[DaveGx]

Steve Ballmer's Nightmare Is Coming True - Yahoo! Finance

I dont follow some of this enough to know how right/wrong they are but they basically doom MS in every sector they can. Even going as far to say that it isnt worth it for MS to invest in the Xbox platform anymore. Here are there 10 points, you can read the details at the link for each one. Note that their last "point" is a direct shot at Ballmer.

I will say that I find it very hard to believe that Ipads are eating into the PC market, at least not too much. And the thought that MS should stop investing in Xbox is one of the dumbest things ive ever heard.

MS tablet sales arent going to come close to Ipad's, not for a long while at least. I think as far as the Surface goes, MS shouldve done more to stay more competitive price wise. I think over time, they can start to move better in the tablet world.

And Office will always be a big part of business, at least in our life times I believe.

I dont know, seems like an article written by someone who has held anti-MS views for a while. Probably a hipster who gets all giddy everytime he sees the Apple logo in a hollywood movie/show because hes just another follower.

1. The iPad eats the consumer PC market.


2. Employees gradually switch away from using Windows PCs for work.


3. Windows 8 fails to stop the iPad.



4. Loyal developers start to leave the Microsoft platform.



5. Windows Phone gets no traction despite the Nokia deal and RIM's collapse.


6. Office loses relevance.



7. Microsoft's other business applications start to erode.


8. The platform business collapses.



9. The Xbox was never going to make up the slack, and Microsoft can no longer afford to keep investing in it.



10. Microsoft suffers a huge quarterly loss. Ballmer retires to play golf.

[SZRimaging]

His first point is nothing but sensational, flawed logic.

iPad sold 14 million units and Lenovo sold 13.7 milllion? Well, Lenovo is only one chunk of the whole market for Windows based PCs. It is a very bad number. Not to mention, it is looking only at total units sold, not how many are currently in action. PCs seem to have longer lives now than they used to. I'm still operating on a 2005 Core 2 Duo laptop. Oh, and it runs Photoshop CS5 and Windows 7 just fine. Because the upgrade cycle on the main PC is so much longer, why buy a second one, when a tablet will do for a lot of the lesser tasks? And I cannot name one person who owns an iPad and not another PC.

[gsquared]

Ahh that's just trash a article written at Business Insider. That publication is no better than a tabloid. Actually, that's exactly what it is. Its business oriented instead of celebrity focused. Click on their name to go over to their website.

[Simon Tupper]

I really don't like Steve Ballmer so to me... it would be no surprise to see him fired in the next couple of months... They need someone charismatic and someone who can find great ideas BEFORE everyone else... not a guy who's always late and trying to catch up...

[derek533]

Yahoo better worry about themselves if you ask me.

[lancguy]

The doom and gloom....Office ain't going away anytime soon. Too many businesses have applications developed specifically for office. The company I work for is very large, and we have tons of reports and each report exports to excel. Not to mention the network we use is Microsoft, SharePoint, and most likely SQL server. Yeah we are still rocking XP nation wide, but I suspect once Microsoft takes it off life support, we'll move to Windows 7. As long as companies are so entrenched, Microsoft won't have a problem.

As for X-Box...I love my X-Box. I am amazed that the same X-Box 360 I have was released how many years ago, and the games are still pretty awesome. I can't wait to see the next generation that is due out next year.

Tablets? OEM's haven't had a chance to really develop devices specifically for Windows 8 yet. And we are on first generation W8 tablets. Eventually Microsoft will figure out the battery issue and be able to offer some awesome tablets that give the best of worlds. Microsoft is not nearly as obnoxious as Apple and has better control then Android.

Phones - we still have seen any numbers from Nokia or HTC. I doubt we will see anything until earnings season in January. Microsoft is not the place to look for numbers on Cel Phone sales, look at Nokia, Samsung, and HTC. And keep in mind, the US is just a part of the world market. Guess what I'm saying is, don't be so quick to write Microsoft off. I have stock in the company and it's the most stable defensive position I have.

Should Ballmer go? Well, he brought us some great hits, and some great misses. Vista was a miss (though I loved it). Windows Mobile was a miss (never tried it). Windows 7 was a hit, along with Office 2007 and 2010. And I really like Office 2013. W8 is a hit - I love the phone and I also love the desktop versions. If I didn't already have a laptop, I'd get the Surface Pro. It's hard to say if Skype will do anything good for the company. And don't forget that Motorola is looking to dump it's cable box division. If Microsoft can place it's X-Box in place with the cable providers a lot of good things can be in store for Microsoft. Ballmer kept the stock price stable and I think it's well placed for some great gains in the future. He guided the company on the right path and they just need to execute it well now. Developers can now develop for 4 platforms and share most of the code, which is a first for Microsoft. As new laptops and PC's come out, and Window's 8 tablets become competitive to what is available, the synergy will be incredible.

