“The bloom appears to be fading from the Redmond rose,” ABC News reports.
“Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp., the most powerful technology company in the world, has faced a variety of legal and operational hurdles this year, leaving some observers to believe the company has peaked and has begun a steady slide from industry dominance,” ABC News reports.
“Co-founder Bill Gates’ announcement last month that he would withdraw from the company’s daily operations over the next two years marked the start of a major shift of the face of the tech giant,” ABC News reports. “The company has suffered increasing trouble getting key new products out on time. Development issues have delayed the release of its much-anticipated new Vista operating system by more than two years. The most recent delay sparked a sharp drop in the Microsoft stock price.”
Full article, with a nice timeline of some of the technical, operational and legal problems that Microsoft has faced in the last several months, here.
Related articles:
Cramer’s Mad Money advice: keep Apple Computer, dump Microsoft shares – July 05, 2006
Leopard attack on Vista: Apple taunts Microsoft with much faster operating system launches – July 05, 2006
Should Microsoft reinvent itself and develop new businesses outside of software? – July 02, 2006
Microsoft’s Office 2007 slips again – June 29, 2006
The Wired 40: Apple #2, Microsoft drops to #36, Dell falls off list – June 28, 2006
What Microsoft has chopped from Windows Vista, and when – June 27, 2006
Business 2.0’s 50 People Who Matter: Steve Jobs #5; Top 10 Who Don’t Matter: Microsoft’s Ballmer – June 26, 2006
Analyst Wu: Microsoft unlikely to dethrone Apple iPod+iTunes – June 21, 2006
Windows Live head leaves Microsoft less than 24 hours after launch – June 21, 2006
Bill Gates to transition out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft – June 15, 2006
Moving Microsoft Internet Explorer Favorites to Apple Safari Bookmarks when you switch – June 08, 2006
Microsoft CEO Ballmer spends two days unsuccessfully trying to clean Windows PC malware – June 05, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
It must be getting really bad: Microsoft brings back the towels – May 19, 2006
Mossberg: Apple’s end-to-end model beats Microsoft’s component model in post-PC era – May 10, 2006
Dvorak: Microsoft malaise – eight signs that Microsoft is dead in the water – May 03, 2006
Couldn’t you just buy a Mac and run Windows? Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘No, we prefer real PCs’ – April 29, 2006
Windows Vista to be Microsoft’s last operating system? – April 21, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft collapsing under its own weight, Gates has driven Windows Vista into the ground – April 20, 2006
Pre-Boot Camp report: Apple could double market share on Microsoft defections – April 13, 2006
Apple launches a missle at Microsoft with Boot Camp – April 06, 2006
Microsoft: recovery from Windows malware becoming impossible; better to to wipe and rebuild – April 04, 2006
Harvard prof: Microsoft Windows users ‘may simply end up with a more and more inferior OS over time’ – March 27, 2006
What’s the difference between Mac OS X and Vista? Microsoft employees are excited about Mac OS X – March 22, 2006
Microsoft suffers from malaise, key defections, Windows Vista struggles, lack of towels – September 16, 2005
Microsoft employees leaving due to (and blogging about) malaise smothering company – April 25, 2005
Microsoft’s lack of momentum, malaise won’t end anytime soon – March 16, 2005
Bill Gates departure was the “rats leaving the sinking ship”. I’d like to give Apple credit for M$’s downfall, but it’s really their own fault. Poor management has done them in. They were excellent at gaining market share and destroying competitors, but in the end, they couldn’t survive their own success.
Microsoft (2000s) = AT&T (80s) = IBM (80s)
It won’t die, but it will be a shadow of it’s former self.
Didn’t their decline start about the time that Billy became “Chief Software Architect”?
woohoo…second post! almost a semi-chubby!
MW-post!!! WTF
Cheers!!!
MDN: come, as in “The Renaissance has come”
Jeez MDN you’re gonna give yourself some bad Karma with all these gloating pieces about how crappy MSoft is.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like seeing MS get their comeuppance as much as the next guy (after all what Mac uses doesn’t have to put up with some arrogant and/or ignorant Windows user everyday), but how many times have we heard the same thing about Apple?
Personally I don’t care if Apple gets more market share. They are not going under, they make excellent products and I can get my work done. (I’m lucky tho’ I get to use a Mac at work and at home…I know others aren’t that lucky)
everybody now!
*na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goo-ood bye*
Ballmer must go.
A normal company would have already axed Ballmer, but it is becoming apparent that Microsoft´s top management is based on the good old boy system and all them are richer than any other stock holders combined so stock holders are up sh$t crick without a paddle.
Ballmer must go.
