The Soul of A New Microsoft

BusinessWeek Online is running a front page story today about the new future of Microsoft. By 'looking beyond Windows', the company is utilizing fresh blood to come up with new products like the Zune, the Xbox 360, and various online sites. While the Zune probably isn't getting off to as successful a start as they might have liked, the article argues it's a positive sign that they're at least making the attempt. From the article: "The point is that Microsoft needs to find its un-Vista. Several of them, in fact. The software giant is entering perhaps the greatest upheaval in its 30-year history. New business models are emerging--from low-cost "open-source" software to advertising-supported Web services--that threaten Microsoft's core business like never before. For investors to care about the company, it needs to find new growth markets. Its $44.3 billion in annual sales are puttering along at an 11% growth pace. Its shares, which soared 9,560% throughout the 1990s, sunk 63% in 2000 when the Internet bubble burst, and they have yet to fully recover."

Comments

Re:What The?!?

[ericdano]

Then WHY did you buy music off the iTunes store to put on a Zen? Why didn't you buy it off MSN, or Napster, or Real?

Stupid. Seriously. You are going to bitch about what, 30-40 songs you bought?

Yeah, and I'm going to complain cause I can't put Unleaded gas in the Diesel powered car I bought.

Seriously. Flawed logic there.

Re:The Name is "Gary Kildall".

[soft_guy]

As part of that talk, Microsoft told them that they were using CP/M as their OS and sent IBM to Kildall. Kildall almost screwed Microsoft here. IBM and Microsoft had a deal, which almost failed because of Kildall's failure to nail down a deal.

This is not true. Both DR and Microsoft wanted to supply the OS and were in a competitive bidding situation. Unfortunately for Digital Research, Mary Gates was on the selection committee.