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Mike_L on 09 June 2016
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barneystinson69 said:
Mike_L said:

No, you're completely right. Those 3 are not failures. Though my point isn't to shout "failure". My point is to uncover how it's possible that MS seems to cripple their own potentially great products (often from the get go).

 

Xbox One: Numerous PR nightmares (deal with it, buy a 360, always online, mandatory Kinect, blocking of used games, TV-TV-TV, more expensive and weaker, etc.) that crippled the launch of an otherwise good product. Reports have revealed that Xbox together with Skype and Windows Phone loses $2 billion a year. Link.

Bing: Starts promising but fails to steal significant market share and is slowly just destroyed by its lack of continuously improvements and now makes up a $1.3 billion loss together with MSN and Hotmail/Outlook.

Surface tablets: Again, a product with great potential but crippled out of the gate. The Surface Pro is far too expensive and desktop-ish for the iPad audience and the Surface RT is supported by far too few apps

 

Exactly those 3 products are the ones investors seem the most eager to get rid of. Link.

As said, I'm not trying to be a jerk. If you disagree please let me know. Maybe I'll learn something :)

Well lets see

Xbox One: I can sort of agree. But selling 20 million in 2 years isn't what I consider "failure" with all thats happened.

Bing: Had a long history of problems, but now its profitable: http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/22/bing-is-profitable/

Its also gaining share quite quickly: http://www.neowin.net/news/comscore-bings-us-market-share-increases-02-googles-drops-02-in-april

Surface: Its a premium brand. Yes, it doesn't sell through the roof, but it does make a little money to the side. Its also been a huge inspiration to OEMs, and has allowed Windows OEMs to be competitive. Its the reason  Windows tablets have 14% of the market: http://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2016/06/report-business-smartphone-shipments-flat-yoy-tablets-fall-1q

I learned something. Thanks :)

Regarding the other products, I still think great potential is often crippled by weird choices or rushed launches. And it baffles me.