Regardless of whether Apple is interested in disrupting MS Office or not -- it's happening.
This is the same kind of thinking you can see Ballmer engaged in in the iPhone video above.
"We have great Windows Mobile devices... it'll do music, it'll do Internet, it's do email, it'll do instant messaging... I like our strategy"
The mistake Ballmer made was thinking only in abstract functionality and not looking at the actual product, and the actual iPhone was 10x better than his.
You also speak in abstract functionality, such as iWork working on the web, being distributed to many people via iDevices, etc - but don't look at the actual product. Pages and Numbers are just awful. Keynote alone is decent.
We have been Windows/Office free for 3 years -- no longer even have Parallels.
My daughter teaches classes at her church, is a soccer mom, usually a team mom, etc. Three teenagers 2 High school, 1 Middle school. All their reports, etc. are done on iWork... on their iPads and/or on an iMac (3 in household).
I am retired, but used office for years (since Multiplan). I find that every "Office" thing we need to do is doable with iWork.
I maintain that iWork is easier to learn, to use and more productive for the new and average user -- no digging through layers of bloat.
Microsoft's biggest hits during the Ballmer era were all legacy products: desktop / laptop OS-es and apps, and complex and expensive game consoles. Xbox One won't be enough to give Microsoft any lasting success in the post-PC era. Because it's not mobile.
This is the same kind of thinking you can see Ballmer engaged in in the iPhone video above.
"We have great Windows Mobile devices... it'll do music, it'll do Internet, it's do email, it'll do instant messaging... I like our strategy"
The mistake Ballmer made was thinking only in abstract functionality and not looking at the actual product, and the actual iPhone was 10x better than his.
You also speak in abstract functionality, such as iWork working on the web, being distributed to many people via iDevices, etc - but don't look at the actual product. Pages and Numbers are just awful. Keynote alone is decent.
I have to disagree about Pages, it's great for 90% of people. Not so great for the 10% who need special features. Number is indeed awful. I would say Keynote is a lot better than just decent.
Wow, I didn't realize imagining someone having a heart attack and dying was a cool thing to post.
Sorry, it's just on my mind I guess. There are lots of guys retiring where I work and quite a lot of them are dead soon after. Sad reality.
Balmer's entire working life has been Microsoft, and regardless of what we think of his performance, he's given 110% the whole time. What is his purpose when he retires? He's the exact kind of guy that this sort of thing happens to. I kind of hope they give him some kind of role at the company or a seat on the board for that reason as I don't really wish him ill. But I'm thinking they won't.
What experience does he have running a company as large as Microsoft? And why would Microsoft hire as CEO someone who only a year ago was fired from Apple?
What experience does he have running a company as large as Microsoft? And why would Microsoft hire as CEO someone who only a year ago was fired from Apple?
Actually, I don't think Microsoft ever followed what Apple was doing. Instead, they made a half-hearted attempt to copy some of Apple's PRODUCTS, but that's not the key to Apple's success. IOW, the problem was in execution, not in the strategy of learning from Apple. [...]
Agree. (Mostly.) Half-heartedly copying products isn't the same thing as building an infrastructure, then an ecosystem on top of that, then releasing products that leverage that infrastructure and ecosystem. Without careful long-term planning and development, you end up with dead-end products that can't be developed any further. Like Windows Mobile 6.5. It was a quick and dirty reaction to Palm's early successes in mobile, but Microsoft simply didn't put any careful long-term planning behind it. They didn't evolve it. They killed it and replaced it with Windows 7 with zero migration paths for devices or data. Total lack of strategic thinking.
I'd say that "learning from Apple" isn't a strategy. It's a tactic. And it means that Microsoft will always be behind the curve. Always reacting to what Apple does. Always trying to copy Apple products' look-and-feel to fool consumers. Never being able to move anything forward for fear of doing something that Apple wouldn't do and looking foolish for incorrectly copying Apple.
Windows 8 seems to be a prime example of what Microsoft does when they don't closely imitate an Apple product. It has a painfully awkward mash-up of 1980s legacy mouse-driven "desktop" interface and 21st-century multitouch-driven mobile interface. I'm sure Microsoft executives thought that Apple would eventually merge OS X and iOS into a single OS for all Apple devices on all screen sizes. And they also probably thought that Apple would eventually put touchscreens on Macs. So they must have decided that Windows 8 should beat Apple to the punch by merging legacy desktop and modern multitouch interfaces, and that PC manufacturers should build expensive touchscreen PCs before Apple could get touchscreen Macs to market.
