Microsoft is Malfunctioning, Says Former Company Exec

[exfileme]

Former Microsoft executive Joachim Kempin says Microsoft should focus on Facebook, not Apple.

Microsoft is Malfunctioning, Says Former Company Exec : Read more

 

[tokencode]

Despite the Touch/Desktop Windows 8 fiasco, Microsoft has been releasing solid products lately. Windows 7, Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, Visual Studio 2012. All are polished product that excel in their area. They might not have the cool factor, but they have made significant improvements recently.

 

[quilciri]

I like how he mentions "audacity" and cloning another company's product in the same breath.

 

[diddo]

He lost me on "Metro-like".

 

[digiex]

Abort, Retry, Fail

 

[Marcus52]

Umm, wut? Facebook? Like, it competes with Microsoft, how?

If this guy can't understand the difference between the average Windows user and the average Apple fanboy, he has no business opening his mouth in public. If he thinks Win 95 was more popular than Win 7, he needs to get into some kind of reality therapy.

 

[leandrodafontoura]

Microsfot needs Steve jobs

 

[CaedenV]

the reason people lined up to get win95 is because you use to have to go to a store to get such things. Every copy of win7 I purchased was online and shipped to me. For Win8 I purchased one disc (in a store! it was weird!) and then all other copies were downloads. Even my copy of win2k and XP/xp64 were purchased online.

As for competing with FB... that is insane. MS has always taken a tack of letting other services thrive if they can do a better job (and there is little money in it).

 

[jadedmonkey28]

In the old days MS would have just copied apple and made a better iphone, the Mphone. Alas we get the crappy tiles and a dismal app store instead. Samsung took the old MS role and has arguably the best smartphones on the market now. Even apple says Samsung phones are just like it's own. If MS wants to be back on top than they need to become ruthless and apple should want to sue them. Instead apple looks at MS phones and says "Really, that's all you got, we could care less."

 

[ojas]

I think we all know that...

 

[virtualban]

[citation][nom]Marcus52[/nom]Umm, wut? Facebook? Like, it competes with Microsoft, how?If this guy can't understand the difference between the average Windows user and the average Apple fanboy, he has no business opening his mouth in public. If he thinks Win 95 was more popular than Win 7, he needs to get into some kind of reality therapy.[/citation]
Microsoft has been trying to get more social everywhere it could. Not that it has been successful in that. But have been trying. That's what he is saying IMO, trying to become like facebook and getting profits from all people sharing and liking instead of getting profit the hard work way.

 

[Soda-88]

[citation][nom]jadedmonkey28[/nom]In the old days MS would have just copied apple and made a better iphone, the Mphone. Alas we get the crappy tiles and a dismal app store instead. Samsung took the old MS role and has arguably the best smartphones on the market now. Even apple says Samsung phones are just like it's own. If MS wants to be back on top than they need to become ruthless and apple should want to sue them. Instead apple looks at MS phones and says "Really, that's all you got, we could care less."[/citation]
I'd rather have Lumia 920 than iPhone, that's for sure.

 

[gilgamex]

I agree on one level that Microsoft really doesn't have anything that sparks any interest. They are are primarily a software company, and do just fine with that and they also have Xbox which is debateably "Crummy" and has been a worthwhile venture for the company. It's just that none of these, including Microsoft, don't take any risks whatsoever.

I think "Lining around the block" for windows95 vs Windows 7 is in one sense a metaphor because most things are an online or bundled OEM distribution. Windows 95 was groundbreaking at the time, and it was this explosion of people wondering what the future held with enthusiasm, the internet was in its infancy and it was on the most progressive track at the time.

Nowadays there isn't ANYTHING exciting whatsoever except prototype builds of cool products from no name companies. Apple has got billions in the bank along with Microsoft, but they haven't made a damn thing that was really groundbreaking in any significant way except The Ipod/Original Iphone. There's no new awesome technology, no wild Ideas like google pulls out of its hat like Google's Project Glass. Stagnant boring companies.

 

[lradunovic77]

Longhorn project and concepts of it had some ground breaking things but MS went for less and even less with Windows 8. Touch interface is not replacement for mouse and keyboard and infact it has no future. Future is Virtual Reality from which we are far away. Clearly some idiot at MS headquarter thought that you could apply touch gesture from Phone and Tablet to Desktop. They are obsessed with unifying Desktop, Phone and Tablets which won't happen. It is simply impossible to put a sign of = between Desktop and Tablet and Phone. They are all different devices and Tablets and Phones do not belong to PC. They are simply not PC but PM. Again MS came up with Surface Pro just as OEM came up with all weird devices, played with all of them and they are simply not good for anything. They lack just enough to force you to go for real solution in form of Desktop or Apple iPad.