[Simon Tupper]

Not to be pessimist but less than 3% market share is not a hit... as much as I love Windows Phone 7 and 8... we are far from a hit...

Office is good and it's there to stay

Skype is already popular and growing, but it needs more features.

The Surface? well it still sells more than the Zune HD...... BUT it cannot connect of the internet other than on wifi (what the ****)

I cannot say that Ballmer has a glorious story with Microsoft... I know about the antitrust ruling and all that... but really he had 10 years to come up with a good idea and all I see it that most of what he released is whether flawed or behind the competition... We need someone that has vision... someone who can take what is already there and make it better than anything else out there... and Ballmer failed at doing that. I know the blame is not all for him, but it's time for Microsoft to get a real leader.

[dogfish54]

Article is click-bait. Journalists use this stuff for themselves and think that everyone is the same. iPad's are doing well in business because they are also cool toys that employees want.

[Laura Knotek]

Ahh that's just trash a article written at Business Insider. That publication is no better than a tabloid. Actually, that's exactly what it is. Its business oriented instead of celebrity focused. Click on their name to go over to their website.

I agree with you. Most of the articles on the site are not even business-related.

Most real business sites related to investing require that the authors disclose if they hold any shares in the companies they write about.

[paulm187]

Microsoft just sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses over 30 days. Thats more than every iPad and Mac sold over the last quarter.

[v10type-r]

Once again, this just shows how biased North American columnists are towards Apple. I read this and was just speechless and filled with absolute rage... The guy who wrote this has probably been stressed out over the past 3 months after seeing his precious Apple stocks drop hard, and now he is getting it from his wife cause they can't afford to go on their Christmas vacation or buy the gifts they want this year because of it.

He writes this crap to attempt to give Apple stocks a boost, but its so filled with BS he's just making himself look terrible.

I just purchased my Surface RT am loving my Lumia 920, my dad is on the waitlist for the Samsung ATIV-S and I got my wife an HTC 8X for Christmas. I'm sure I'm not the only one buying MS products...

I was with my friend last Sunday and we both took our phones out of our pockets to check the weather forecast, we actually both dropped our phones onto hardwood floor, my lumia 920 had zero damage to it, but when my friend picked up his iPhone 5 his screen had shattered, what a POS phone... he was mad and I think he's gonna go get a 920 now after seeing how fragile his iPhone 5 was. Why don't more columnists write about the crappy build quality of the iPhone5? oh ya, I forgot, they either work for Apple or are brainwashed by the kool-aid.

[mlm1950]

Once again, this just shows how biased North American columnists are towards Apple. I read this and was just speechless and filled with absolute rage... The guy who wrote this has probably been stressed out over the past 3 months after seeing his precious Apple stocks drop hard, and now he is getting it from his wife cause they can't afford to go on their Christmas vacation or buy the gifts they want this year because of it.

He writes this crap to attempt to give Apple stocks a boost, but its so filled with BS he's just making himself look terrible.

I just purchased my Surface RT am loving my Lumia 920, my dad is on the waitlist for the Samsung ATIV-S and I got my wife an HTC 8X for Christmas. I'm sure I'm not the only one buying MS products...

I was with my friend last Sunday and we both took our phones out of our pockets to check the weather forecast, we actually both dropped our phones onto hardwood floor, my lumia 920 had zero damage to it, but when my friend picked up his iPhone 5 his screen had shattered, what a POS phone... he was mad and I think he's gonna go get a 920 now after seeing how fragile his iPhone 5 was. Why don't more columnists write about the crappy build quality of the iPhone5? oh ya, I forgot, they either work for Apple or are brainwashed by the kool-aid.

And you think the writer of the article in the OP is biased?

[v10type-r]

And you think the writer of the article in the OP is biased?

I never said I wasn't biased did I? My cousin is the Windows Phone Design Studio General Manager, so how can I not be biased?

But one thing is certain, Its totally apparent that 90% of the North American reviews and articles out there are biased towards Apple or that they just dislike Microsoft. Whether it be the old "I'm a PC" ads by Apple that brainwashed these writers years ago with or that they are heavily invested in Apple and its ecosystem they just don't give anyone else a fair review.

