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- jerkychew, on 11/30/2008, -8/+77It's simple. Microsoft is, to those that matter, the Evil Empire. What other software company is loathed as much as poor little MS? They're hated at the user end for their desktop OS reliability problems. They're hated at the administrator end for their glaring security holes and the chaos that is their software licensing scheme. And they're hated in the business world for their blatant arrogance and win-at-all-costs attitude, crushing any and all who stand in their way.
Here's the interesting part, though. Virtually all of the examples I've referenced aren't true anymore, save for their software licensing schemes. MS has made great strides in desktop reliability, security patches, and they've even been playing nice with (gasp) the Open Source community. I'm not saying they're angels, but the company is far from the kill-em-all Microsoft we knew of the late 80s and 90s.
However, when you're the 800 pound gorilla in the room and you've already stepped on everybody, it's hard to convince those you've stepped on that you're no longer that gorilla. And it's that stigma that is hurting Microsoft's presence in any industry they aren't needed in. Think about it: If you have an option other than Microsoft, don't you usually choose it, simply because it isn't Microsoft? MS is a must-have for the end-user desktop and the majority of big-business enterprise servers - and yes I'm generalizing but other than Apache the usage percentage points speak for themselves - But outside of those markets, where are they gaining ground? They just aren't.
When you were prompted to install Silverlight, you hit cancel, right? I know I didn't install it until it was absolutely necessary to watch Netflix on my Mac. The same goes for Windows Search (Google), Windows Hotmail (Gmail or Yahoo), Windows Media Player (iTunes), etc etc. When Microsoft gives stuff away, we say no. Why? Because we don't trust the bastards, that's why. We think they're up to something. We assume that they're going to use whatever data they can mine from their free apps against us. What's ironic is, Google does exactly this but arguably more than even Microsoft, and they're a loved company. Why? Because for the most part Google has not let us down.
Microsoft just can't make money in a space where the end user has other choices, until they can form a trust with that end user. And considering their past track record I don't see them ever pulling that off. - inactive, on 11/30/2008, -8/+64It's because they want control.
The internet is about being open. - inactive, on 11/30/2008, -2/+38They would, but they're too busy with that 90% market share.
- disgruntled, on 11/30/2008, -4/+35Yeah because giving away your product for free is the best way to make money.
- MtheoryX, on 11/30/2008, -2/+30True, but plenty of people can get into "the cloud" on a pc WITHOUT Windows.
- rezx, on 11/30/2008, -3/+21lol..nice caption "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been trying to figure this web thing out for years"
- jfaz12, on 11/30/2008, -7/+24Its a simple matter of the founder(s)' and board members' core beliefs. At no point in the company's history was Microsoft a company that desired to built the best technology, for the benefit of the customer.
No, from day 1 Microsoft has been a company about capitalizing on financial opportunity. Microsoft has borrowed, stolen, mimicked, and copied technology since the day it was founded in the attempt to build a financial empire, not a software empire, a financial empire.
The internet is too fast for that *****. By the time you finish copying and stealing someone else's technology, their 2.0 software has already made your software obsolete. The internet is outside Microsoft's league, stick to your business model and maintain your financial empire, we don't need your presence on the web, we've had enough head aches already. - acmethunder, on 11/30/2008, -3/+20Maybe they should focus on what they are good at and what they already do well. They own the desktop market ... no one can get into "the cloud" without a pc.
- representDLV, on 11/30/2008, -2/+17itunes blows
- NaturalCauzes, on 11/30/2008, -5/+19What is Xbox Live Marketplace?
- seltaeb4, on 11/30/2008, -5/+18Exactly.
Microsoft doesn't know what to do, but they want to dominate it.
Their strategy is antithetical to the Information Revolution. - grungegbunny, on 11/30/2008, -5/+18Better product and service is highly debatable.
- ToastPop, on 04/17/2009, -4/+16Can you elaborate on that, or are we just hopping on the Microsoft bashing bandwagon? How are the other companies that ARE successful on the web working any differently than Microsoft in terms of being open? Google releases lots of free code, but none of which brings in actual money. Google's bread and butter is online advertising, it's not like that is "open", they are in full control of that and it's not really a whole lot different from Microsoft's advertisement program.
