Saturday, June 26, 2010

Microsoft by the numbers

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
-- Mark Twain

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-by-the-numbers-2010-6

4 comments:

Илья Казначеев said...

"Number:
2

Microsoft is now #2 in terms of market caps of all tech companies."

And we're partying, partying, partying around this: Not that we like Apple, we just hate Microsoft a lot and for ever.

dzembu said...

Well, this is a good PR. Not something Microsoft come with often.
:-)

But it is defense nevertheless. Microsoft is still a 10 ton gorilla: it has some main products in some many areas.
It is unlikely to die anytime soon. It will have many more opportunities to re-group, change CEO, change course e.t.c.
It is here for a long term.

There are some BS of course. #9 - you need to count iPhone/iPod/iPad as it is the same thing more or less.

Of course, nobody mentioned a market cap or sudden death of Kin for obvious reason.

But essentially Microsoft is driven by inertia: most people just do not have choice, as Windows/Office is kind of monopoly.
This helps with Bing and other business proposition. And essentially, it works mostly fine. It became a commodity.

Similar thing happens to Google, but more slowly, that why they try desperately, just like Microsoft, copy-cat and extend the business in all direction.
Android Nexus come to mind: this is a hardware project with OS, quite a diversion from web service/search/Ads model/cash cow, but as Google say
it is to bring more people to Google.com

Fine 

But when company is doing something boring or became a commodity, well, it loose value in eyes of the masses.
Also, some people tend to hate it for being a monopoly or something (DRM?). May be Ballmer just a person people love to hate, duno 

People want childlike wonders: entertain us, surprise us, give us polished eye and finger candy! MSFT and GOOG fails to deliver that. 

DzembuGaijin said...

Well, this is a good PR. Not something Microsoft come with often.
:-)

But it is defense nevertheless. Microsoft is still a 10 ton gorilla: it has some main products in some many areas.
It is unlikely to die anytime soon. It will have many more opportunities to re-group, change CEO, change course e.t.c.
It is here for a long term.

There are some BS of course. #9 - you need to count iPhone/iPod/iPad as it is the same thing more or less.

Of course, nobody mentioned a market cap or sudden death of Kin for obvious reason.

But essentially Microsoft is driven by inertia: most people just do not have choice, as Windows/Office is kind of monopoly.
This helps with Bing and other business proposition. And essentially, it works mostly fine. It became a commodity.

Similar thing happens to Google, but more slowly, that why they try desperately, just like Microsoft, copy-cat and extend the business in all direction.
Android Nexus come to mind: this is a hardware project with OS, quite a diversion from web service/search/Ads model/cash cow, but as Google say
it is to bring more people to Google.com

Fine 

But when company is doing something boring or became a commodity, well, it loose value in eyes of the masses.
Also, some people tend to hate it for being a monopoly or something (DRM?). May be Ballmer just a person people love to hate, duno 

People want childlike wonders: entertain us, surprise us, give us polished eye and finger candy! MSFT and GOOG fails to deliver that. 

DzembuGaijin said...

See what people think about Microsft from the comments:

"
These numbers show only one thing: MS is big. No one is questioning that point, although in valuation it's getting smaller and smaller in comparison to other tech companies.

If this is the best defense that MS can put out as a response to an article postulating that their growth trends are in trouble, then there truly is no hope for them.
"

"
All well and good. BUT one has to ask what would the numbers be like if Microsoft weren't spending billions of dollars a year attempting to chase various unicorns that other companies are already covering? The two main product lines of OS and Office are all well and good but this company would be doing so much better if that was all they were concentrating on.

An example is the mobile strategy or should I say strategies because they say one thing and then do several other things all at once. Who is in charge of this scatterbrain approach. After Microsoft's abysmal mobile sales for the last three years we eventually we get the unified mobile strategy of Windows Phone 7. A big demonstration and promotional words of how it is going to work going forward and when it will start to get delivered - and then they go and release the KIN the Zune of smartphones.

It is this sort of lack of clear thinking that leads people to think that despite the figures Microsoft are a lost cause. It really needs someone in charge that can plan their way forward. And if Apple can deliver with 34,000 people, what the heck are the 94,000 at Microsoft doing?
"

See?

1) People just do not like BS PR. You can not "fake it" with all this mind games and big numbers. Yes, MS is big, so what?

2) Luck of CLEAR thinking == lost lost cause, DESPITE the figures.

3) Add hate and Ballmer as CEO and you can guess why MSFT is so undervalued.