Sony and Nintendo innovate, Microsoft replicates.

Sony are loosing money, Nintendo is making bucket loads of it and Micrsoft are quietly gaining market share with each generation.

PS the iPad is crap and will bomb.

DirtyP2002 said: WereKitten said: The gist of the interview was not about gaining or keeping marketshare, nor about just how financially successful their products are. It was about being creative and spearheading innovation. (Innovation is not necessarily revolutionary. Sometimes it just means doing less, doing it better, packaging it well. See Google versus previous search engines, or Apple with iPod and iPhone.) Their browser is still the most used browser in the world. Its usage share keeps declining, though, and every innovation in the browser world (tabs, heavy leverage of extensions, multi-process architecture, fast Javascript VMs enabling complex web apps, adoption of emerging standards) came from the competition. Their OS is still the most used desktop OS in the world, and yet when I used Vista and Windows 7 I found they have been following where Apple (and Next) opened new paths in UI (composite manager display, dock, etc). As OSs become more and more of a commodity on different devices they'll have to rely on unique benefits if they want to keep asking for a premium price, though. Do we want to talk about Bing vs Google, .Net vs Java, Azure vs Google Docs, Zune vs iPod/iPad, or WinMobile 7 vs iPhone OS-X/Android? Strictly from a creative standpoint the sensation is that they are reluctant or unable to push the envelope in a commercially viable way, and too often they just follow suit despite the incredible resources they can muster. They have great R&D projects - I read about them all the time - but it seems like they're smothered by the bulk of the company. Compare this with, say, Apple where you know they're constantly trying to finalize their research project into viable, attractive products. That is where I disagree. You can't expect MS to push this industry alone. This looks like you blame MS for the innovations others made. This is a huge industry and everybody contributes. Do you expect MS to be the number one in every freaking segment in this industry?

I think you are getting a bit too defensive about Microsoft.  I think the main argument is that Microsoft isn't fostering an environment where innovative ideas can thrive, not that they should be front runners in everything they do.

Cleartype taking 10 years to get out?  Doing a horrible job with making their apps compatible with tablets (and now failing to do the same for capactive touchscreens based on finger inputs)?

Sony get's blasted all the time for being a disconnected company, and I agree with those criticisms.  Their divisions have largely in the past been completely ignorant of each other instead of working together.  Now we are hearing that different parts of Microsoft are going so far as to sabotage each other.  It's ridiculous if true.

thx1139 said: At CES MS partners showed tablets galore in all sorts of interesting form factors. A week later Apple shows a rather inferior iPad. Apple gets the good press for the most part. Apple has never had to deal with the backwards compatibility issues that MS has. A friend of ours runs IT for a large news organization where we live. We were having dinner and her husband said why cant MS create PCs like Apple can. We started talking about the compatibility issues and she brought up how they have to keep alive old Mac's because Apple doesnt worry about backwards compatibility and they cant replace/rebuild the software for this Macs at this time or anywhere near soon. It also amazes me how Apple gets away with closed systems and are thought of as darlings. My town opened a new fitness center last month. All of the cardio equipment have video screens. This is cool. You can bring an iPod in and plug it into the equipment and watch your own content. This is cool. Connection is proprietary iPod connector. This isnt cool. Then you realize why the iPod controls the market. It is that connector. All the accessories are built for that connector. Cars now have iPod connectors. The list goes on. That is hardware lock in to a level MS never approached.

Bingo...The double standards are incredible...if M$ did what Apple does, it would get hammered, but Apple is the tech darling...for creatinga totally CLOSED system, while M$ gets beat-up for not being an open OS like linux...lol.  As for the Ipod...looks at how CLOSED it is...and it's a darling.  Looks at the advertising campaign that M$ launched on how the PC is so much cheaper than a MAC...Apple when thru the roof about it, while doing those stupid MAC/PC commercial...complete double standard...but notice that they stopped.  M$ will sit back and watch Google and Apple tear each other apart and siphon off them...kinda like...well...the Xbox. @ Damnyouall  How does Sony innovate..with the PS series...which was actualy built for somebody else?  Look at the first party games for PS series...they basically BOUGHT developers...but when M$ does that...it's moneyhatting...lol...gimme a break!

