Cover of Patton [Blu-ray
In the closing scene of the movie “Patton”, the war had ended and the General is seen walking in the mountains of Austria. A voice-over notes, "All glory is fleeting." Such was the case with Polaroid. Ignoring the potential of its incredible mechanical engineering team, management kept saying, “We’re a great camera company.” And, such was the case with Research In Motion. The firm absolutely missed the boat in the evolving smartphone market as it clung to its former glory.
So it seems that Microsoft clings to the former glory of Windows in a post-PC era. “Windows got us here. How do we keep it relevant?” The company seems hell-bent on misallocating resources in an effort to defend increasingly irrelevant Fortress Windows and Fortress Office.
As computing went mobile, Microsoft repeatedly attempted to bring Windows to the mobile space and utterly failed. Its strategy seemed to emulate President Johnson’s failed “graduated response” strategy in Viet Nam. Yet, Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS went from zero to dominance in a mere two years. Statistics show that the Windows Mobile market share never really got off the ground and is declining. Whatever happened, the consumer has spoken.
In “me too” fashion, Microsoft is now rolling out a tablet computer – just slightly larger than Apple’s iPad – with a keyboard and pen. It seems not much different from a small laptop with a detached keyboard. It is to include the Office software suite, as well. It is hard to see the innovation. And, it is hard to imagine a fate for it different from Hewlett Packard’s TouchPad.
What is easy to imagine is Google and Apple teaming up with Oracle to deliver a new office suite standard. As some might remember, Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, which offered the free Open Office suite of productivity applications. With a little collaboration, the three could port the software to the Android OS and iOS platforms and bring true irrelevance to Microsoft’s Office.
Microsoft needs to redirect its resources to areas of innovation within the company. What is Steve Ballmer thinking?
