Ballmer's big regret at 10: Losing the interwebs Steve Ballmer's biggest regret of the past ten years? Impatience. Ten years after taking over as Microsoft president - and eight years after replacing Bill Gates as chief exec - Ballmer has told The Wall St Journal that impatience prevented Microsoft from pursuing a Google-like paid search business back in 1999. According to …
If MS had pursued internet search they still would have lost to google because of one thing: usability.
We were mostly all stuck with 56k back then, and Google's clean, clutter free page gave us what we needed instantly. Microsofts page would have been loaded with ads. Even their Xbox Live thing on their console has ads, they haven't a fucking clue.
Thats why they are losing major ground to Apple now, usabiltiy. Not that they'd notice, with all the focus on spreadsheets and profit graphs.
You are right in what you say about mobiles.
I reckon each verison of windows mobile before the present one was a beta, that people paid for. And since I won't have anything more to do with it I have no idea whether 6.1 professional is a beta or not.
I do like AC's remark 'It hadn't been done yet so we didn't know what to copy'.
And Azure, which one assumes/presumes to be an MS Assault on the Virtualisation SpaceScape is about as Effective as a Gay Virgin in a Hetero Brothel. So Microsoft still haven't got their Act Together .....which must be a Reflection on the Savvy of those at the Very Top. Still not the Right Brains to Drain Power from the Competition and Control InterNetWorking Networks and Emergent CyberIntelAIgently Designed Virtual IDEntities.
Ah well, at least with their Pile of Cash Cushion, they can always easily fall back on their usual, very effective Methodology and just buy in what they Need, for IT to immediately Feed them their Desires. It is what any Good Business Manager would do ..... a Gates or a Buffett or even a Soros.
But I suppose if you are Supplying "the Right Brains to Drain Power from the Competition and Control InterNetWorking Networks and Emergent CyberIntelAIgently Designed Virtual IDEntities", you could work for anyone and make them any number of Absolutely Fabulous Fortunes for Spending Wisely and XXXXtravagantly.
Is that what NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActivity does with ITs NINJAs?..... Networks InterNetworking Javan Applications.
The problem with Microsoft is that they cannot see the uses of innovation even when they buy it in. They have never created for a reason and the last 10 years was all about creativity to solve certain reasons. The success of games, the Wii or myspace, facebook, twitter, et al. These enabled people to use the technology to keep people in social contact.
"Thats why they are losing major ground to Apple now, usabiltiy. Not that they'd notice, with all the focus on spreadsheets and profit graphs."
-Where, the times are a changing. Steve Jobs is dying you know.
But yes, whatever edge they had it is lost now. Not that i expect them to dissipate tomorrow, but it is written in stone, Microsoft have had there good days. Level sixteen manager anyone?
Patience is also a prerequisite of using most Microsoft products.
But I agree with AC @ 00:49, also hate teh fact MS seem to want to compete for competitions sake. It's not real competition (like a new company making Silverlight would have been), or IE vs Standards browsers, they use their heft to steal/cling on to market share and then everyone ends up worse off.MS have more customers, sure, but some developer somewhere will be lamenting.
was that it looks like (and is really) an outgrowth of *nix. Windows has always been mired in the stand-alone PC with their C-drive,D-drive(which are partitions, not drives - they don't refer to disks internally like that, do they?) Netbios, and backslash(just to be different) setup. Whereas Unix was built from the ground up as a networked OS, and the internet was just another network to connect to.
Imagine "The Internets" as a walled garden of "Microsoft Network" hosted content, accessible from dial-in POPs installed in each country, using proprietary "de facto" standards which are based on septic, festering, semi-disclosed specifications "available under reasonable licensing conditions". Said Internets being brought down regularly by worms, the "desktops" of the connectionati being mercilessly eaten from within by rogue code blooming out kernel-referenced DLLs...
Quote:
"Microsoft's track record shows it has no problem pushing into markets where it doesn't have a business"
Yes it can try to push in but it has a nasty habit of making large losses where it does outside of it's core business of office and the windows OS. MS falls on it's arse when it has real competition, Nintendo is giving it a real spanking in the console market for example and Nintendo actually makes a profit on the console sale.
"Microsoft's entertainment and devices unit - home to Mobile and Xbox - has yet to turn a profit."
That's why it always makes me laugh when people say MS have 'won' the latest round of console wars, presumably by beating Sony (to these sorts of people the Wii is just a toy and so doesn't count). They tend to ignore the fact that Sony are actually at break even point for the PS3 project and everything they do from now on will be money in the bank for them.