Back in the mid-late 1950’s GM held over 75% of the US car & truck market. Not ‘domestic’– total. Now GM has less than 25% and may well have to link up with Renault & Nissan. It took a while, but it happened. Not one company, but a thousand cuts from all over.
Are you listening Bill & Steve?
Fast Forward to Redmond 2007:
We go live now to Shepard Smith in Redmond, Washington. Shep?
Thanks, guys. I am live on the Microsoft campus, where Microsoft is on the verge of Chapter 11. In the background, I don’t know if you can see him, but Steve Ballmer is yelling and screaming in the background while playing the violin, as the campus is ablaze, occassionally wiping his head with his sweaty towel.
Mmmmmmmmm . . . pie!
This is a story about how slow ABC and other major news outlets are to report “the news.”
Good one Raster, but I don’t know if it would happen quite that fast!
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Thank you MDM for not adding your “Take” this time. The story was ABCs and very sufficient…I’m serious!
Much anticipated?
And in other news, Microsoft issued this statement in a press release today, June 14th, 2007:
“Contrary to current rumors, Microsoft is completely solvent Chapter 11 and we have no plans to readjust our guidance going forward stock crash. We continue to target a September 2007 shipping date for Vista when hell freezes over, and our channel partners slaves continue to be pleased with our revised timetable no choice. Further, our Zune multimedia entertainment system vapor is evolving exponentially toward its release in time for the holiday shopping season of 2008. We continue to innovate steal in the marketplace and anticipate that Vista will change the computing landscape as we know it low adoption. Microsoft welcomes all technology partners hot sex interested in joining us on our upcoming development projects pregnant and holding the bag and initiating any dialogue with regard to establishing joint technological standards lock box so that in concert we may all continue to service the marketplace slash and burn that Microsoft has established over the last two decades stolen by unfair trade.”
Hey rasterbator,
..and throwing chairs into the fire to keep the flames going….
omg that subliminal thing is hilarious
Hey zelfort
We don’t want Uncle Fester to leave. We gotta have someone to make fun of as long as he stays. Who else is going to entertain us by jumping around on the stage like a show monkey, do tricks like throwing chairs and imitate Gene Simmons’ tongue wagging. This is better than watching any other “reality shows”.
“The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”
Who’s going to supply a OS that runs the worlds ATMS machines, supermarket checkouts, make your car crash and airplanes fall out of the sky?
Who’s going to supply a OS that the worlds spooks can hack at will?
Who’s going to supply the OS that people can send off $40,000 from their online bank to their friends in Eastern Europe and claim a hacker did it?
Who’s going to support the EU with millions of dollars a day in cash?
Who’s going to support the multi-billion dollar anti-malware companies?
Who’s going to support the millions of IT jobs cleaning our mess up?
Think about it, you need us.
Sincerly,
The Evil Empire of Redmond.
Peter J.
I feel the same way however market share is necessary to give developers incentives to develop software for the mac. Application support has grown a lot but there are still a lot of gaps in software availability. While Apple’s hardware is great and beautiful is the OS and software that eventually wins people over.
Back in the mid-late 1950’s GM held over 75% of the US car & truck market.
Not quite. Check out http://www.carofthecentury.com/answer_to_gm's_market_share_plunge.htm
GM’s peak U.S. market share was 48.3% in the 1960’s. Today their share is around 25%. Still a pretty breathtaking drop.
Like you said, GM is a case study in a death of a thousand cuts. IMO their products aren’t that bad & they are even underrated; they’ve just lost the “buzz” and market perception that drives a winner. If Toyota can hold their quality & value while approaching GM-sized volume & “legacy costs”, then they deserve to win.
Like GM, MS will also be a case of a company that got too big & lost its way, the classic “old company disease”. Although unlike MS, GM never signed on a fruitcake like Ballmer, or engineered a wreck like Vista.
We’ll see if Apple can be the next Toyota.
…beleaguered Microsoft.
As a Windows used I’d like to say this article is pure FUD.
I’d like to say it, but I can’t. It’s all true.
It’s a good thing I use a Mac too.
Macaholic, Yes.
No one, and I mean no one, wants to see Windtoes go away more than I do, BUT…
Just because Wall Street says they’re sliding, and just because they’re being sued by every country and every country’s state, on the planet, doen’t mean they are at the end of their rope. The facts are (among others), almost all computers at home, at school, and at work are still running Windows. Almost all IT professionals advocate, recommend, and insist on Windows driven machines. And, other than Apple stores, almost no consumer electronics stores offer anything other than Windows based computer products in their stores, and the few that do offer non-Windows products do such a horrific job that it would clearly be more beneficial for the non-Windows products if they didn’t.
Interesting that this article is at ABC which is owned by Disney …