AfterDawn: News

Microsoft now stagnant, says former executive

According to former Microsoft executive and current Google exec Don Dodge, the software giant is now like how "IBM was in 1985" with stagnant growth, and slow innovation.

Although Microsoft remains the leader in a few areas, namely its operating system and productivity suite, competitors are trailing not so far behind, with Google and Apple being "faster" and "more innovative."

"Very few companies can dominate an industry for more than 20 years," Dodge said. "It is just the natural competitive cycle."

Dodge also says that tech companies perform better with company founders still at the helm, and Microsoft has lost this advantage with Bill Gates and Paul Allen stepping down from their daily roles. Steve Jobs of Apple, as well as Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google remain active at the heads of their respective companies.



The former executive also named a few of Microsoft's glaring failures, calling Windows Mobile "obviously behind" the trend which is now led by the iPhone, and newcomer Android. Vista was a "large disappointment" as well, but Windows 7 helped to "redeem" that mistake.

Digging even deeper, Dodge says Microsoft will begin losing Office customers in 2010 to free web-based technologies such as Google Apps, and may even begin losing OS customers to the upcoming cloud-based Chrome OS.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Dec 2009 18:08

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• 14 comments

• Josipher

  i couldnt agree with that guy more..windows mobile and vista were 2 failing products each in their respective field. the only way i see microsoft coming back from this position is if in 2-4 years they could make microsoft surface (to those who are not familiar with it: [url= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0 [/url])
  availible to the general public and not just for commercial consumers

  25.12.2009 19:33 #1

• xnonsuchx

  "Digging even deeper, Dodge says Microsoft will begin losing Office customers in 2010 to free web-based technologies such as Google Apps, and may even begin losing OS customers to the upcoming cloud-based Chrome OS."
  
  Not to defend M$'s ineptness, but that was SUCH a shill comment from a Google employee...esp. the Chrome OS bit.

  25.12.2009 20:59 #2

• defgod

  While I agree that Windows Vista is a big turd. Windows Mobile or the new version Windows Phone. Could have been much more successful with less emphasis on business and more on multimedia. I used to have an old Audiovox Verizon Windows Mobile 2002 phone. I used the multimedia capabilities and features more than anything. I then upgraded to the Samsung i730 which also was used for watching movies and playing music. This was all before the iPhone came out. I even took the time to send them a letter to focus on more of the multimedia capabilities of their phone os instead of the business aspects of it. But what do I know? I'm just some guy that knew the possibilities Windows Mobile had years before the iPhone came out. Microsoft's execs just dropped the ball when it came to the Windows Mobile OS.

  25.12.2009 22:37 #3

• atomicxl

  In all fairness, Apple has been more innovative since they launched back in the 80s and it hasn't gotten them anything but diminished market share. They will rule small devices but as long as they keep the 40% premium for PCs, they will never rule the computers of businesses or typical consumers.
  
  As long as Linux keeps expecting soccer moms to be pros with terminal commands as if it's still 1984, I don't see that really taking over the OS market.
  
  MS will be around for a minute. The force tells me that Google and Apple are about to go to war over the mobile device market with a ferocity that the computer world has never seen. I think they'll be too occupied with that to really put up a good fight against MS' bread and butter products.

  25.12.2009 23:19 #4

• fgamer

  I wouldn't read into this too much, Microsoft is and will continue to do fine. If they take the route and listen to their customers more like what they did with Windows 7 then I'm sure they can redeem themselves as a whole.

  26.12.2009 04:30 #5

• jony218

  "but Windows 7 helped to "redeem" that mistake." I wouldn't make such a statement this early in windows 7 release. It's just as bloated as Vista, and it's main competitor is still windows xp.
  
  Microsoft has lost their edge ever since they jumped on the "more is better" bandwagon. XP was successful because it was small and fast and quite reliable.
  
  I want to be the first to certify Vista a worst OS then windowsME. That monstrosity is the reason Microsoft is in this predicament.

  26.12.2009 14:14 #6

• dirtyash

  I've had winME, Vista, and Win7 and I feel that vista was WAY better than winME; but that's just me! As far as MS going under; I think this is just a Google employee hating on MS; that being said, MS needs to work really hard to stay competitive with the new tech that's being put out by google & others.

  26.12.2009 18:17 #7

• iamgq

  I dont favor neither, they both offer different things. Microsoft slipped with Vista though. W7 is nice though.

