Sad decade for Microsoft

[yesthattom]

Just so sad. People are calling the last 10 years "the lost decade" for Microsoft.

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I've been saying for years and will continue to assert: not being broken up into multiple companies was the worst thing that could possibly have happened to MSFT and its shareholders.

[penk.livejournal.com]

To many of the posters' points, though, all this "hahah, microsoft failed" prattling sort of ignores the points that a) they're profitable, b) they have GINORMOUS amounts of cash in the bank, and c) they're not going out of business anytime soon.

They can afford to have a few decades of "we're no longer tearing up the entire industry. We're just making money hand over fist."

Enough failed launches and they may find a product that holds water.

(NB - then again, maybe not. I love that they launched Bing to directly target Google, and the only way they can figure out to make it profitable is to bribe companies not to use Google. Ohhhhkay).

[shandrew.livejournal.com]

The "failed" is a failure to grow, not a failure to do business. Microsoft in the past ten years has been a great business, because it has continued to have huge profits. It has been a horrible investment, because the profits have failed to grow with the economy, and have paled in comparison to the growth of the tech sector overall.

"bribe companies not to use Google"

A good deal of Google's search market share grew by paying companies (Firefox, AOL, Dell, Myspace, etc) to use it. Microsoft's just late to the party.

[penk.livejournal.com]

A good deal of Google's search market share grew by paying companies (Firefox, AOL, Dell, Myspace, etc) to use it. Microsoft's just late to the party.

There's a difference between "convincing a vendor to use a product" (something I'd call fair competition), and bribing a large company to remove their content from a competitor and exclusively list with them.

[whipartist.livejournal.com]

Cool! Tom, you caught a spammer.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

How exciting!!

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Microsoft succeeded IBM as the computer industry beast that no one could defeat. Google is next. "Laugh-a while you can, monkey boy."