- andymci, on 11/30/2008, -1/+12Despite being dugg down, disgruntled has a point. Apple has been quite successful at building an association between Windows (and subsequently Microsoft) and the term PC. This whole "I'm a PC" thing was a reactionary move, not a proactive move.
- Shananra, on 11/30/2008, -0/+11If he's a computer geek, then yes, he does matter. Geeks are the ones that everyone else turns to for advice and to fix their problems, so everyone else's opinion is based very much on the opinion of their closest geek. That said, his comment was spot on.
I would argue though that not all of the stigma is "no longer true." They still deploy WGA, and most of mi legitimately licensed machines have and continue to have false positives, which is one of many things that still drives me away from their services. - loconet, on 11/30/2008, -1/+10It's very simple. Nobody truly controls the online world. It is a very chaotic, organic market. While there are several players that are milking the $ better than MS (eg. Google), they do so through innovation and simply better offerings. Since its beginnings, Microsoft's business strategy had little to do with *true* innovation and/or better offerings to consumers. It had to do with controlling the market from the start, pumping the market with marketing and monopolizing distribution channels. Any threats were bought out and painted as their own innovative offerings. Microsoft cannot do this as freely in the online world. The online world is more of a "leveled" playing field - Microsoft does not like that, they carry too much baggage to move as freely as it is necessary to be successful online. Short of changing their name and kicking out all the old destructive monopolistic mentality of their upper management (ie. Ballmer), I'm not sure what they can do to get out of this negative downward spiral the company is in (online).
- rikwakefield, on 11/30/2008, -0/+9That doesn't really fit this story though.
- inactive, on 11/30/2008, -0/+9itunes? seriously? At least songbird would have been a better option.
- knute5, on 11/30/2008, -0/+8Bullseye.
- disgruntled, on 11/30/2008, -9/+17MS didnt brand themselves with the "I'm a PC". that tag was given to the by the pretentious little pricks at apple.
- benologist, on 11/30/2008, -0/+7How is that open or closed though?
Look at all the big successful websites, where is the openness? Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay, Digg, Google, Facebook, Craigslist, IMDb, AOL. The list goes on and on, and all they do is let us access just a tiny slice of information and all we can hope for is they put mechanisms in place that let us shift or delete our data to another service. - trafficlight, on 11/30/2008, -0/+7I agree. I ***** hate itunes. It's a bloated, slow piece of *****.
I'm still using Winamp. - insomnislacker, on 11/30/2008, -3/+10(Google, Yahoo, AOL,...) = (ads / user data collection) != free
If people stop clicking on ads, those services will stop being "free". - grungegbunny, on 11/30/2008, -3/+10three words: get a life.
- D3koy, on 11/30/2008, -1/+8The reason they don't make money on the internet is because you don't make money with your product, you make money with the ads. You need a free, good product that millions of people will use, then put ads on the page to make money. That's not the way Microsoft has ever operated, can we be surprised that they are having a hard time changing?
- strictnein, on 11/30/2008, -5/+11Windows Server 2008. SQL Server 2008. Visual Studio 2008.
- strictnein, on 11/30/2008, -0/+6Microsoft Donut Network?
- samuel514, on 11/30/2008, -0/+5amen!
- kentifer, on 11/30/2008, -3/+8Xbox live, anyone?
- mbraynard, on 11/30/2008, -3/+7You've gotta be insane to take business advice from a journalist retard.
- inactive, on 11/30/2008, -0/+4Their modus operandi for years have always been a top-bottom approach as opposed to a bottom-up approach when coming up with new innovations--the internet and online community naturally doesn't work like that. And it's that very reason Microsoft has such a difficult time penetrating this community.
- rezx, on 11/30/2008, -0/+4but MS lately tried branding the pc word with I'm a PC" campaign..fascinating the ad wars really.
- jamesmcm, on 11/30/2008, -1/+5Why? Jabber(/GTalk) is much better - especially for business as you can host your own (local or external) private server. So it has less overhead and also supports better encryption. It also a fully open and so compatible standard and is free to implement.