  26.12.2009 22:44 #8

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by jony218: I want to be the first to certify Vista a worst OS then windowsME. That monstrosity is the reason Microsoft is in this predicament.That's just a crazy statement, seriously. Vista was not the greatest but it was better than any Windows OS before it (or at least on par with XP), and Windows 7 blows them all out of the water.

  27.12.2009 12:05 #9

• jameskatt

  Corporate America is pretty much standardized on Microsoft Windows and Office.
  
  Yes, there are alternatives. But they are simply not business standards. Thus, they will go nowhere in business.
  
  Linux and its variants (such as Chrome OS) are simply not ready for prime time when it comes to the desktop. I doubt they ever will. There simply is not enough support from commercial developers. Attempting to customize such a system is an ongoing nightmare for non-geeks.
  
  Thus, Microsoft may be stagnant, but it still rakes in billions in profit each year. Thus allows it to be a very formidable opponent for Google. Microsoft's Bing, for example, is becoming a formidable search engine - equivalent to Google. With major content producers removing their content from Google - with cash support from Microsoft and higher profit from advertisement than what Google gives out - Google has very real and very dangerous competition.
  
  Google has to watch out for itself. Its major revenue is from advertising. A higher paying company - such as Microsoft - can usurp its revenue source. Google makes little if any money from its software, OS, or cloud services.
  
  Note that Apple is actually not a direct competitor to either one. Apple can pick and choose its battles. Apple chooses only those which makes it a lot of money. And as both a hardware and software maker, Apple is in the best position to profit from whatever direction it chooses, irrespective of what Microsoft and Google do.

  27.12.2009 16:57 #10

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by jony218: I want to be the first to certify Vista a worst OS then windowsME. That monstrosity is the reason Microsoft is in this predicament.That's just a crazy statement, seriously. Vista was not the greatest but it was better than any Windows OS before it (or at least on par with XP), and Windows 7 blows them all out of the water.
  Lol wut? Yer bias is showing there mate....XP>vista ALWAYS,sorry vista is ME 2.0.
  
  Win7 is good around year 2 or 3 of where XP was still has a way tog o to be great but damn its a whole different world than vister....
  
  
  MS is stagnate because they screwed up the 360,vista and word/office... tho those are kinda fixed now tho even without the losses from them they would still be stagnate..... they need more versatility and openness and effecinty in LIVE,the 360 hardware and windows....

  28.12.2009 06:08 #11

• xnonsuchx

  Keep in mind that for several years (pre-XP), M$ wanted to move Windows AND Office to a subscription model where you wouldn't pay anything upfront, but would have to pay a monthly fee for use and upgrades. They just had to come to the realization that end-users were (at least currently) more likely to be pissed off about that situation, but it's still something they're interested in. $10-20/mo. is FAR more lucrative than ~$200 every 4-5 years. Luckily, I think also trying to move to that model for them now would be seen as monopolistic behavior (unless monthly fees were as low as $3-5/mo.), plus it would end 'ownership' by end-users...if they cancel their subscription, they can no longer use it (as it would require regular online authentication to stay valid). This was M$'s initial intention behind .NET and if users let them, they WILL try to stranglehold.

  29.12.2009 08:37 #12

• bluedogs

  Originally posted by Josipher: [url= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0 [/url])
  Do ya research dude M$ did not create this idea they copied it from someone else. Again M$ copies and makes money while chasing people that are doing the same to their crap.
  
  M$ has become stagnet for a while now but for as long as their are PC games, Office people will stick with M$ it's just human nature. I wuould love to change from M$ but I need the new OS to be able to network with M$ and play my PC games as well as have access to a version of Office as well as runn all my current software.

  7.1.2010 17:13 #13

• pmshah

  I tried Vista a couple of times but found it to be a big pain due to operational differences with XP. With so many ADDON registry hacks available I am very comfortable with XP.
  
  Recently I had an occasion to try out windows 7. I like to get things working my way using a lot of scripts. None of the scripts from XP work in Win7. Simple things like scheduler or switching network interface setting for different locations with netsh are now a nightmare. In my opinion they are getting close to the difficulty level of Linux command line. If this trend continues I do see people migrating to Linux for the new machines.
  
  I always carry a mini dvd - 1.44 GB - in my shirt pocket with Puppy Linux installed on it under 100 mb in size. It essentially does everything I may need on the road through a very easy to use GUI and this includes saving your work, freshly installed software, downloaded files etc on the dvd itself as long as you do not exceed the free space on the dvd.

  11.1.2010 01:14 #14