Late last night, the GigaOM blog published an article written by Alistair Croll delineating Microsoft's supposed "defense strategy," which can sensibly be partitioned into three unique models: consumer, enterprise, and development. Some points made are taken with an ample dose of logic and reason. Others are not so fortuitous when held under the proverbial heat lamp. I'd like to focus on two particular items discussed by Croll.
First, there's Croll's postulation that Microsoft needs to bring its various devices into a single melding pot of synchronic software-mating bliss. Whether it is a consumer's Vista PC, Xbox, Zune, or any Windows Mobile-based smartphone, everything is supposedly going to be having lots of nice, seamless group chats somewhere down the line.
I, frankly, find this concept a near impossibility for the company to accomplish at present. One only needs to consult a fresh New York Times piece by Randall Stross to see that Microsoft isn't moving to a meshtastic (or would you prefer mashtastic?) reality anytime soon. The company is far too scattered to ever arrive at some sort of pseudo-singularity.
The second item I wish to put forth in response to Crolls assertions is the subject of Web development, specifically the area of Web applications and open source.
It is true, Microsoft has moved to open its doors to the world outside. Several newly announced efforts have garnered considerably bullish reviews from critics and analysts. Which is good. That stuff definitely helps on the PR front. But Microsoft is nonetheless late to the game. The company is continuously playing catch up - especially out in the cloud. Which isn't good.
Sure, it's got the brand recognition to make massive impressions online as far as consumer- and enterprise-class software and services, even after years of playing it cool. But things are moving quick these days on the Web, and if you appear to be falling lockstep behind your more agile, fast-moving competitors for too long, you may begin to lose that historic influence. The Microsoft name alone is showing less strength today than it did 5-10 years past. That can't be a favorable outcome for the suits in Redmond.
Whether it is the Web app market or the recent revelations of source code and other data pertaining to some of the company's assets, Microsoft is simply not taking a "leading role." It has only begrudgingly been swept up in the current popular demand, and it is only doing now what it should have done many seasons ago. For the largest software manufacturer in the world to metaphorically be considered an elephant in sheep's clothing is perhaps a label that it will not be able to shrug off all too quickly.
This isn't to say Microsoft is headed for a slow death because of, for lack of better phrasing, excessive slowness. On the contrary, it will live quite a long life still. But it is going to have to prove willing to make a successive number of very significant changes to its developments and the process with which those developments are made so that, in a few years' time, it is no longer beholden to this title of "follower," but can really be thought of as a true innovator. (Or something that can be passed off as synonymous with the term.)
Over the course of a number of years, Microsoft has gradually relinquished its role as an industrial mover/shaker. It is now solely a mover. Time to seriously get to shaking again. (Or something else that doesn't sound ridiculous on its face.)
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