29 replies to this topic

[Faken]

The wizards of Redmond turn thirty this year. Officially founded in 1976, Microsoft appears to have lost its edge as it enters its third full decade. At one time, not so long ago, Gates and Co. drove the machine, setting standards that everyone else conformed to. Virtually nothing could stand in their way and competitors who did seriously threaten their dominance could be effectively diminished in one way or another.

Microsoft's Mistakes Proving Costly
By: By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor at StepForth Placement Inc.

Over the past few years Microsoft has gotten slower. Key product releases have been delayed, upper-management has been reshuffled several times in two years, defining initiatives such as the .net strategy have been virtually abandoned and worst of all, Microsoft has lived in reaction mode for the better part of the 2Ks.

To complicate things, their chief rival, Google, opened the year by signing a last minute deal with AOL, one it suddenly snaked away from MSN Search. The company is not on the leading edge anymore and to a staff member, they know it.

At times it feels like they have adopted a "fake it till you make it" public face. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer parrot each other's speeches about facilitating the pending digital lifestyle while demonstrating product ideas that other firms have already developed. Both have been talking about "... beating Google in six months", for over a year now but the search division of Microsoft doesn't even seem capable of bettering itself. They are so scared of Google that both have stated they don't see Google as competition, and they still don't have a functional pay-per-click search advertising model.

They are trying to develop a new search engine in Windows Live. The product is in its beta phase and its interface feels experimental. One interesting personalization feature they are testing is user controlled search macro commands. Basically, users will be able to create personal information buttons that will be added to a search toolbar running across the top of the Windows Live screen. The buttons are used to narrow or focus search results, the example offered by MSN being actual recipes as opposed to results full of advertisements for cookbooks. A detailed explanation is provided at the MSN Search WebLog.

The future of Microsoft depends on the web. It can still exercise a great deal of power and influence by controlling the core operating system of most PC machines but the shell surrounding the OS has been breached by web-based services and software and Microsoft's long term dominance is obviously threatened.

The latest rollback on the delivery date of Vista, their first OS upgrade since XP, shows how difficult it is for Microsoft to evolve into an age when the desktop computer is reaching its obsolescence. First expected in early 2005, Vista, (formerly known as Longhorn), is now expected to be ready for release in January 2007, a full month after the Christmas season.

Microsoft earned everything it has today by establishing control over the basic user interface that everyone uses, the operating system of most PC computers. To observers, the development of its new one has spiraled out of control.

Pulling on its core historic strategy, the plan to deal with Google and Yahoo has been tied up in the OS. Microsoft wants to make the experience of working on one's desktop computer and across the greater Internet, or an internal Intranet, virtually seamless. Since late 2004, the plan was to bundle a number of web services into something they could control, the OS.

That is why Vista is such an important milestone for Microsoft and for the various industries that work around Microsoft's massive sphere of influence. Vista has been pushed back year after year and actually placed on Wired Magazine's list of vaporware products for 2004 and 2005. Computer makers and retailers most recently expected the product in November 2006.

The problem Microsoft faces moving towards that future, and the reason the Longhorn/Vista initiative has been so difficult is they have fallen behind the curve when it comes to servicing consumer expectations over the web. They have been a constant third in the race for search supremacy and frequently trail behind their rivals when it comes to introducing branded products typical consumers use over the web. That, in part, is because consumers are using the web differently than they use the XP driven computer they access the web on.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule that tend to fly below the radar screen of daily users. Windows Media Player is a good example. It works directly with online information sources to provide a richer multimedia experience. Users don't need to turn to Google to learn the recording date of the CD or to receive other information about a piece of media. It is simply provided by the product. Hundreds of millïons of people use the product everyday but few think about Microsoft while they do it. It is a subtle product that is taken as granted by North American XP users.

Other examples are abundant. When they do lead, as in the case with MSN Messenger, Windows Office, and other branded, daily use products, they simply don't generate the buzz that keeps consumers thinking about their products.

The problem for Microsoft, unfortunately, doesn't revolve around creating more buzz for their products. Their problem is that other companies are creating the products that people want to use.

While Windows Media Player is a multi-functional product, smaller digital music storage and replay devices have replaced its daily use. Google is poised to introduce an online word processing suite. Firefox has taken a significant share of the browser market.

