What happened to the global economy and what we can do about it
with 49 comments
By James Kwak
So, after questioning the iPad, I bought one.* My primary motivation was that I wanted to be able to watch old TV episodes on the commute to and from my internship this summer, and I think an iPod Touch is just too small. I also bought an Android phone, because my three-year-old Motorola RAZR2 v9m (who comes up with these product names, anyway?) developed a crack in the hinge, and because I wanted the best camera I could get on a phone. (My #2 use for a phone is not email â?? itâ??s taking pictures and videos of my daughter.)
Anyway, catching up on the last three years of mobile technology has provided ample food for thought. I have a long post on the Apple-Google(-Microsoft) war rolling around in my head somewhere, which I will hopefully write down later this week. In the meantime, hereâ??s John Gruberâ??s verdict on Microsoft:
â??Three years ago, just before the original iPhone shipped, here's what Steve Ballmer said in an interview with USA Today's David Lieberman:
â??There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get.â??
â??Not only was he wrong about the iPhone, but he was even more wrong about Windows Mobile. Three years ago Ballmer was talking about 60, 70, 80 percent market share. This week, Gartner reported that Windows Mobile has dropped to 6.8 percent market share in worldwide smartphone sales, down dramatically from 10.2 percent a year ago.â?
Steve Ballmer has been CEO of Microsoft since 2000. During his tenure, Microsoft came out with Windows Vista, perhaps the most unsuccessful operating system in modern history (Windows ME doesnâ??t count, since Microsoftâ??s core customer base was using NT/2000); it tried a â??Microsoft insideâ? strategy in digital music and, when that failed, launched the Zune, which also failed; it watched Firefox (and Safari and Chrome) eat a large chunk of its lunch in Internet browsers, the application most people use more than everything else put together; it launched Windows Live, a marketing strategy with no noun behind it, which completely flopped at whatever it was supposed to do; it got blown away in Internet search to the point where it had to re-launch as Bing, a plucky underdog; and in mobile phones, which everyone has known for a decade would be the next big thing, it stuck with its bloated, awkward Windows Mobile for far too long, letting everyone (RIM, Apple, Google, and even Palm) pass it by to the point where it has no customer base left. (BlackBerry rules the corporate market, Microsoftâ??s traditional stomping grounds.) Recently I saw a headline saying that Microsoft is going to try to relaunch Hotmail to make it cool. Really, why bother?
Sure, Microsoft still has a dominant market share in PC operating systems and office applications, but itâ??s managed to take that massive competitive advantage and waste it everywhere else over the past decade. It hasnâ??t even managed to become a major player in enterprise applications, a market that is desperately crying out for new competition, and where Microsoft should have been able to muscle its way in using its existing relationships with corporate CIOs and procurement officers. Is Bill Gates just too loyal to his old friend?
As for the iPad: I agree with Brad DeLong that the biggest problems with the keyboard are (a) hitting the shift key instead of â??Aâ? and (b) needing to shift to the numeric/symbol keyboard just for an apostrophe or a quotation mark. I would add the lack of control key sequences. Itâ??s remarkably comfortable to interact with, to the point where I use it sometimes when a laptop would be more efficient, simply because itâ??s more pleasant. (For one thing, it doesnâ??t constrain your physical position the way even a laptop does.) Itâ??s also much nicer to have in a non-work part of the house, like the kitchen or living room, even than a laptop, which feels clunky and intrusive by comparison. And my daughter loves Fish School. But using it is still a constant exercise in compromises, largely because of the keyboard (it works, but it takes effort, as opposed to a regular keyboard) and also because some web sites donâ??t behave properly (and there is the Flash problem).
And there is the whole over-hyped apps model, which will be the topic of a future post that will be more original than this one.
* Although I did say this: â??I think it will still be a success, though not nearly as big as the iPod or iPhone. I think so for two reasons: first, the product probably is just better than anything else in the category; and second, the Apple fan base is so big and so devoted that it will have blowout initial sales and then build momentum of its own.â?
Written by James Kwak
May 24, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Posted in Commentary
Tagged with technology
Everybody else in the elite who failed is still there, doing the same thing, and making more money than ever.
So why would Ballmer be any different?
lambert strether
May 24, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Now thats hilarious, and sadly so true!
Andrew Macpherson
May 25, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Regarding enterprise applications, I donâ??t think itâ??s so straightforward.
True, they donâ??t have a competetive ERP package or anything, but theyâ??ve made huge inroads in enterprise infrastructure on Balmerâ??s watch; e.g., SQL Server is now competitive with Oracle, DB2 etc. for all but the super high-end, and cheaper. The latest release includes business intelligence features which are extremely competitively priced for that market (e.g., free vs. $3000/seat).
ndg
May 24, 2010 at 11:36 pm
â?¦ It's also much nicer to have in a non-work part of the house, like the kitchen or living room, â?¦
Ok say it. Be honest : â??like the kitchen or living room, or bathroomâ?
:-)
Anonymous
May 24, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Microsoft is primarily a monopolistic marketing machine.
Internally, it is best described as â??disjointed chaos.â?
From a consumer perspective, it could also be described as â??disjointed chaos.â? Have you ever tried to get support for something not working, like a paid Hotmail account? Plan to put in 5-10 hours of your time.
Are you an enterprise who has been suckered into using SharePoint? Mmmâ?¦could your experience be described as â??disjointed chaosâ? â?? or â?? nightmare?
Have you taken a Microsoft e-Learning Course? What a joke!
How about the website? Go to the latest incarnation of Microsoft.com, and then click â??All Products.â? â??Business Softwareâ? doesnâ??t even list regular Office, only OfficeLive!?! Click that link for a really enlightening experience. LOL.
You get the picture. Microsoft s^cks bigtime. Disjointed Chaos. A monopolistic marketing machine.
Itâ??s too bad, there are lots of smart people there, but even if well intentioned, they are caught up in a political bureaucratic mess.
Steve Ballmer is just another arrogant egomaniac running another huge corporation in our Corporatist Kleptocracy. He will keep his job because he has the qualifications â?? arrogant egomaniac with lots of moolah and influence. Itâ??s all political. It has nothing to do with competence at making superior products, or providing superior service. When you take competition out of the marketplace, you elimnate the production of value: the best products and services for the best price.
btraven
May 24, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Although you seem to miss the fact that there are exceptions, Apple and Steve Jobs are the Anti-Microsoft in every way you described it.
SteveK9
May 25, 2010 at 9:14 am
Totally agreeâ?¦ an excited man on a pile of cash that is not innovating is a death-spellâ?¦
Can you edit videos in the Droid? (looking between the droid and iphone to capture moments of my little one).
Scott
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