[mlm1950]

I never said I wasn't biased did I? My cousin is the Windows Phone Design Studio General Manager, so how can I not be biased?

But one thing is certain, Its totally apparent that 90% of the North American reviews and articles out there are biased towards Apple or that they just dislike Microsoft. Whether it be the old "I'm a PC" ads by Apple that brainwashed these writers years ago with or that they are heavily invested in Apple and its ecosystem they just don't give anyone else a fair review.

You and your buddy just happened to drop competing phones at the same time, and since you were just lucky that your screen didn't crack, because it very well could have, you came to the conclusion that the iPhone is a POS phone? OK.

Say hi to Albert for me.

[v10type-r]

Actually I dropped my Lumia 920 about a dozen times now, with no scuffs or scratches. Did the same with my Lumia 900 but I did get a mark on the top of the phone after dropping it on concrete. Have I been lucky? maybe.. but you can't say the build on the Lumias haven't been pretty robust.

I apologize for calling it a POS, that is just what my friend called it after he picked it up and noticed it was done for. Actually it was more like "BLEEPING- POS"...

I've already had a few friends return their iPhone5s for exchange, a few were due to leaking light, this is the second one thats had a cracked screen from dropping and almost all of them have complained about the durability and how it scratches easily.

I'm not saying that Nokia hasn't had its fair share of issues either, but with all this praise in the media for the iPhone, its actually hard to find many articles that point out its flaws vs how many there are about its competitors.

This thread was started to point out an article written about MS and its "failing" products, I see it differently and believe the writers view is biased and it appears that many other ppl in this forum and commenters on the actual article point agree.

[Seismo]

No, the sky is not falling for Microsoft but the author brings up some good points.

The xbox has won the *gaming console* living room war. I don't know anyone that uses the Xbox as their primary non-gaming entertainment console.

But consider the source - Yahoo *finance*. His comments about the xbox were all about money. Xbox is #1, sure, but at what cost? Control of the living room doesn't mean jack squat if you can't make a buck off of it. Same with Bing. How much has Microsoft invested in it while the masses prefer google? I have a WP8 phone but I still vastly prefer google because my searches typically hit on what I'm looking for more frequently with google than Bing.

He has another point about MS Office. No, it's not going anywhere anytime soon but one thing I've noticed, and have been very impressed by with WP8 is that Microsoft no longer has an adversarial relationship with other companies. In the old days they would refuse to play ball with Facebook and Yahoo and Google. Now, they openly embrace them and tie them all in together.

There are a ****-load of iPads being sold. Microsoft would be monumentally stupid if they were not working on porting Microsoft Office to iOS at this very moment. I know people that have ditched their desktops in favor of an iPad and bluetooth keyboard. I personally wouldn't, but its happening whether that decision makes sense to you or not. Microsoft needs to embrace that and put their footprint on the iPad as much as possible.

[mlm1950]

No, the sky is not falling for Microsoft but the author brings up some good points.

The xbox has won the *gaming console* living room war. I don't know anyone that uses the Xbox as their primary non-gaming entertainment console.

But consider the source - Yahoo *finance*. His comments about the xbox were all about money. Xbox is #1, sure, but at what cost? Control of the living room doesn't mean jack squat if you can't make a buck off of it. Same with Bing. How much has Microsoft invested in it while the masses prefer google? I have a WP8 phone but I still vastly prefer google because my searches typically hit on what I'm looking for more frequently with google than Bing.

He has another point about MS Office. No, it's not going anywhere anytime soon but one thing I've noticed, and have been very impressed by with WP8 is that Microsoft no longer has an adversarial relationship with other companies. In the old days they would refuse to play ball with Facebook and Yahoo and Google. Now, they openly embrace them and tie them all in together.

There are a ****-load of iPads being sold. Microsoft would be monumentally stupid if they were not working on porting Microsoft Office to iOS at this very moment. I know people that have ditched their desktops in favor of an iPad and bluetooth keyboard. I personally wouldn't, but its happening whether that decision makes sense to you or not. Microsoft needs to embrace that and put their footprint on the iPad as much as possible.

Microsoft just made 200 million dollars in one day from the sale of Halo 4, and their new strategy is to tie Windows 8, XBOX, and Windows Phone 8 together, and Office is coming to iOS in early 2013.

[Simon Tupper]

Microsoft just made 200 million dollars in one day from the sale of Halo 4, and their new strategy is to tie Windows 8, XBOX, and Windows Phone 8 together, and Office is coming to iOS in early 2013.

