Turning MS into a few little companies would allow the individual units to be more agile in an Apple dominated consumer marketplace for sure. Having to kowtow to top heavy committees every time you try and innovate is what Jobs eliminated at Apple when he came back on board and you see what effect that had.
Unfortunately, the culture at Microsoft is grounded in a monopolistic rut. They know, or think they know, how to squash competition (vaporware) and dominate a market (threats). Unfortunately those tactics only work when you are in pretty much total control of your marketplace.
The fact of the matter is they are in control of PC OS, and their Office Suite. After a stumble with Vista they've recovered nicely with 7, but frankly the commodity PC market gets smaller with each passing year. Add to it the threat posed by iOS where MS is not only not even close to a monopoly but is rapidly sliding down a slippery slope, in no small way aided by the Linux clone Android and you have a company whose future isn't all bells and roses.
Apple has eaten MS's lunch in the past decade and continues to do so. Even the Mac has maintained a decent market share overall, but if you look at the price point of Macs they dominate that market share. That means MS is being squeezed to the bottom and even there companies like Asus are turning to open source Android and Linux.
Tough times ahead for Mighty Microsoft.
Discussion on:
Message 15 of 1
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
