Shhhh, you apparently didn't get the memo, "Death" is now defined as not growing at a fast enough rate. Microsoft's quarterly earnings only grew 24%, clearly death is imminent.
I side with Winter... Although there is no question that in the 'Fullness of Time' that M$ will die out... that will not be for quite awhile since they built a more 'robust' illegall monopoly then has been done in the past... Many monops in the past only had a few products and were horizontal monopoly's but with M$ since they have a deeply vertical monoply and an ingrained political lobby to back it up - i don't think they are dying anytime soon... your obituary prt' is a wee bit too soon lad... cj... __________________ HAVE STOP - WILL TRADE If You Have The Vision We Have The Code
Didn't put a time line on it ... but others have put a time line on their claims of robustness but have not been able to provide anything other than naysaying .... $soft enjoyed this "robust" monopoly for a long time ...but now the playing field has dramatically changed in a structural way that they can not counter: Open source software is not licensed, and is not controlled by any single entity. Couple this fact with $softs attempt to hiighly compensate entrenched senior management and NOT compensate their engineers and I think you have a recipe for disaster: On top of this just take a look at Ballmers threatening condesenting comments to customers and potential customers and there is clearly a major set of problems with the company. Unless they make major changes I see a dim future for $soft ...
I think the company 'M$' will stay, but not for what we know it nowadays. They will have to rethink themselves very quickly (I would give a 5 years time horizon). Just imagine if linux or/and macintosh take 25% of their business, this would really cancel all their earnings and force them to diversify. That's what they are already trying to do now...with little success. They have entered a vicious circle.
I really hope that someone sends a link of this thread to Microsoft - that way they can take in the genius of all you second guessers and doomsday predictors...and maybe, JUST maybe they will be able to save their company that is spiraling out of control. Because when it comes to corporate strategy and planning the future direction of a company, all of those MS people have nothing on prt_systems. Want a banana? Damn, it does not get any better than an old man in a trailer with access to a computer and a chip on his shoulder to tell em how it should be done (or, what is going to happen because of their decisions!),
Yea, he really does have a compelling debating style that is tough to argue with, very similar to many 3rd graders. I mean on one side you have MSFT with record earnings and on the other side you have this clown who predicts they are doomed and then backpedals with "someday" (like every company isn't going to die someday).
..... Humans have the ability to reason and provide enlightened argument. Animals resort to aggression when they get frustrated ...... Go get a banana !