Microsoft should really put Xbox video and Xbox music together... Zune was so much better than those two. Of course the apps look gorgeous, but they sacrificed so much functionalities that I don't use them much...

[brmiller1976]

Business Insider, like TechCrunch and Pando Daily, receive "investment" from the same VCs whose startups they report on.

In general, the "unspoken deal" is that startups or VCs who don't "invest" get trashed, while those that do (or whose shares are held by the owners) get promoted and defended.

This is TERRIBLE and UNETHICAL, but it's also likely highly lucrative for those involved in the "journalism."

For example, when Path was slammed (rightly so) for lifting people's contact information without warning, TechCrunch went out of its way to defend the company and attacked other journalists who investigated the issue... repeatedly. (CrunchFund *just happened* to have a substantial position in Path). Before AirBnB was held by TechCrunch's "CrunchFund," every article about it was a wail of negativity about its business model and survival. After CrunchFund got a chunk of the company, the articles transformed into positive puff pieces.

Business Insider made only $2K on $5 million in revenues in its first calendar year. How many VCs want to snap up a business like that? Very few -- but they're "investing" anyway. Not for the returns, but for the "access." BI is held by many funds who own Google and Apple-oriented businesses, or "cloud" companies like Salesforce who have been trying to unseat Microsoft for years.

This "article" was held at the top of BI's front page for almost a week (unusual, given that 99% of articles they write drop down as new ones take their place). Seems pretty likely to me that some "cloud" or Android/iOS-oriented VC paid for this... or perhaps Microsoft didn't cough up a hefty check to "invest."

The founder and editor-in-chief of Business Insider, Henry Blodget, used to work on Wall Street -- but was banned for life by the SEC after being caught defrauding investors in tech stocks. Would you trust an "analysis" by someone with this sort of history? Me neither.

It appears that yellow "journalism" pays much better these days anyway.

[ironsoulreaver]

Wow, I want to keep my mouth shut but on this one I need to comment... (I see alot of that happening).

9. The Xbox was never going to make up the slack, and Microsoft can no longer afford to keep investing in it.

The Xbox has had a lead on the industry for years. It doen't matter how bad the consoles were when they came out. They had a year lead on Sony and it's what it was all about. It didn't matter how much money Microsoft had to dump into repairing the consoles that were not ready for production in the first place because their little trick worked. By the time the PS3 hit the market XBox had already saturated it. By the time the news had spread to everyone about the consoles failure rates it was too late for most people to turn to the PS3 because they were so heavilly invested in it. They pofit on it now and even though i'm not sure if they have closed the deficit from that, eventually they will.

The xbox has won the *gaming console* living room war. I don't know anyone that uses the Xbox as their primary non-gaming entertainment console.

I do.

[AngryNil]

Microsoft would be monumentally stupid if they were not working on porting Microsoft Office to iOS at this very moment.

There are arguments for and against, "monumentally stupid" is simply incorrect. Microsoft is a device and services company, and that means a balance between going cross-platform and maintaining differentiators for their own devices. Microsoft needs to skate to where the puck is going to be. Yes, it's currently at the iPad - but that isn't the end-game for tablets. Android is eating away at market share and Microsoft's Surface touts Office as a huge selling point.

[brmiller1976]

Microsoft will no doubt release versions of Office for iOS (and Android) with limited functionality sans Office 365. You'll buy the app(s) and to get file sharing, etc. you'll need to spring for a monthly O365 subscription.

How will Windows sweeten the deal? Simple. Buy Windows, get Office for free (instead of buying the app) along with most of the capabilities that you need to pay extra for on iOS and Android.

[contributorM]

Who cares.

Honestly, ever since the launch of Win 8 and Win phone 8, I've liked MS a whole lot more. Finally something different on both platforms. Heck, when I bought my first Zune HD (rip) my interest sparked.

Let folks say what they want. Success is always the best form of revenge anyway.

[garak0410]

The xbox has won the *gaming console* living room war. I don't know anyone that uses the Xbox as their primary non-gaming entertainment console.

Count me in as using the XBOX as primarily an entertainment console. We are heavy Netflix and Amazon Instant Video users. We also use the YouTube app and love the Play To option to send videos to our XBOX. I rarely fire up a game...

[garak0410]

Microsoft should really put Xbox video and Xbox music together... Zune was so much better than those two. Of course the apps look gorgeous, but they sacrificed so much functionalities that I don't use them much...

I understand the need to use a "modern" app for XBOX music but they still could have made it a lot like the Zune Software...I am being patient with XBOX Music right now because it is a mess.