses—Windows, Phone, Xbox, Azure, Office, Bing, and Dynamics—and said all of them “are moving to the cloud as their fundamental business model.”
“If Windows 8 is Windows reimagined, we’re also in the process, and Windows 8 is an important step of that, of reimagining Microsoft,” Ballmer said during the second day of keynote addresses from the BUILD developer conference.
"I won't suggest that Microsoft didn't copy or buy out successful products in the past. They did, and it worked. Why? They saw a good idea in the making at a local startup, bought it out, and then gave it the resources and support to turn it into a successful product.
That's a lot different from what Microsoft is doing now. Instead of recognizing good ideas and products before they become successful, it is continually trying to play catch up with innovative products, services, and companies which are already hugely successful. Just look at how Microsoft created Bing to compete with Google after fact, as well as the Zune.
More problematic is that the tech world is moving at a much faster rate now. In many cases it's not enough to simply provide a better product than your competitor. You have to be first to market (and many times redefine/create that market) to be successful. Think about how what the iPod did to the portable audio market.
User Rnmuos wrote:
Now the battlefield is shifting, the PC era is ending (to some extent), and they are playing catch-up. Telling them to come up with magical genius ideas is all well and good, but it's not something they've ever been particularly good at.
Having said that, Ballmer's speech sounds reasonable. There is something to be said for slowly but steadily building on what you know, rather than trying to "revolutionize" everything all the time.
Having said that, Ballmer's speech sounds reasonable. There is something to be said for slowly but steadily building on what you know, rather than trying to "revolutionize" everything all the time.
I wouldn't say the battlefield is shifting. There is still a huge market for desktop PCs and laptops, especially in the business world. Rather, it is growing wider to encompass portable computing devices which are just now becoming practical due to advances in technology.
As to coming up with "magical genius ideas," Microsoft already has plenty of smart, innovative people working on great ideas (check out Microsoft Labs), but the upper management rarely takes these ideas and supports them. Just look at Microsoft Surface. How many years has that been in development? I know it started development WAY before the iPad.
Yet, why isn't it widely available? Why can't I walk into a store and buy it? The reason is simple: the upper management don't want to support it.
You will find the same lackluster attitude towards many of their lesser known products: give it a menial budget, rather than putting the full force of the company behind it and integrating its ideas with its other products.
These are clear symptoms of a visionless CEO and a bureaucratic power structure. " (sigh?)
- C | 11 days ago | permalink
APPARENTLY I AM NOT ALONE ON THIS ONE!
"...We can't confirm reports that employees left "in droves" during CEO Steve Ballmer's speech, as WinRumors has it, but the comments speak for themselves. Seattle PI has published a representative selection here. The one that caught my eye focused on the difficulty Ballmer's Microsoft has competing with the likes of Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG):..."
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Over the 'Labor Day Holiday' an update to Lync CU3 was posted quietly ;)
Lync Hotfixes released.
Some new hotfixes have been released, so this is a reference post that I hope will help someone in the future!
I’ve copied a link to the KB article and the title below for reference. Additionally the current (8/30/11) cumulative update for Lync is KB2592292
Some new hotfixes have been released, so this is a reference post that I hope will help someone in the future!
I’ve copied a link to the KB article and the title below for reference. Additionally the current (8/30/11) cumulative update for Lync is KB2592292
---
- Saturday, September 10, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)