Apple Prepared To Pass Microsoft As Second Most Valuable US Company

[Squilliam]

famousringo said:

Squilliam said:

Nope its not. However the alternative was what? Sit on the money? Buy another couple of companies? So far the ROI is better than the interest they would have recieved from sitting on it and the latter option could have gone either way. I don't see them as being mad, perhaps more disapointed that they couldn't have done more/better.

Oh, I'm not suggesting that MS shouldn't go out and seek new markets. They have to, and it's clear that they're trying quite hard to do so. MS knows that companies are either growing or dying, it's just that their efforts to grow aren't meeting a lot of success.

I think Microsoft's problem is that they keep trying to take over big, established markets instead of persuing fledgling markets or creating new ones. They try to tackle search well after Google has it sewn up, mp3 players after Apple has it sewn up, consoles and Sony, et cetera. They had a pretty good position in smartphones but they let it slip out of their grasp. They keep going after companies that are big enough and entrenched enough that they can withstand Microsoft's huge size and deep pockets.

If I were Ballmer, I'd spend less time looking enviously at the markets that rivals have seized and more time looking for markets they haven't seized yet. He was sharp to identify the threat that Linux-based netbooks represented and moved quickly to crush it. He needs to use that perception in an aggressive manner and not just a defensive one.

They have been going after a new market. Their Zune, Windows Mobile, Xbox, and others has been in relation to getting their cloud services into a prime position to take control of a large proportion of one of the fastest growing and most monetiseable segments of the internet. They need Zune because they need an element of respectability with music publishers, they need Xbox Live for gaming and movies and they need Windows Mobile as a relevant passport to everything and to extend into daily life.

If Windows Mobile 7 fails to even hold its own against Apple/Google then it will be a terrible blow. If Natal fails to make traction it will be a terrible blow and if both fail it will be almost fatal. The EDD profits/losses overall represent this whole cloud services push and how financially successful they have been thus far. 2010 is the year where it either comes together with varying degrees of success or the whole thing falls over and back onto lifesupport whilst we wait earnestly to see if they have the patience to try again.