The crux of the problem is that when servicing a general web based audience, the only large-scale profït model is found in advertising, not subscriptions or purchase pricing. If users aren't looking at a Windows Media Player screen when listening to their MP3s, they aren't looking at, or following up on any commercially sponsored information. Similarly, with Internet Explorer, users could be subtly directed towards other Microsoft products, properties and advertisers.

Microsoft has made some costly mistakes over the past few years. Its long-term dependence on the OS as the tool in its fight to dominate the online experience has put it behind its competitors in terms of product adoption and loyalty. The door is thus open and several other entities are walking into the room. Regardless of management shuffles and realignments, the delays of today will haunt Microsoft long into the future. The delay of Vista will have a palatable affect on PC salës over the Christmas season. Take your local PC dealer or manufacturer to supper sometime. He or she could probably use a good meal.

About The Author
Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and search engine marketing expert based in Victoria BC. Jim writes and edits full-time for StepForth and is also an editor for the Internet Search Engine Database. He has worked as an SEO for over 5 years and welcomes the opportunïty to share his experience through interviews, articles and speaking engagements. He can be reached at jimhedger (at) stepforth.com.

[SebLev]

after reading that my opinion is hte same..... i hate windows well not windows... microsoft.... lol

[AvengeX]

I think because of Microsoft's mistakes in the past few years, Apple will definitely be taking over slowly and subtly in the OS department. Maybe in 10 years we'll all be using the latest Mac OS?

I still think Microsoft is good, but loyalty and all the rest could be improved drastically.

[Matheus]

I think google is trying to make control of the market using simple and funcional programs like Gmail, GoogleTalk and GoogleEarth

Take the exemple of GoogleTalk:
MSN is full of emoticons, icons, smiles, winks, backgrounds, avatars, sounds and stuff... GoogleTalk is has an simple and clean interface with only then basic of an instant messenger and has a microphone-talk toll. Its simple, good, fast...

Also, they're products are worse than the others... see Internet Explorer: it doesn't see PNG transparency, making alot of websites unviewble... Firefox does so... which one is better?

[Dirtnap]

If every one is using the latest MacOS in ten years I'll eat my own face.

Firefox is not that great either, the .png thing is a mute point really becuase webmastered in my view should not use them.

[CoryMathews]

i look at it like this, when i think of microsoft i think of 3 things. i think of windows, word, and bill gates. i dont think of internet explorer. i dont think of anything else. If i was microsoft i wouldnt worry about anything but my operating system and my microsoft office programs. i wouldnt push internet explorer. there are other browsers out there they could make a deal with ff or opera or some other browser. their ie isnt making them much money. Its their op and office programs that are. And now on to the guys article. he talks about how bad it was of microsoft to keep pushing back their products but would you want to buy an uncompleted os? i sure wouldnt. i would rather wait a while longer and it be stable and ready. and when he went off on the media player not having ads. if it did i wouldnt use it any more would any of you? i personally think microsoft is doing fine and even though they are somewhat slow on releases and whatever other problems are happening. i personally dont see bill gates letting him company go down the drain before he dies. Hes one hell of a businessman and im sure he will pull them out.

[Donna]

Tend to agree with you Cory, plus MS is not going to loose out especially now you can install windows on Macs and many are so that's more profit to MS

I use IE/Microsoft Office and windows XP Home and Pro and their products have kept me happy for more than 10yrs, we all know there is other stuff around but that's only personal choices in what we all choose to use on our systems just like some use Photoshop others use Corel 2 different tools same results etc.

Great article but I don't feel they are costly mistakes.

[blainex]

So it all comes down to: Microsoft rocks since have the world use them i for one well never stop using windows:)

[Matheus]

If every one is using the latest MacOS in ten years I'll eat my own face.