Wrong. If you don't lead, you follow the leader. If you don't follow the leader, you're lost.
Microsoft failures during Ballmer's tenure:
- Windows Me
- Windows Vista
- Microsoft Tablet PC
- MSN / Bing
- Xbox
- Zune
- KIN
- Windows Phone
- Surface
Microsoft successes during Ballmer's tenure:
- Windows XP
- Windows 7
- Office
- Xbox 360
Microsoft's biggest hits during the Ballmer era were all legacy products: desktop / laptop OS-es and apps, and complex and expensive game consoles. Xbox One won't be enough to give Microsoft any lasting success in the post-PC era. Because it's not mobile.
Interesting way to put it -- with the exception of Xbox, all of Ballmers's "successes" were 2 Windows Upgrades with intermingled Windows failures... And Office's main apps (Word and Excel) are an extension/enhancement to the apps released for the Mac in 1985... So the Office "success" was maintaining/increasing its dominance.
I think that the Surface will prove that both Windows OS and MS Office are failures on a tablet. I think that Windows 8 and Windows Phone OS are/will be a failure.
Where I work I've been through a CEO transition and a CIO transition and both times during the months of finding someone new the relevant organization (the company, the IT unit) increasingly floundered. Big new things were held up and people started putting off making tough calls about strategic changes. "Let's wait and see what the new guy wants before we do something that may get un-done."
It MS doesn't announce a new CEO within 2 months they'll pay a huge price.
As a NeXT/Apple alum, and a former co-worker of Scott's who knows he's from Redmond, WA and went to Stanford then to NeXT, he lives and breathes NeXT/Apple technologies.
You aren't dragging Scott out of the Bay Area for any job, especially Microsoft whom he has loathed for decades.
Probably the best thing to happen to Microsoft. Perhaps they can get some clarity back in their organization.
What was their original clarity? Copying and buying competitors and throwing money at it until their 300lb gorilla was built and could threaten and coerce the rest of the industry? What a vision.
Every empire has its time. Apple had two. Maybe Microsoft will survive long enough to become a regular company, instead of the domineering bastard it's always been. But I don't think they (or most any other company in the computer industry) has yet comprehended the fact that this stuff has to not just be advertised at the average person, it also has to be functional, reliable, and sensible for the average non-geek person. Apple has done well with this in iOS and all the geeks run around screaming "dumbing down, dumbing down, the sky is falling!!" They so do not get it.
What experience does he have running a company as large as Microsoft? And why would Microsoft hire as CEO someone who only a year ago was fired from Apple?
Fired executives are hired all the time. Especially if the come from a bigger company.
Comments
We have been Windows/Office free for 3 years -- no longer even have Parallels.
My daughter teaches classes at her church, is a soccer mom, usually a team mom, etc. Three teenagers 2 High school, 1 Middle school. All their reports, etc. are done on iWork... on their iPads and/or on an iMac (3 in household).
I am retired, but used office for years (since Multiplan). I find that every "Office" thing we need to do is doable with iWork.
I maintain that iWork is easier to learn, to use and more productive for the new and average user -- no digging through layers of bloat.
Microsoft failures during Ballmer's tenure:
- Windows Me
- Windows Vista
- Microsoft Tablet PC
- MSN / Bing
- Xbox
- Zune
- KIN
- Windows Phone
- Surface
Microsoft successes during Ballmer's tenure:
- Windows XP
- Windows 7
- Office
- Xbox 360
Microsoft's biggest hits during the Ballmer era were all legacy products: desktop / laptop OS-es and apps, and complex and expensive game consoles. Xbox One won't be enough to give Microsoft any lasting success in the post-PC era. Because it's not mobile.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
This is the same kind of thinking you can see Ballmer engaged in in the iPhone video above.
"We have great Windows Mobile devices... it'll do music, it'll do Internet, it's do email, it'll do instant messaging... I like our strategy"
The mistake Ballmer made was thinking only in abstract functionality and not looking at the actual product, and the actual iPhone was 10x better than his.
You also speak in abstract functionality, such as iWork working on the web, being distributed to many people via iDevices, etc - but don't look at the actual product. Pages and Numbers are just awful. Keynote alone is decent.
I have to disagree about Pages, it's great for 90% of people. Not so great for the 10% who need special features. Number is indeed awful. I would say Keynote is a lot better than just decent.
Not necessarily. Larry Page followed Eric Schmidt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackbook
Wow, I didn't realize imagining someone having a heart attack and dying was a cool thing to post.
