Microsoft chairman Bill gates is retiring today. It would be cliche to say that an era is coming to end. Microsoft and Bill Gates generates extreme reactions. One section revers him as almost equalling him to God and the other section crucifies him as an evil. While both are extremes, one has to just wonder how as a company Microsoft could survive let alone dominate for such a long time. Is it because of smart business acumen, visionary marketing might or just plain sheer luck ? No doubt they are the smartest business people but if at all they have to give credit for their success they must first give it to their competitors. It is the incompetency of the competitors that made Microsoft such a big giant.
See the facts - they didn't invent any (D)OS, GUI operating system was in vogue in Apple long back, spread sheet, word processor, browser ....all the applications are developed by somebody else first. In fact world had a better OS than Windows even 30 years back - bug free, virus free and even FREE of money. Smart marketing by M$ or bad marketing by others ? In fact at one point of time M$ even had the audacity to charge customers for seeing its ads (for its Widows 95 commercials !!). Apple and Sun always had much better and stable products ....
M$ had its share of friends too and what a friendship it is .......they worked for M$ without getting salary from M$ ...it is like all the salesmen of Intel, Dell, Compaq, HP etc.. etc.. worked for M$ but got salary from their respective companies. Growth of these companies fuelled MS's growth and along with, its office suite and allied applications.
Only the advent of Internet, Linux & open source initiatives and the Java phenomenon could stunt the growth of Microsoft. Otherwise it could have been a behemoth of unimaginable proportions ...
Like all fairy tales the story has to end some day ....difficult days ahead for Steve Ballmer and co .. Vista has flopped ...Yahoo deal failed ...(even if its through it would have been a hopeless deal as Google still dominates the online ad space almost monopolistically) ...Almost a no show in the PMP (IPOD) segment (its Zune pales in comparison with iphone/ipod's) .....Google, Apple, Amazon leads in the "cloud computing" - the new buzzword, more and more credible open-source initiatives - all these are adding pressure to M$. Apart from this it has to battle the rejuvenated Apple (wiser after the years) and the new kid Google - and not to forget the old rival - Sun. Or so we think ??
In the increasingly (digital) convergent and mobile world it is difficult to predict who is going to the prime mover - competition comes from many areas - Google, Apple, Nokia, Sony, Amazon, Sun ...all has potential to dethrone the reigning king. Personally I would rate the first two as the forerunners to the throne.
See the facts - they didn't invent any (D)OS, GUI operating system was in vogue in Apple long back, spread sheet, word processor, browser ....all the applications are developed by somebody else first. In fact world had a better OS than Windows even 30 years back - bug free, virus free and even FREE of money. Smart marketing by M$ or bad marketing by others ? In fact at one point of time M$ even had the audacity to charge customers for seeing its ads (for its Widows 95 commercials !!). Apple and Sun always had much better and stable products ....
M$ had its share of friends too and what a friendship it is .......they worked for M$ without getting salary from M$ ...it is like all the salesmen of Intel, Dell, Compaq, HP etc.. etc.. worked for M$ but got salary from their respective companies. Growth of these companies fuelled MS's growth and along with, its office suite and allied applications.
Only the advent of Internet, Linux & open source initiatives and the Java phenomenon could stunt the growth of Microsoft. Otherwise it could have been a behemoth of unimaginable proportions ...
Like all fairy tales the story has to end some day ....difficult days ahead for Steve Ballmer and co .. Vista has flopped ...Yahoo deal failed ...(even if its through it would have been a hopeless deal as Google still dominates the online ad space almost monopolistically) ...Almost a no show in the PMP (IPOD) segment (its Zune pales in comparison with iphone/ipod's) .....Google, Apple, Amazon leads in the "cloud computing" - the new buzzword, more and more credible open-source initiatives - all these are adding pressure to M$. Apart from this it has to battle the rejuvenated Apple (wiser after the years) and the new kid Google - and not to forget the old rival - Sun. Or so we think ??
In the increasingly (digital) convergent and mobile world it is difficult to predict who is going to the prime mover - competition comes from many areas - Google, Apple, Nokia, Sony, Amazon, Sun ...all has potential to dethrone the reigning king. Personally I would rate the first two as the forerunners to the throne.
