Microsoft Is Dying!0!0110!
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Microsoft couldn't give a shit about a. Enterprise Market b. Developers. As a Microsoft Developer for over 20 years, I'm afraid to say I developing for Android and looking at other frameworks. I now own an Android Phone I now use Ubuntu for my media Player I'm buying a Sony Play Station Had a good time with Microsoft and their excellent development tools, but its time to move on Microsoft don't care any more.
Software Kinetics - Dependable Software news
As a recreational MS developer for over 20 years, I have always found MS incredibly helpful to developers. Almost all their development systems/environments are free. If you ask questions in their blogs and newsgroups, you will usually get a good answer. As a recreational and semi-professional Android programmer, Android sucks as an development ecosystem and environment, and Google doesn't subsidise staff to assist developers (white papers, code samples, tutorials, newsgroups) the same way as MS has for its products. The Java/Eclipse/Android development environment is far clunkier and more primitive than C#/Visual Studio/Windows. In a typical Windows app, you might spend 20% of your time fiddling around laying out your UI. On a phone, where it is one different window size for everybody, it can take 50% of your time. Fancy spending half your time looking at how your app looks on 20 different screen sizes and resolutions? Welcome to Android.
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Microsoft couldn't give a shit about a. Enterprise Market b. Developers. As a Microsoft Developer for over 20 years, I'm afraid to say I developing for Android and looking at other frameworks. I now own an Android Phone I now use Ubuntu for my media Player I'm buying a Sony Play Station Had a good time with Microsoft and their excellent development tools, but its time to move on Microsoft don't care any more.
Software Kinetics - Dependable Software news
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Did they call 911???? Duty to rescue
Paulo Gomes Over and Out :D
:laugh: No, I think they called out for pizza and ordered the PayPerView event.
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
May be you didn't mention, but MS is dead at least 10 years. That your "enterprise" is just another market. But playing in enterprise doesn't mean you're invulnerable! Look at SUN - biggest guys after IBM, they f** up a whole business, disgracefully selling it to... who? Oracle! Ridiculous DBMS "self-world" manufacturer, unrecognizable until last 15 years. Now we see TWO anchors on the raft - java and oracle, both keeping Oracle behind. Desktop was the biggest MS business (may be not by money, but STABILITY due to the mass of customers). Now desktop is stuck with the cloud pig and tablet hype. In 5 years all this cr@p will fly away, leaving MS with sh*ty Windows 8-9-10 and ridiculous Surface. RIP...
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I disagree, see the BYOD movement, Apple gained foothood in the enterprise world through privately owned iThings.
Apple has nowhere to move UP from there though, in an enterprise setting... your execs can walk around on iCrap all day long, but even they (hopefully) aren't pushing to put Apple in your datacenter. Apple isn't making that push itself! Give them credit, they even decided to cut the xServe line + related, despite the fact there were some devoted fans out there, and focus solely on the consumer side.
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
craigsaboe wrote:
Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"?
They may not be messing up in the Enterprise market, but I can tell you - as an independent developer they're sure making it easy for me to lock down my tool set and not spend any more money on their stuff. The 2008 level products are about as far as I need go at this point. I develop for the desktop and web and nothing they're showing lately compels me to spend one red cent on upgrading. -cb
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Is 31 too young to start on my "damn kids" rants?
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
Just a couple of points. Microsoft and enterprise: Explain Windows8/8.1, which appears to be consumer-focused, not enterprise-focused. Now, you might reply, most enterprises are going to wait until Windows9 or whatever it is called. But, Windows9 is going to have to pick up where Windows8 left off, and if Windows8 is consumer-focused, how will WIndows9 not be? True, Azure is an emerging strength for MS, but how much revenue does it generate? As much as Office? As much as Windows? Second point: Go read "In Search of Stupidity" by Merrill Chapman; observe how supposedly successful companies, with the future laid out before them, can overnight (or over a short period of time) just disappear from the tech landscape. Ask yourself if MS is making the same kind of mistakes. Nobody really knows if MS will "die". There are many kinds of death besides bankruptcy. MS can dwindle into insignificance, occupying a narrow niche that other companies don't care about. MS could be purchased and subsumed into another company, to name only two of them. Again, nobody knows. But, if MS continues to make blunders in the consumer market, and consumers are notoriously fickle and unpredictable, then MS is in definite jeopardy. Don't forget it was consumers who launched the original personal computer business back in the 80's. Consumers stampeded and business followed. Maybe consumers will do it again in the 10's.
