Comments on: The Vista Myth: Why Windows 7 Won’t Turn Microsoft Around

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:30:17 +0000

FYI – Windows Vista 7 isn’t even out yet, and it’s already been cracked. This might cut into Microsoft’s plan to force upgrades, as those pushed to upgrade might just decide that copyright infringement isn’t so bad after all…

Me, I’ll avoid Windows Vista 7 like the plague it is, OSX and Linux do fine for me.

By: Microsoft plans to use Windows 7 to raise netbook prices — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:46:54 +0000

[...] the company being able to advertise that the new netbook category was still dominated by Windows. Moving forward, the capacity of netbooks to run Windows 7, which will not be offered for free, has been a major [...]

By: Neil Burlock

Neil Burlock — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:44:18 +0000

I can’t agree with you more, Daniel. Microsoft has a history of nearly every product failing besides their cash cows, Windows and Office. If Windows income is in decline, and it certainly appears so, then they are going to be in for a severe adjustment in the future.

Excellent article.

By: Microsoft’s last roll of the dice? | kludge-o-matic

Microsoft’s last roll of the dice? | kludge-o-matic — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:12:18 +0000

[...] very interesting article caught my eye today. Titled The Vista Myth: Why Windows 7 Won’t Turn Microsoft Around, it details the reasons why Microsoft’s peak may have passed during the XP [...]

By: tekro

tekro — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:58:15 +0000

Good article, Daniel. BTW, I notice you reference a couple of articles about the iPhone’s fortunes in Japan. Did you also know that the iPhone – despite pundits’ made-up claims about “the Japanese hate the iPhone – was #1 in consumer satisfaction in the country? Check this item: http://tinyurl.com/kwq9hd (Fodder for a new RD article?)

By: Don’t ask me about RAM or processors, I’m just a girl! « Ellie Freeman

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:21:35 +0000

[...] perhaps me being female had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Twitter-er @Scotthomas showed me this article on the failings of Windows Vista, including that of its marketing campaign: “Microsoft then [...]

By: westech

westech — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:51:47 +0000

Tundraboy:

You are right on.

By: tundraboy

tundraboy — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:24:47 +0000

My homespun philosophy for continued success in high technology:

As the leading edge advances, you must be prepared to win your customers over and over again. Be ready to jettison them as you abandon obsolete technology and win them back with the new.

That is the only way. If you get wedded to a particular generation of technology you become like GM. Apple apparently knows this and has incorporated it in their DNA. Intel knows a thing or to about it as well. IBM had to learn the hard way. Microsoft obviously doesn’t and the result is the bloated, multi-patched, resource-hogging monstrosity called Windows. A product that tries to accommodate 2, possibly 3 generations of OS technologies.

Well, there is a reason MS is scared of letting go of their customers and trying to win them over again. –They really don’t know how to win customers without relying on a monopoly crutch. Hell, they don’t even know how to build a monopoly from nothing –their original monopoly (DOS) was handed to them by IBM.

By: westech

westech — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:35:16 +0000

John E:
I don’t count Xbox as a success. I don’t believe Microsoft has recouped its total investment, and it has lost the battle to Wii.

When I talk about new products I mean those that truly open up new market opportunities. I do not regard Vista as a new product, just an improved XP. Mac OSX was a new product. OSX-2, 3, 4, and 5 are improvements on it. OS7 likewise is not a new product. It is an an improved product aimed at minimizing market share loss by Microsoft.

If Microsoft would develop an OS for netbooks which would have good responsiveness, security, and a reasonable price, and which would deliver new functionality, that would be a new product. I doubt that they will because they would be afraid it would cannibalize their more profitable OS’s. Somebody else will.

The PC OS market is mature. Profits come from replacements of a good OS with a better one, and from PC market growth. Conventional PC’s are being replaced by netbooks, smart phones, tablets like the iPod Touch.

The automobile industry went for decades with new models every year. Changes in chrome, color and tail-fins do not a new product make, but they are important to maintain their market. Unfortunately the American automobile industry did not recognize that their quality problems were important to consumers, opening the doors to foreign manufacturers. The last new product in this industry was the hybrid vehicle, not the Hummer.

By: stefn

stefn — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:47:18 +0000

MS is not doomed. But it will become irrelevant. In a good way. Like the gas company and other utilities. Maybe transparent is the better term. It just needs to get over itself and settle back to a long slow profitable arc. It ain’t sexy but it is a good business.