"Although Bill Gates stepped away from his day-to-day role at Microsoft nearly five years ago, he still keeps a close eye on the company he co-founded - and he isn't always happy with what he sees. During a recent interview broadcast this morning on CBS This Morning, the Microsoft chairman was asked by Charlie Rose whether he was happy with Steve Ballmer's performance as chief executive. Noting that there have been 'many amazing things' accomplished under Ballmer's leadership in the past couple of years, Gates said he was not satisfied with the company's innovations." It's impossible to deny by this point that Microsoft hasn't done well in mobile. It would be more surprising if Gates had denied it.
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Member since:2008-09-21
On consoles is just not a total disaster thanks to Sony's customer punishment. XBox still has a long way to go to break even and bring back all the money home it took to get it into market.
Same cash-throw strategy failed to work for Bing and WP cause competition isn't as stupid as Sony there.
And competition comes. Chromebook and Android, Valve game consoles just started.
Member since:2005-11-29
The Xbox isn't about making money. Its about having influence in the living room.
That you can't see that is very telling. Microsoft is now in the best position it can possibly be in for conquering the living room, the TV is the next stage for the war of ecosystems and no one is better off than MS.
Even Apple is itching to get into this space. Microsoft was way way ahead of the curve with IPTV and what they've done with mindshare, turn people's perceptions of an Xbox from a Console to an Entertainment Hub is important in their next step to this end.
If Microsoft can keep their execution up, keep landing content deals, then the living room is theirs (that was after all, the entire reason for Microsoft even launching a console)
Keep in mind that consoles are a cutthroat market with razor thin margins. Its never been about gaming influence as much as its been about maintaining Windows and pushing Windows into the living room.
Its also had a halo effect in keeping DirectX relevant via the Xbox 360. Ensuring that the majority of games that used OpenGL were slow ports was a huge victory for them when it comes to changing developer hearts and minds.
Bing is actually doing well, and moving to do better, and I think this is one area of Microsoft where the pace of innovation is high. Bing has come a long way and it is extremely well managed. They just need to make a bet on a larger scale.
Bing is the other half of a one two punch for entertainment. I'm actually very bullish on Bing, this is one sector where they have nowhere to go but up, and have been doing so at a good pace.
Member since:2011-05-19
Microsoft net income for fiscal year:
2006: $12.6 billion
2007: $14.06 billion
2008: $17.68 billion
2009: $14.57 billion
2010: $18.76 billion
2011: $23.15 billion
2012: $23.18 billion (excluding aQuantive writedown)
Tech is a peculiar industry, in which a 65% increase in earnings over 6 six years is considered "not much better." If we're not seeing a hockey stick, then we think a company is about to go bankrupt.
Edited 2013-02-19 18:00 UTC
Member since:2008-09-11
Member since:
2008-09-11
Microsoft are not fading away. They are just as successful as before when it comes to desktop, mobile and server market share.
On desktop they do great, on mobile devices very poor, on consoles they do great, on servers and data center they do an average job and when it comes to cloud, they do average.
They aren't doing much better than 3 or 3 or 5 years ago, but they aren't doing worse either. That's not fading away, that's just stagnation.
And if Bill isn't happy, why the heck doesn't he push for a new management? And try to hire guys with visions and ideas not just technically skilled guys.
Look at Google, damn it! I did a set of Google interviews and I know what kind of people do they seek and how they manage the employees, how they assign and evaluate work, how is to work at Google. Microsoft is just too rigid, inflexible, frozen in a stiff corporate mentality. If Eric Schmidt will ever be in search for a job, they should hire him.