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
All these people who writes that type of articles are CONSUMERS. They carry their toys with them and they are happy. All they do all the time on their iPads, iPhones, Android, WP devises - Facebook, Twitter, Texting, playing games. They do not realize that so many businesses are heavily relying on Microsoft and its infrastructure. They do not understand, that many companies still need GIS, ERP systems just simply provide 3G, Wi-Fi for their toys and deliver gas/hydro to simply charge their small devices. There are some system in place ambulance, police and other services rely on. If Microsoft dies (all these Apple/Android fan boys are cheering for) are going to be huge circumstances. Many people are going to loose their jobs, many businesses would struggle to support their services and provide services to their customers. Our GIS, ERP systems are built on MS infrastructure. What happens if MS dies? In our case, approximately 250,000 customers (most of them CONSUMERS) will struggle. Just my thoughts.
SergoT
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
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Yes, if a new Microsoft CEO screws up so bad that they run the development tools division to the ground, then I would care a lot. I can work with other languages and technologies, but my .NET skills are what I have the most experience in and what employers care about the most. With that being said, it would take years of horrible decisions (bordering upon malicious sabotage) to kill their development tools division, and I'd have plenty of forewarning if it was happening.
jesarg wrote:
it would take years of horrible decisions (bordering upon malicious sabotage) to kill their development tools division, and I'd have plenty of forewarning if it was happening
There's a positive feedback loop involved where companies start hiring for the non-MS-dependent technologies, and developers start to retool for them. MS has some control over the ramp-up of that feedback loop, and their recent decisions that piss off developers, and the press they're getting over it, is only accelerating the ramp-up. When the loop gets going in earnest, MS technologies will become like Cobol, possible to stay employed with them as your exclusive skill set, but a shrinking pool of jobs for you to choose from.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
Actually, what gets to me most in this context is that the feed provider - e.g., CodeSource, does not filter for source bias. The negative reporting is published from the same sources, day after day after day. The basis for most of the negative claims are sophomoric analyses of consumer mentality, rather than insightful commentary on the competing visions and technologies of Microsoft and its competitors. Even when technical analysis is provided, it often sniffs around at the edges of the technology, looking for marginal differentiators, rathering that tackling the bigger issues of integration and extensibility. C'mon, CodeSource: I'm sure that you can do better than this! Spare us the pithy one-liners and do some source validation!
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
If you ask me, it's not that their consumer products are not good, cool or slick, is that their PR department and the distribution channels are useless, many of their consumer products are launched either on the US only or in a narrow set of countries, here for example I would have liked to get my hands on a Zune HD, but it never came here officially (I could have got it on Ebay, but the price would have raised significantly), recently, I wanted to change my computer and I was looking to get a Surface Pro, but even now, it's not available officially here.
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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If you ask me, it's not that their consumer products are not good, cool or slick, is that their PR department and the distribution channels are useless, many of their consumer products are launched either on the US only or in a narrow set of countries, here for example I would have liked to get my hands on a Zune HD, but it never came here officially (I could have got it on Ebay, but the price would have raised significantly), recently, I wanted to change my computer and I was looking to get a Surface Pro, but even now, it's not available officially here.
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
I didn't go there above, but you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. Microsoft's PR and Marketing people bear a HUGE amount of responsibility for the failure of Microsoft's consumer hardware offerings. I was the one guy who got an original black Zune 30GB - Xmas gift. Still have it, use it occasionally. It was good hardware, not at all what you'd expect from MS. The HD upgrade made it even nicer - and it had a really slick OS on it, too! Last month I upgraded my phone - initially picked up a Lumia 920. I thought it was a GREAT phone. I had been using an iP4 and an Atrix 3G, and between the three I can honestly say that I strongly prefer WP8 over iOS and Android. That said, before the week was up I went back and traded for an iP5. I did so for a combination of reasons, but they can all be boiled down to this: I have a lot more faith in Apple continuing to execute its "vision" than I do in Microsoft executing it's own. They frankly suck at marketing to the consumer. The Surface ads were their worst yet. Short of having Lindsay Lohan go around promoting Surface 2, I don't know where else they'd go from here. Who knows where they would be, had someone competent actually run that marketing dept?
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Is 31 too young to start on my "damn kids" rants?
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"0!0110!"... In my hysteria, I may have lapsed into binary for a moment there.
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I dont think you guys are considering the fact that once you lose relevance or brand equity ,it will be difficult to get it back. Microsoft has to move into consumer space if not they will find out one day that even their enterprise space has been whittled away. What do you think will happen if apple and google move into enterprise space? What i think will happen is that most of their current customers will also follow since they already trust them. if microsoft has refused to even try out some of this things we call failures now, they will be in a far bigger mess than they are now. In business you always have to think of the future, no one can predict the future 100%. Apple stocks for example have fallen $5 just this morning, no one could have predicted that just last year.
Layinka wrote:
Microsoft has to move into consumer space if not they will find out one day that even their enterprise space has been whittled away. What do you think will happen if apple and google move into enterprise space?