Firefox is not that great either, the .png thing is a mute point really becuase webmastered in my view should not use them.

well, PNG is currently, the best image format.

but, forget PNG for websites, FLASH is the best for making websites
the design that you can do using FLASH is somehting amazing

and I think people will use MAC isted of windows becouse of the design (EXTREMLY better) and the funcional, making things more simple ..

but its a matter of taste anyway

[Barkeeper]

i look at it like this, when i think of microsoft i think of 3 things. i think of windows, word, and bill gates. i dont think of internet explorer. i dont think of anything else. If i was microsoft i wouldnt worry about anything but my operating system and my microsoft office programs. i wouldnt push internet explorer. there are other browsers out there they could make a deal with ff or opera or some other browser. their ie isnt making them much money.

Exactly, IE should be like a program that comes standard with Windows ( As it does now ) just to browse the internet. If you want more functions you could decide to switch to a more advanced ( > Functions etc. ) browser like Firefox, Opera etc.

Something similiar could be for Windows Media Player. They where in the news last year ( Or 2004, not sure ) because WMP is delivered 'pre-installed' with Windows. They shouldn't give such programs a big role and focus more on the programs they are well known for or test out new ideas like they are doing with Windows Live now.

[NGPixel]

well, PNG is currently, the best image format.

but, forget PNG for websites, FLASH is the best for making websites
the design that you can do using FLASH is somehting amazing

and I think people will use MAC isted of windows becouse of the design (EXTREMLY better) and the funcional, making things more simple ..

but its a matter of taste anyway

Correction:
- BMP is the best image format (in terms of image quality), but you won't use PNG or BMP in websites anyway. Never seen a website that actually use PNG as their template images... Have you?

I don't agree with the 2 last things as well, Flash shouldn't be used for a complete website (unless your a design studio). It might be amazing for the animations and all, but definitly not optimized and most of them are just annoying to navigate...

Design is not actually a good reason why people should use Mac (and functionalilty? About 95% of the software are not working on Mac, where's the functionality there?). Also, in reply to AvengeX, remember that Apple has only 5% of the OS market. Converting to another system is usually complex (especially for companies) so i don't think we are going to see much more Apple users in the future. Apple is there to keep Microsoft on track

[Matheus]

well
a .PNG and .SVG suports 32bits and 8bit alpha channel, and thats a great advantage, you can make awsome designs using that, belive me.
flash does it too

so, if you want to make a non-flash website with goodlooks, PNG is a good choice... too bad it will show without the transparency in IE. GIF is suportable for IE, but it doesn't have 8bit alpha, witch makes GIF a poor format.

it would be better if browsers could suport SVG without having to install the plugin...

anyway people, if we want to advance to the next level, we need to start thinking bigger: forget GIF and plain graphics wihtout AA transparency... the future has 8bit alpha hehehehe... even 3D graphics now are getting it, and I'm not talking about 3D videos or animations, I'm talking about games in real time!

[AnDy89]

well
a .PNG and .SVG suports 32bits and 8bit alpha channel, and thats a great advantage, you can make awsome designs using that, belive me.
flash does it too

so, if you want to make a non-flash website with goodlooks, PNG is a good choice... too bad it will show without the transparency in IE. GIF is suportable for IE, but it doesn't have 8bit alpha, witch makes GIF a poor format.

it would be better if browsers could suport SVG without having to install the plugin...

anyway people, if we want to advance to the next level, we need to start thinking bigger: forget GIF and plain graphics wihtout AA transparency... the future has 8bit alpha hehehehe... even 3D graphics now are getting it, and I'm not talking about 3D videos or animations, I'm talking about games in real time!

Does the look of a website really matter that much? Would you return to a website over and over for its look? I don't think so. Web standards are advancing right now.

When wise people make a website they make it fast loading, SEO and content easy to read. .PNGs are not required for this and that those 3 are all that are required to make a decent website.

>> They are so scared of Google that both have stated they don't see Google as competition, and they still don't have a functional pay-per-click search advertising model.

And Google still don't have an OS, decent IM program, an easy to navigate website, the shear size that it has been forced to create sub-companies by law.

Microsoft is doing just fine, if anyone should be worried its Google. The more they advance into commerical products the more backing they will lose.

I do not personally know anyone that cares what software they use, as long as it is easy to use. So on a large scale people couldn't care about Google as its not getting its services beyond a search engine through to most people. I find google's new services through forums, not that many people actually visit forums.

Microsoft has a strong grip on the common market while google has the 'computer elite' if anything.

