Originally Posted by
Quadra 610 
In terms of Kinect, has it ever occurred to anyone here that Apple simply
didn't want or care enough about it to make an effort to get it? There's nothing preventing Apple from negotiating with anyone if they feel it's worth it. You don't need to be a Silicon Valley insider to know that when Apple sees something they think is great, that they can develop and implement in just the right manner, they're all over it. As we know, Apple is quite conservative with their spending and they're much more apt to say no than yes to a lot of things.
It's nonsensical to believe that the Apple of 2010, with $50 billion+ in cash can't acquire technology they're dying to get. It might be a good idea to ask Apple about it, rather than assume what this guy is saying (especially *after* MS made him wealthy) is accurate. It makes for interesting PR to say (after the fact) that the people who turned him down did so out of ignorance or blindness/lack of vision or because they "didn't believe in [me] him." If any company today has vision and forward-thinking in abundance, it's Apple.
I'd be interested to hear Apple's reasons.
Gotta disagree somewhat, Sol.
Windows + Office sales is NOT a long-term strategy.
Glad to see everyone upgraded from the Vista nightmare and that Enterprise sales were very profitable - which is really where MS belongs. In the office.
The fact that MS' old stand-bys were once again their main source of revenue is probably the most discouraging piece of news about MS in months. It's pretty sad. It's the good old upgrade cycle. Windows and Office. It's been Windows and Office for years now. Which is why they're so easily embarrassed in key forward-looking markets by a smaller, faster (MUCH faster) and more innovative competitor.
Apple has beaten MS in market cap. Apple has just beaten MS in revenue, first time ever (in one of Apple's traditionally weak quarters... Christmas is bigger.)
The above targets were somethings critics said COULD NEVER happen.
But it DID happen. Because the aging Office-Windows-Windows Server applications stack is declining in relevance before cloud-connected mobile devices.
Microsoft's major revenue streams today are pretty much what they were a decade ago: Office and Windows. If you compare this to Apple, in 2000 the Mac was Apple's major (and pretty much only) revenue stream. They then came to dominate several markets - mp3 players, digital music sales, mobile applications stores, succeeding wildly with smartphones and now media tablets. Microsoft's challenge moving into the next year is to expand into mobile in meaningful way (already late and offering nothing very special), mobile gaming, cloud services, etc.
The traditional PC is dying and MS has no answer to it. Cheap netbooks running a crippled version of Windows is not an answer. Trying to shove full Windows onto Microsoft's bad slate experiments is also not an answer.
In short, Apple has reinvented its business (successively) and profited, Microsoft has not.
MS has made little to no money from the consumer markets that matter the most today and which are the ones ready for explosive growth - the one's which Apple is already near-dominant in. In short, aside from what little they made from the Xbox, MS made all its money from the
wrong things.
Apple is the one ushering in a New Age of computing. MS is not. OS X Lion brings iOS to the Mac as well as an entirely new software distribution channel for "computers." Apple is blurring the lines between the "computer" and the touch-enabled mobile device. OS X Lion will redefine the "operating system" as we know it (iOS already has, actually.) Think Macbook Air/iPad + OS X Lion + App Store is the future of "computing." MS is so far behind on this one it isn't even funny.
It's a sign of what's to come. MS can easily have a record quarter with Windows upgrades and Office sales - often sales by default, a nice chunk of that comes from the enterprise. This is what has always happened. And MS has in recent years *always* ended up paying dearly for it when it came to competing in markets that mattered (the one's Apple is in.) And it's caught up with them: it's a different ballgame when Apple outdoes them in revenue and leaves them in the dust in market cap.
The best news for MS would have been a decline due to lagging Windows sales. This might have awakened them to the reality that Apple is eating their lunch - not just today's, but tomorrow's as well. Instead the Licensing Cash Cow gives a little more milk (more like one last, big spurt before keeling over) and Ballmer proclaims publicly "The PC isn't dead!"
Yes Steve, it is. In two years you'll be gone, Windows Phone 7 (more like '07) having failed, and MS will be that much further in Apple's rear-view mirror. The sad part is you and your investors have (as usual) been lulled into thinking all is well after all. But it 'aint.