The only reason I have to use MSN is because everyone else does and that's the story of pretty much all of MS's successes. - MacSuxWindozSux, on 11/30/2008, -0/+4No it's because all of their free services are provided begrudgingly. Everything always ends up being slightly less than what the competition is offering.
Gmail and Hotmail is a great example. With Gmail Google is always adding new features and features like smtp and forwarding have been there from the start. With Hotmail, Microsoft only gave people more than 2mb of space because of Gmail, and even then they delete you if you go inactive for a while. Features? the list is very short and it's not getting any longer.
Also they position and craft their services for an upsell, or to hook you in some way to force you to stay with them.
So if this is what free online services from MS is all about then now you know why they aren't doing so well. - iticu, on 11/30/2008, -2/+6How selfish can you be? The workers would be completely screwed over if Microsoft did something like that.
- gamebittk, on 11/30/2008, -5/+8Why would they give away their biggest revenue generator? They are already developing internet applications (like an online version of Office) that they plan on offering at no-cost.
- ZeeZee2k, on 11/30/2008, -4/+7To be fair, I prefer msn messenger over yahoo messenger or google's instant messenger (whatever it's called).
- duihomer, on 11/30/2008, -0/+3This little paragraph FTA sums it up for me nicely.
"It's quite possible that Microsoft is going after the Internet with too much energy - or at least attacking in too many directions. Rather than carve out some element of the web where it can shine, Microsoft pursues everything." - sammykeyes, on 11/30/2008, -1/+4Did someone say free?
http://download.live.com/ - FearlessFreep, on 11/30/2008, -7/+10"aggressively competitive" - Yes
"brainiac-attracting" - Not any more
"technologically superior" - Not hardly
"cash-gushingly profitable" - For now - Gizza, on 11/30/2008, -0/+3I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, but .NET and SQL Server are godsends for Windows developers.
- babar77, on 11/30/2008, -0/+3Because they didn't follow their business model and by Google search technology before they got too big.
Microsoft can't make money online because they haven't been in the innovation business for a long long time. And the start-ups on the internet realized they didn't need MS anymore to make money so they stopped selling out. - secrity, on 11/30/2008, -0/+3They bought Hotmail ...
- leamanc, on 11/30/2008, -0/+3Bill Gates said in '95 that the world wide web was just a passing fad. Granted, they later realized it wasn't and crushed Netscape using their monopoly power. But still, it goes to show that from the very beginning, Microsoft has failed to grasp the potential of the Internet. They can't make money online because all they can do is copy what other people have already done and try to leverage their massive market share to wipe out the competitors. The only problem is, in the 21st century less and less people are feeling bound to Microsoft and enjoy using the competition better.
- inactive, on 11/30/2008, -0/+3for 2000 bucks there better be some grade A porn being distributed too.
- inactive, on 11/30/2008, -2/+5pft, like you and one other guy know what MSDN is.
- Lunarbunny, on 11/30/2008, -0/+2I think they just suffer from too much "me too." Google does well on search...Microsoft tries to make a better search engine (Live Search), fails. Google does well in advertising...Microsoft tries to buy an online advertising company to get into the space as well.
- MattZed, on 11/30/2008, -1/+3You should try digsby or pidgin. They are both great apps and are far more functional than msn messenger.
I tried using msn messenger the other day and was pretty disappointed with the vanilla version. However, installing the mess.be patch and msgplus made my messenger experience quite nice. - jakem1, on 11/30/2008, -0/+2I agree with chriskeyes. Spam hasn't been a problem on Hotmail for a long time now.
The problem MS have is that their live offerings are a mess. They have a lot of potentially cool ideas (Live Mesh for instance) but there's no coherent strategy and too much overlap.
Hopefully the upcoming integration with Windows 7 will improve all this but they have a really long way to go IMO. Every now and then I try Live Search to see if it's improved and I'm afraid it hasn't. Everything from the layout to the quality of the results is just awful. Their image search could be cool but it's a bit slow. Live Maps is great but they totalled ***** that up in the UK and did some weird deal with MultiMap which is really horrible. -
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