It takes a lot to dismantle an Empire

TalkBack 3 of 20:: Next »; « Previous

Thread View
Flat View

MS has lots going for it: Some of MS's strengths:

1. MS doesn't tend to drop the ball (though sometimes it isn't firmly in its hands). Many companies (Digital Research, IBM, Apple) have dropped the ball, allowing MS to keep steadily moving ahead.

2. MS has lots of major product lines and does a LOT of research. This mitigates against downturns in the market for some of its products, through bad decisions or external factors. Letting one ball get loosely held does not affect its grip on the others. The research keeps its hands on the future.
Many pronounce Vista as a failure, but MS still SOLD an XP for every Vista that wasn't bought AND laid the foundation for W7 - their net investment is still paying off.

3. MS maintains long support times for its products and high backward compatibility. That keeps its large customers and development ecosystem on side and loyal.

4. MS builds infrastructure and gets lots of others on board. This philosophy turned VB into the most popular programming language. It's OSs and many tools are the core of many companies software platforms. It has made itself almost indispensible.

5. MS is largely business focussed. Businesses have longer cycles on which they work. They do not require the latest, but they do require the support in the form of information and tools. Many other computer companies are consumer focussed or are in highly competitive areas, requiring short development cycles to stay viable and exposing them to higher risk.

6. MS tends to focus on the pragmatic rather the the ideal and thus helps its customers deal with their real needs.
The web browser area illustrates this. Standards are not a high priority for businesses - they require the tools that enable enterprise-wide control. IE IS already a de facto standard (though becoming less so - but perhaps only because MS is finally moving along, mostly as a result of competition). MS is providing a compatibility mode, which seems the obvious path now, but none of the other makers did it, peferring to stick to a 'standards or nothing' approach, that, while providing a differentiation from IE for volatile consumers, did nothing to help businesses make the transition to those standards.

Of course all these were part of the Gates philosophy. It will be interesting to see what happens from now on. HP certainly veered away from the philosophy of Hewlett and Packard after their rule.; Posted by: Patanjali Posted on: 01/05/09 (Edited: 01/05/2009 @ 11:20) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use