Err...I am rather certain that Microsoft is front and center in the consumer space right now. But perhaps you were referring to telephony (but then no idea how that relates to enterprise.)
Layinka wrote:
What do you think will happen if apple and google move into enterprise space?
Pretty sure that the cloud offerings from google are really about the enterprise.
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Layinka wrote:
Microsoft has to move into consumer space if not they will find out one day that even their enterprise space has been whittled away. What do you think will happen if apple and google move into enterprise space?
Err...I am rather certain that Microsoft is front and center in the consumer space right now. But perhaps you were referring to telephony (but then no idea how that relates to enterprise.)
Layinka wrote:
What do you think will happen if apple and google move into enterprise space?
Pretty sure that the cloud offerings from google are really about the enterprise.
What i mean about apple n google moving into enterpreise would have been better expressed as "Take over" instead of "move in". My point is if microsoft decides,like everyone is saying to just stick with whatever they feel they are strongest in right now, and dont move into other things, pretty soon,even that there area of supposed strength will be threatened. Consumer space? i was responding to what people said earlier and their classifiaction of MS into enterprise and consumer.
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Am I the only one who keeps seeing these ridiculous articles about Microsoft dying, and reading only blindered screeds about how Microsoft's CONSUMER efforts are an utter failure, and wanting to scream, "LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE MARKET, YOU MORONS!!!"? Do these people have any clue how much the SMB market has invested in Microsoft's enterprise stuff, and CONTINUES to invest in their product set? And not only on the infrastructure side, i.e. Office/Sharepoint/Exchange - the platform's development stack as well! When many, many companies rely on your server OS running your web development stack backed by your relational database offering, to drive big, long-life-cycle LOB and web-facing applications, you are DOING PRETTY WELL. Every business offering they make, they have legit competitors, no question. But no one can question that they are putting a TON of resources into improving those offerings, especially on the web side, where they have dumped a lot of time and effort into making ASP.Net a much better, more competitive offering. I really like Linux, and completely understand why it has the mindshare among the startup-type crowd. And Google is offering a compelling Office + Exchange alternative, especially for smaller setups. And SQL Server's got "NoSQL" on it's tail. But in all these cases, Microsoft is the Top Dog - and those competitors have had enough time to mature that it seems to me Microsoft still has the edge and the position of strength. I personally have worked off numerous platforms, but keep coming back to .Net because it's where the overall developer demand is, and where a lot of innovation is still taking place. Somebody with a bigger voice than me, PLEASE tell these Apple/Android idiots that whether or not Microsoft is loudly and publicly pushing "Consumer" over "Enterprise", AT LEAST GET YOUR ARGUMENTS RIGHT. Microsoft will die when somebody (or somebodies) takes away that ENTERPRISE play, NOT when they make a subpar tablet and can't sell it!!! And all kids should get off my lawn. Thank you.
If your point is that the Microsoft Corporation, as a business, is doing fine, then I agree with you. Afterall they are the 5th largest corporation (measured by capitalization). And yes, their business is mostly the enterprise side. However... Apple came from nowhere to become the SECOND largest corporation - so no one should think that the consumer side isn't relevant. MS has got the enterprise side sown up, for sure. However every corp needs to GROW to survive, and MSFT is struggling to GROW. It appears that they want now to shore up their mobile and consumer devices side of things - can you blame them? Not only is MSFT struggling to gorw, they're also struggling with entry into the Mobile Space and with Developer and Consumer Mindshare - and mind share is so very important. It's what propelled Apple into #2 position (behind Exxon Oil). So when you hear/read that MSFT is yesterday's news and their offerings are being ignored and hated, what you are witnessing is peoples' sentiment - and this is a clue about Mindshare. These days a tech firm can fall in as little as 5 years. It may have taken 20 years to kill Motorola, or 10 years to kill Nokia, but the horizon is shorter today and Microsoft has to do everything they can to grab Mindshare in order to secure their future. I still believe that with their enormous enterprise position and almost bottomless bags of cash that they will get over the current problems with their Win8 tablet sales - even if that picture is hard to see in the near term - but so far I see absolutely NO progress with Mindshare. People routinely mock Microsoft and their products. On Sept 10th when Apple had their showing of new phones I was looking through Flipboard and I couldn't help but be aghast that EVERY SINGLE tech story was about Apple and their new phones. Now THAT'S Marketing power, my friends, and without Mindshare that's not possible. I think Microsoft's products are good enough (for them to have a good business) but the company absolutely SUCKS at Marketing and Promotion and they should really STUDY Apple in order to get a clue for what to do. And if they really want to increase Mindshare then they need to clue in that people hate them for a REASON. Yeah, Karma's a biotch.