An insider's view of Microsoft
Microsoft’s Creative Destruction
Excerpt:
... Microsoft, America’s most famous and prosperous technology company, no longer brings us the future, whether it’s tablet computers like the iPad, e-books like Amazon’s Kindle, smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, search engines like Google, digital music systems like iPod and iTunes or popular Web services like Facebook and Twitter.
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Microsoft, America’s most famous and prosperous technology company, no longer brings us the future, whether it’s tablet computers like the iPad, e-books like Amazon’s Kindle, smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, search engines like Google, digital music systems like iPod and iTunes or popular Web services like Facebook and Twitter.
Microsoft’s huge profits — $6.7 billion for the past quarter — come almost entirely from Windows and Office programs first developed decades ago. Like G.M. with its trucks and S.U.V.’s, Microsoft can’t count on these venerable products to sustain it forever. Perhaps worst of all, Microsoft is no longer considered the cool or cutting-edge place to work. There has been a steady exit of its best and brightest.
Comment: From the NYTimes. Written by a former Microsoft VP. Worthwhile read about management, innovation and progress.
There's not much to argue about in most of that article, but comparing them to Apple, with their release of the iPad, isn't exactly fair. Microsoft has never been a hardware company - expecting them to come out with a new tablet, ebook reader, or phone would be like Nokia creating a spreadsheet app.
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