Steve Ballmer Not So Happy About Vista?
After Microsoft just spent millions promoting their new Vista OS for PCs, Steve “watch me blow a gasket and dance little sister, dance” Ballmer has downgraded his expectations for Vista. Ah what the heck: I told you so.
In my opinion, only an executive that owns shares in Microsoft or is confused/scared into it would change over immediately from XP, etc.. And Microsoft’s Office and operating system software has competitors on several fronts. First, Apple’s Mac OS X is gaining ground (I’m planning a switch soon). Then there are numerous excellent Office productivity suites that are free: Open Office, Zoho, and Google Docs and Spreadsheets. The latter two are web based.
So Microsoft has to fend off their territory, and it seems it’ll become a losing battle. Your thoughts? Can Microsoft survive on their operating system and Office software, with all the competing freebies - either standalone or web-based?
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February 20th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Vista’s biggest competitor will be XP for many months to come.
I do not see any of the open source options as serious competitors for Office today. Too many people rely on their corporate IT departments to provide them an OS and software to run and they do not take the time to go and learn alternatives.
Mac has had one of the best OS systems on a desktop since 1984, but that hasn’t helped them penetrate through to the masses. The thing about being popular is that not everyone can be popular and so Apple’s greatest ability, successful marketing, makes people adore them. That doesn’t mean that people buy their products.
I suspect Microsoft’s biggest problem is XP. Its one of the best operating systems that the majority of the world has ever seen, and history and experience has also taught them to be careful with new operating systems.
I have a free Vista upgrade coming after I was forced to break down and pickup a new laptop a couple months ago and I’m not going to use it until I’m sure that my laptop and all the great software that I have on it, will work with the new OS.
This is probably going to be the largest obstacle confronting most people, next to the price of upgrading a legacy machine.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:17 am
Brett, that’s probably true for now, but I’ll point you to something Robert Scoble wrote: http://scobleizer.com/2007/02/20/a-new-conference-microsoft-should-pay-attention-to/
It’s short, and there’s no link, but it’s a quick summary of a new conference called Why Office 2.0 matters. Having written a bunch of articles (elsewhere) on Office 2.0 applications, I have to honestly tell you that MS Office has tough competition.
I haven’t used MS Office products more than twice in the last 6 months, unless clicking on a file automatically fires an app up.
Between a combo of Open Office, Zoho (writer), Google (calendar, docs + spreadsheets), and a few web2.0 to-do-list apps, I don’t need MS Office. My next PC will not have MS Office. Why pay extra?
October 10th, 2007 at 12:33 am
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