Apart from that, every other one of their core businesses is under pressure to some extent or other from superior competitors, so I reckon the next step in propping up the decaying empire will most likely be a move into business consultancy / services a la IBM.
There is a big difference between being patient and being obsessed.
Microsoft's biggest series of duds have been in the tablet arena. They've tried at least 4 times and dudded out each time. So why do they continue? Well, Tablets have always been Bill's pet project. He loves the idea of the tablet even if the market does not. Thus, Bill has chosen to ignore market feedback (a big MS flaw all round) and pushed on with his innovative ideas.
Their approach to Windows CE has been rather similar, but perhaps a bit more successful.
The primary obstacle to making search work is that MS just lack the business/sales structure to support this. Microsoft are great at chasing and pressuring big accounts (PC vendors, governments, corporates...) but are hopeless at dealing with smaller customers with smaller purchases - an area that is critical to making online ads work.
That's come up before. I'm generally inclined to, but if they've got otherwise reasonable points they tend to get through. But I might start rejecting anyone who uses the tired old quip. It's just, y'know, then people complain and get all arsey and I have to explain that it's because they're being silly and it's all extra toil for Bee.
But yeah, I'm feeling snotty today, so all be advised - grit your teeth and put 'MS' rather than 'M$' (my sides! it's still such a hoot) or into the void your comment will go.
Charles,
Those deliberations on Microsoft [and who would want to rattle Sarah Bee's cage whenever she's having one of those snooty days, so you'll find no reference to M$ here, thank you very much] are just so much like an exact mirror of the Shower raining on everyone parade and squatting in Downing Street ...... where coincidentally another Sarah B also probably has a lot of bad air days to deal with.
And given the poor performance of Prudence, can one speculate that it is separate bedrooms with Sarah's attention centred elsewhere .... for obviously hubby's is.
Its a funny old world and they/you/I make IT up as we go along and that is the problem/opportunity that the barstewards are trying to suppress and failing gloriously badly.
Oh, and the Shower in Downing Street and Westminster know Nothing of the Power of Clouds, for if they did, they'd be doing a Blair and running away to hide in foreign lands that do not understand the Depth of Conceit in Spinning Deceit. But it merely only temporarily delays the Inevitable.
And Paris because .... well, she's bound to enjoy herself with her head buzzing in the Clouds because of what she will find there, Sarah Bee. It is an immaculate Environment for the Fairest of Sex and XSSXXXX FareShareWare.
"Microsoft U-turned on IE development, resuming it in the face of security treats and vigorous competition from open source,"
Security Treats sound delicious! Buffer-overflow gobstoppers, Zombie-chews with SQL-injected jelly hearts, Chocolate trojans, Pop-upping candy, colourful Rainbow-Table gums.
Another outstanding innovation from Register Towers...
It seems to be Microsofts' raison d'etre that they are out to make money, which is fait enough since they are a business and that's what businesses do.
The problem with Microsoft is that it would appear that having 'conquered' the desktop using dubious-enough means they are prepared to do anything, including breaking anti-competition laws, to keep their place.
In my opinion people tend to use 'M<dollar>' sign to show their awareness of M<dollar>s' tactics, and to highlight this to others.
I guess we will have to think of something similar for Googl€ and other businesses that seek to make a profit in what can be seen as an 'unfair' manner.
ttfn
Oh - heres a question, why stop M<dollar> usage, but allow the evil Gates? are personal view-points being stamped on now?
(hmm - just like €l R£g!) :-)
>are personal view-points being stamped on now?
Of course not, don't be hysterical. It's just that little combo which is so well-worn now as to be meaningless. Surely if you're going to be critical of MS - which we have no issue with whatsoever - that's going to show in what you say. Using 'M$' just makes you look like you're trolling, and kind of lowers the tone, y'know?
I should point that It's Not Just Me - it was actually suggested quite a while back, and I've been letting it through but it's got too tedious now. The Evil Bill icon isn't going anywhere, so if you want to show the rest of the commenters that your overall view is that Microsoft is obsessed with the making of the paper, that ought to do it.
Google changed the idea. The google results were not ad-laden and picture laden monstrosities. they were text links.
Especially on dial-up a HUGE innovation.
Before Google made a business off it, the idea was that you HAD to have ads plastered all about to do a search engine.
PS the Evil Steve Jobs looks a lot like Evil Steve Ballmer.
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