aardivark

Microsoft: Whistling in the Dark

Apple is fighting a generational war and it is winning. The blueprint was laid out by Toyota when it stalked GM for 30+ years. Target the younger demographic and keep catering to them until they reach their prime income-earning years. By that time they will be populating corporate America and will be driving purchasing decisions.

Microsoft is not a technology company. It's primary skill is not in the design of software, neither is it in marketing said (crappy) software. Microsoft's primary skill is in the acquisition, perpetuation and extension of monopoly power through shrewd contracting, timely acquisition of crucial products and technologies, and downright coercion. That they are in the software business is an accident of history. Software just proved to be, at that moment in history, the industry most conducive to monopolization. A century ago, the perch held by Microsoft as the hegemonistic monopolist was held by Standard Oil.

And like Standard Oil, Microsoft's monopoly will persist only if the feds look the other way and let them get away with illegal acts.

Microsoft: Whistling in the Dark

What a dumb post. GM used to have a dominant position in the auto market too. Once upon a time all cash registers were made by NCR.


On Aug 13 01:00 PM jack dee wrote:

>
>
> Windows has 95% of the global market
>
> Apple has a little less than 4%.
>
> THese are simply the facts , all of the big market watchers agree
> with these numbers.
>
> (prove me wrong with a link to CURRENT global stats, and no silly
> metrics from fan sites. ).
>
>
> Now sorry I know you apple fanboys get all cranky when someone posts
> the FACTS, but remember most people on the planet dont even know
> apple exists.
>
> windows is deeply entrenched , and is only getting deeper, Azure
> xbox win7 office servers all look great.

A Convert to the Cult of iPhone

Closed is always better for highly complex consumer products.

Windows is open only as an accident of history. If IBM had an exclusive deal on DOS the IBM PC would probably still be a closed system today. Windows is open only because 1) IBM unknowingly gave up the farm to Bill Gates and 2) to capitalize on IBMS gaff, Microsoft had to grow the clone PC market really fast and they did not have the resources or expertise to build their own hardware business.

As the poster boy for open systems on complex consumer products, I offer you desktop Linux. What could be more open than Linux? What could be a bigger dud given the hype than Linux for consumer desktop use?

Is User Apathy About Smartphones Becoming Apparent?

You nailed it right on the head, people who own Nokias and SonyEricssons aren't interested in the 'smart' capabilities of their 'smartphones'. --Because they are excruciatingly painful to use! On the other hand iPhone owners, over other smartphone owners, are disproportionately accessing the internet. Most of them weren't doing that until they got the iPhone. It's the convenience baby, most people think they can do without mobile internet until they get an iPhone then they're hooked.

iPhone (Apple) vs. BlackBerry (RIM): Which Do Consumers Love Most?

RIMM is the stock du jour for the streetwise who bought low, are drumming up excitement and will soon cash out right before the amateurs realize that RIM has no proved capabilities beyond making push e-mail devices, has no proved experience selling to the consumer, has no room for growth once it saturates the push e-mail device market, and has just been place squarely in Apple's crosshairs. To use what has become a popular metaphor, RIMM and RIMM investors are in a Wiley Coyote moment where they've already run past the cliff edge but they haven't realized it yet and they are about to plunge to earth once they scan their immediate environs.

On Yahoo/ Microsoft: Jerry Yang Should Be Fired

Umm, if Yang deserves to be fired, then Steve Hamlet Ballmer deserves to have his a** kicked to the next planet. He got totally outplayed in this. Again, it's been laid bare that Hamlet Ballmer HAS NO CLEAR VISION where he wants to take Msft. First Y! was crucial to their future, then it's not. I bet he was just so glad that Yang gave him the excuse to walk away from this deal which was thoroughly ill-conceived in the first place. That's the one smart thing that he'll ever have done as MS CEO.

I ask again, other than be Bill Gates' college buddy, what has Steve Ballmer ever done that qualifies him for his current job?

Microsoft Should Fire Steve Ballmer, or Hire SuperNanny. Or Both.

So are people finally beginning to figure out that Steve Ballmer's only qualification for his current job is that he was Bill Gates' college buddy?

Dell Is Dead Money at Best - Barron's

Dell is living proof that you cannot be in the high tech business if you hate spending real money on R&D. That they even thought you can do that and survive long term is mind-boggling.

What It Would Take To Fix Microsoft For Me

The software division should be further split into two independent companies: operating systems and applications.