R.I.P Microsoft?

ABCnews ^ | 2.10.05 | MICHAEL S. MALONE

[Peelod]

... The health of established firms, especially great ones, is more difficult to diagnose. The balance sheet can give some clues, but, because it captures the recent past rather than the near future, it can fool you. Most veteran reporters look at more subtle clues, like the comings and goings of key employees, slippage in the release dates of new products (or missing features), and subtle shifts in the tone of company news releases, advertisements and executive speeches.

But most of all, at least for me, there is the smell test: the faintest whiff of decay that comes from dying companies. ...

[Peelod]

Sic transit gloria mundi

[Always Right]

I would bet on R.I.P for ABC much sooner.

[martin_fierro]

John Dvorak, PC Magazine, July 2004:

The company [Microsoft] is already saving a tremendous amount of money by offshoring jobs and using cheap H1-B visa holders for U.S. jobs. This is well documented. So what does Microsoft do with the profits besides bank them? It talks a big game about R&D but its most mundane product, the Internet Explorer browser, is full of holes and is essentially a bunch of cobbled-together old code. Here's an interesting exercise for you: Open Internet Explorer. Go to Help, then About, and you'll see that Microsoft still acknowledges that Internet Explorer is the old Spyglass browser based on Mosaic. This was thrown together years ago. Then look at the copyright notice. It ends in 2001. Unless I'm mistaken, that means that there has been no real update since then, just patches. To get a bigger laugh, click on Acknowledgements and see how long you can endure the laundry list of people who worked on the code. It's as if the entire state of Washington did some coding. Why?

The fact is this software, which has been mostly stagnant since the marginalization of Netscape, is just coasting. So where is all the R&D? I don't see it. In fact, I see the entire company coasting along making more and more money with possibly one concept ahead: to close down.

[KoRn]

Terrific article.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Yeah, whatever did happen to Longhorn?

[JoJo Gunn]

Also here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1340996/posts

[datura]

My Beta testing friends are all doing 64 bit stuff for Microsoft, no 32 bit anything coming down the pipe.

Sure glad I built this twin P4 Xeon instead of going with the Opteron. DOH!!

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

I wouldn't write off MS just yet. After all, they have traditionally been kings of the vaporware market.

[E=MC²]

John Dvorak's track record for predicting the future has been abysmal. The next Microsoft OS (Longhorn) is due for release in 2006, I believe.

[bgnn32]

Longhorn being behind schedule is nothing new, I can't think of a Microsoft O/S that wasn't behind schedule. I have had oppoutunies to play with some of the beta stuff for longhorn and it is pretty cool, but more bells and whistles than actual O/S upgrades.

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

Microsoft said the Longhorn beta No. 1 will be out this late spring. Have fun!

[Peelod]

Sorry for the dupe.

Please post at the precedent thread.

[kimosabe31]

bump

[kimosabe31]

bump

[1stFreedom]

IMO, Apple has a window of opportunity to steal the HOME/ENTERTAINMENT market from MS the way DOS stole it from CP/M.

Corporate America is another issue, as it isn't going to change hordes of Win apps to OSX. However, the fact that many apps have been migrating/migrated to browser apps could mean that in a few years it will be a possibility.

But for the home market, it's Apple's to lose at this point. They have the momentum, but let's see if they have the marketing strategy.

Can they do it? Yes, especially if they are willing to take a loss on the Imac mini and drop the price to $300. They'll gain in the long run via more Mac users, an increased software base, and branding.

The other option Apple has to take the market is to come out with an Ipod based upon the Imac. Same size as the full size Ipod, but with a Imac on a chip, three USB ports, and a monitor port. Imagine a convergence of Ipod and IMac -- everywhere you take your tunes, you'd be taking a full fledged Imac.

That would take the market by storm....(Imagine Imac-Ipod lan parties!)

Time will tell. My bet is that Apple won't do it, but they will make a good dent in the market.

[ohCompGk]

Does anyone out there love MSN? I doubt it; it seems to share AOL's fate of being disliked but not hated enough to change your e-mail account.

No, but the die-hards that will keep it floating are the ones that gather around the OS. There are as many (maybe more) MS die-hards out there as there are Linux die-hards. They will surely prop up the company longer than it's fiscally responsible for them to do so. Kinda like the Unix die-hards are now.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

The beta will be out by this summer.

[isom35]

I'll bet it will be bug-free! no patches needed!

[Wacka]

Yeah, whatever did happen to Longhorn?

Mac OSX.4 is coming out this summer!

[LibFreeOrDie]

"Mac OSX.4 is coming out this summer!"

Excellent!!