Nice piece by the technology group at BusinessWeek...
Microsoft's search problem reflects its approach to new markets in general. It spends little time focusing on tiny, emerging niches that generate little, if any, sales. But those are precisely the markets that can quickly blossom on the Net into meaningful businesses. "Bill [Gates] and Steve [Ballmer] and the leadership don't understand the value of small things," says Robert Scoble, a former Microsoftie whose blog recently took the company to task for its Web missteps. "That cripples their entire Internet strategy from the start."
Much at stake. Fast-following better get faster because the next-gen revenue platform is running away, which will erode their capacity to terrorize enterprises with lock-ins at every part of the stack.
Current CEO Steve Ballmer's job will hang on a turnaround in Search by cal year-end 2008.
Is their checkbook broken? Can't they just buy the companies that invent stuff and concentrate on refining existing cash cow products?
Posted by: Don Marti | March 25, 2007 at 02:51 PM