Damnyouall said: Sony and Nintendo innovate, Microsoft replicates.

Blah bleddy blah blah generic troll statement blah.

Edit: I guess I should comment on the OP. LOL! Okay, so MS is slow moving? That makes sense, it's huge! Otherwise, good points and interesting, I think as the OP states, they should make an innovation division and have a mandate that the other divisions HAVE to work with them rather than against them.

It is very common for big corporations to develop into business segments that compete against each other for mindshare, corporate resources etc. So, it's not surprising to hear that of Microsoft, either. It is a shame, though, because Microsoft IS in the position to change the world more than anyone else, but it seems they are now lacking the right kind of leadership that would prevent the kinds of sabotage mentioned in the OP. As for Apple, they are a big company too though nowhere near MS, but they have a CEO who is by all accounts close to a dictator. That has impacted the way things happen there, and as a result there is no (or very little) internal competition.

As for an innovative company, I think Google is one of the most interesting examples as they actually support grass-root innovation and, as a result, we have gotten some great new innovations and services.

@ Werekitten, you are like a father to me.

Anyway, im not 100% for and 100% against them on this topic. I couldn't post the attack without posting their response as well so you can see both sides of the topic.

What I really think they should do is spin off their entertainment and devices division into a seperate reporting entity wholly owned by Microsoft themselves. If the whole of Microsoft cannot be agile, then perhaps a small part split off can be agile in the important entertainment and divices division. Now if they are to move beyond Office and Windows to a more balanced portfolio, they'll likely need a product in this division doing well. I say they ought to make EDD into a similar corporation to what Apple is, have a little island of creativity and create a whole range of Microsoft computers, peripherals, gaming consoles, PDA/Phones.

Microsoft faces multiple issues, and I am fairly sure they are aware of them:
* Microsoft is not liked around the industry. They are respected, by what they have done (and their revenues), but aren't liked. Outside of people who have attached their wagon to Microsoft to make a living, others don't like them and have little interest in helping them be successful. Google is likely going to be getting into this spot soon, but now they are considered to "Not do evil" and people will work with them, and like them to some degree. With Microsoft, the fear is also they would take over the world, so people want to block that.
* Microsoft is a software company that made its living off the Wintel platform. They have tried to branch out, with mediocre success. The 360 is likely their greatest success outside of Windows, and it has had issues.
* The world changes, particularly in the area of technology. Microsoft has been caught flat by these changes, and has used its PC platform as a means of bullying its way into different areas. It has done this, being aware of how technology changes. We are facing a place where you need to be competent at producing computing devices that change the game, or partnering with the creating of devices to do things. Microsoft has issues of getting large and locked into a platform for computing that is becoming less and less relevant (the Personal Computer).

Bladeforce said: Problem is it's a very introverted company selling to markets much bigger than america with a much more modern ideal. They will either drop into place with the 21st century or fail but one things for sure windows is NOT the software that will keep this company afloat. The next 10 years you will see a totally different Microsoft in fact I can see a move for the headquarters as the rest of the world is moving forward where as the US mentality is stagnant, the sooner they realize this the better a company Microsoft will be.

Change Microsoft to some other Japanese corporation, and America and U.S to "Japan" in the above statement, and you will see what is happening all over.  The Japanese are facing what you speak about also, with the rest of the world passing them by in sales.  I believe the president of Square-Enix spoke on this.

By the way, regarding Apple, if people think Microsoft is bad, imagine a world where Apple was the top dog the way Microsoft is. You wouldn't have multiple hardware manufacturers making PCs. You would end up with just one, and that is Apple. It would be an even worse Monopolistic state than we have now with Microsoft.