[faulk]

It is clearly evident that MS has made some costly mistakes in the past 10 years or so. There was a time when MS had little to no competition in their market. Why? Because they were practically a monopoly. Apple wasn't turning out much and what other splendid options did users have to browse the net. We had Netscape... enough said. Unfortunately for MS, the industry has caught up in their time of lacking efficiency and now it is a struggle to stay in first place when before there was hardly anyone running the race with them.

I'm pretty fed up with MS even though I use XP. I have also used Mac OS X and Linux but I don't feel as comfortable on them as I do on Windows, probably because I have grown up with Windows. This would probably be the same for many other users. I've been dedicated to MS for so long (not by choice really) that making a switch to a new OS is almost out of the question. Heck, it took me awhile just to switch to Firefox.

And for everyone who's talking about PNG this and IE that, just think about the browser wars; it's still going on and I don't think it will ever resolve itself. A good designer can find alternatives to such problems.

[Hit3k]

Wow.. I'm surprised to see noone has mention Linux or FreeBSD its not just Apple Vs Microsoft Microsoft is always making mistakes and half the time the updates only slow your computer down more. Vista is looking good I'll admit that but I'd rather switch to Mac instead of installing it. Its been delayed too much. If anyone is using Microsoft Products in about 10 years I'll eat my hat. Even Apple has started using a FreeBSD core in their Operating System. I'm sure people wouldn't notice the diffrence if Windows started using a *nix core. IMO windows is getting bulky and thats it. Only people who want to upgrade to 2Gb Ram 3Ghz CPUs and 512Mb Graphic Cards are gonna unlock Vistas full potential

[Imperial GFX]

I don't even like Google. I don't like to search in it, since half the time I don't get decent results, and even then sometimes the links are out of date or something. I prefer using Vivisimo or an engine like that.. Google does have a long way to go yet in my eyes, but I'm a newb to this kind of stuff so don't quote me on this.

Microsoft isn't in deep, deep trouble, at least in my eyes as far as AOL/Google.. it has some nice features and games (I'm strangely addicted to Zoo Tycoon) and so it gains an edge in that category. But that's not what we're talking about.. I mean really, I used AOL for maybe three weeks and didn't like it despite the tabbed browsing thing (I had AOL Explorer, I installed it) because it screwed up my computer and I'd have to restart it over and over again.

Now, Apple is really picking up speed. I'm like the only one in my whole class who doesn't use Apple. With the rise of iPods I think Apple has been even more popular.. but my school's computers still run XP.

I'm pretty fed up with MS even though I use XP. I have also used Mac OS X and Linux but I don't feel as comfortable on them as I do on Windows, probably because I have grown up with Windows. This would probably be the same for many other users. I've been dedicated to MS for so long (not by choice really) that making a switch to a new OS is almost out of the question. Heck, it took me awhile just to switch to Firefox.

Very good point there.. I didn't even think about switching operating systems.. it seems like Microsoft was the standard, but now I'm starting to see other views, too.

So yeah.. don't think I consider myself an expert, but that's my view.

[gotfrap?]

I'll go with Mac OSX. I have tryed and used both for sometime...and I go with the Mac. Windows Xp is not as advanced as Mac OSX, and everything aobut Apple is great.

[Matheus]

haha, when I posted in this topic I was so noob in webdesgin

[Dark]

In short there are things you can do on windows and cant on other OSs and vice versa. And as someone said its down to personal choice.
Also Microsoft wont be out of the picture for a while to come, sure they made mistakes but everyone does. Also they have some of the smartest people working for them so i wouldnt be suprised if it all changed to MSs favor.
The one argument i always see for people slating microsoft is viruses/unstability.
Now i've used XP home and Pro since they were released, and not once have i experienced any issues, other than ones i've caused.
Infact i've never seen had a BSOD other than pictures.

From the above rant you'll all be thinking i'm a MS fan, infact personally i actually dont like Microsoft. I prefer the open-source logic and Linux just because i enjoy learning new things, instead of having flashy buttons labeled next that i click.
Oh and Macs i dont actually see the big hype, dont mind them just dont see, whats so good about it?

Edited by Dark, 02 August 2006 - 03:28 PM.