Sorry, it's just on my mind I guess. There are lots of guys retiring where I work and quite a lot of them are dead soon after. Sad reality.
Balmer's entire working life has been Microsoft, and regardless of what we think of his performance, he's given 110% the whole time. What is his purpose when he retires? He's the exact kind of guy that this sort of thing happens to. I kind of hope they give him some kind of role at the company or a seat on the board for that reason as I don't really wish him ill. But I'm thinking they won't.
He can't do much worse.
Originally Posted by jragosta
Actually, I don't think Microsoft ever followed what Apple was doing. Instead, they made a half-hearted attempt to copy some of Apple's PRODUCTS, but that's not the key to Apple's success. IOW, the problem was in execution, not in the strategy of learning from Apple. [...]
Agree. (Mostly.) Half-heartedly copying products isn't the same thing as building an infrastructure, then an ecosystem on top of that, then releasing products that leverage that infrastructure and ecosystem. Without careful long-term planning and development, you end up with dead-end products that can't be developed any further. Like Windows Mobile 6.5. It was a quick and dirty reaction to Palm's early successes in mobile, but Microsoft simply didn't put any careful long-term planning behind it. They didn't evolve it. They killed it and replaced it with Windows 7 with zero migration paths for devices or data. Total lack of strategic thinking.
I'd say that "learning from Apple" isn't a strategy. It's a tactic. And it means that Microsoft will always be behind the curve. Always reacting to what Apple does. Always trying to copy Apple products' look-and-feel to fool consumers. Never being able to move anything forward for fear of doing something that Apple wouldn't do and looking foolish for incorrectly copying Apple.
Windows 8 seems to be a prime example of what Microsoft does when they don't closely imitate an Apple product. It has a painfully awkward mash-up of 1980s legacy mouse-driven "desktop" interface and 21st-century multitouch-driven mobile interface. I'm sure Microsoft executives thought that Apple would eventually merge OS X and iOS into a single OS for all Apple devices on all screen sizes. And they also probably thought that Apple would eventually put touchscreens on Macs. So they must have decided that Windows 8 should beat Apple to the punch by merging legacy desktop and modern multitouch interfaces, and that PC manufacturers should build expensive touchscreen PCs before Apple could get touchscreen Macs to market.
Wrong. If you don't lead, you follow the leader. If you don't follow the leader, you're lost.
Interesting way to put it -- with the exception of Xbox, all of Ballmers's "successes" were 2 Windows Upgrades with intermingled Windows failures... And Office's main apps (Word and Excel) are an extension/enhancement to the apps released for the Mac in 1985... So the Office "success" was maintaining/increasing its dominance.
I think that the Surface will prove that both Windows OS and MS Office are failures on a tablet. I think that Windows 8 and Windows Phone OS are/will be a failure.
Where I work I've been through a CEO transition and a CIO transition and both times during the months of finding someone new the relevant organization (the company, the IT unit) increasingly floundered. Big new things were held up and people started putting off making tough calls about strategic changes. "Let's wait and see what the new guy wants before we do something that may get un-done."
It MS doesn't announce a new CEO within 2 months they'll pay a huge price.
Interesting is the story then
To tell if the reign of error do end.
So Steve, to a retirement home,
And there to chew upon a bone.
MS when he bids adieu,
Fifty-fifty say renew.
But many doubts some shall have,
That Stevie's lips might rest, at last.
Quote:
Originally Posted by m0c0s0
Scott Forstall anyone?
As a NeXT/Apple alum, and a former co-worker of Scott's who knows he's from Redmond, WA and went to Stanford then to NeXT, he lives and breathes NeXT/Apple technologies.
You aren't dragging Scott out of the Bay Area for any job, especially Microsoft whom he has loathed for decades.
Scott will run his own start up.
What was their original clarity? Copying and buying competitors and throwing money at it until their 300lb gorilla was built and could threaten and coerce the rest of the industry? What a vision.
Every empire has its time. Apple had two. Maybe Microsoft will survive long enough to become a regular company, instead of the domineering bastard it's always been. But I don't think they (or most any other company in the computer industry) has yet comprehended the fact that this stuff has to not just be advertised at the average person, it also has to be functional, reliable, and sensible for the average non-geek person. Apple has done well with this in iOS and all the geeks run around screaming "dumbing down, dumbing down, the sky is falling!!" They so do not get it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogifan
What experience does he have running a company as large as Microsoft? And why would Microsoft hire as CEO someone who only a year ago was fired from Apple?
Fired executives are hired all the time. Especially if the come from a bigger company.