 

[howard69]

i guess i've been a MS customer longer than Joachim was with the big Redmond crew.
having bled and fought over every one of their products the only thing i still
want from them is for a specific product to JUST WORK.
if it does that, i'm in.
while i agree that a Metro like Facebook clone might be cool, our firm
and most of the heavy hitters depending on MS just need excellence
in software and a center to their diverse galaxies of endeavor.
it bugs the c---- out of me that we had to download a free utility
just to get our Start Buttons back in Windows 8 but that is the
world we live in and what we must do to keep the crew happy.

 

[niixon]

So FaceBook, Google+, and Twitter are all too confusing and user unfriendly!? F*** my grandma knows how to use FaceBook, how much more simple does this guy want it!?
"Windows Social, so easy an autistic caveman could do it."

 

[redgarl]

[citation][nom]quilciri[/nom]I like how he mentions "audacity" and cloning another company's product in the same breath.[/citation]
Pure Microsoft tactics...

 

[jkflipflop98]

If the ones that are still there are as clueless as this dude, it's no wonder they're sputtering. Compete with Facebook? WTF is this dude smoking?

 

[IAmVortigaunt]

What is this guy talking about? First, he says they shouldn't be chasing Apple, then he says how Apple gets people lining up for products and that MS needs that kind of enthusiasm. So should they be chasing Apple or not? As for going after Facebook, are you kidding me? You think you're going to get a billion people to switch to your new social network just because it's a little more user friendly? Facebook, while not that great from a useability standpoint, works well enough for people, but, most importantly, pretty much anyone that wants to be on a social network (and has access to the internet) is on Facebook. Not only have they reached critical mass, it's a tiny dot in their rearview mirror. As for irritating OEM partners, so what! OEMs have been dropping the ball for years, putting out uninspired hardware full of bloatware and trialware. Also, he says they're not cool anymore, but also says they should spin off the xbox? That's arguabley their "coolest" product and central to their strategy of winning the race for the living room. This guy kinda seems to be off his rocker.

 

[Trueno07]

[citation][nom]tokencode[/nom]Despite the Touch/Desktop Windows 8 fiasco, Microsoft has been releasing solid products lately. Windows 7, Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, Visual Studio 2012. All are polished product that excel in their area. They might not have the cool factor, but they have made significant improvements recently.[/citation]

And even then Windows 8 is a functional operating system. It's new, and a lot of people don't like it, but it's still way more usable than ME or Vista was when they were released.

 

[warezme]

This guy is even more clueless then he accuses MS of being. What a waste of a read.

 

[cocogorilla]

This guy couldn't be more wrong. Facebook clone? So build what already exists, what millions of users already use... and what will draw those users in? Cool glassy animations? What a waste of resources... Google+ isn't even doing that well and they got in early. Offering a platform for service aggregation (which is what windows 8 and RT products do) is a much better idea than dumping millions of developer resources on something that won't be adopted by users... because they are already using something else... hello? This guy may not be stupid, but this opinion is. Tablets, phones, formfactor X, these are part of the hardware landscape and for software coming out of MS compilers to work on them, MS must have a presence, influence over specifications, standards or it will be the old world of, "does this application work on my device... did the developer write a driver for my tablet?" Thankfully, MS is skipping over this step. They've invested in the hardware, they have a presence, they have the influence and can write to at least a limited scope of variation... and consequently, so can I. They have the platform they need to compete successfully and globally.

 

[bllue]

Yeah this is an even worse idea than going after Apple. More and more people are starting to consider Facebook as a joke, a fad, etc. MS has shown that they can do great things (W7, Zune) and I don't think following the footsteps of fads is the ideal choice. Why should MS try to replicate Apple when they could easily come out with innovative products? Sure, doing what Apple does is likely to be safe investment but all the talent their people have is kind of wasted on these efforts. I do get the feel that the Surface line is the first step of something greater (sort of like what Bill Gates once said months ago.. I couldn't find the quote unfortunately), and in a few years devices like Surface Pro will overtake notebooks and tablets. It will be very interesting to see what the next generation of Surface devices turn out to be.

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

If Microsoft was doing better before then maybe it was because they were using evil business tactics?

 

[bigdragon]

He's got a point. Windows 95 and Windows 98 were exciting products. Microsoft changed the desktop for the better and actually created things people wanted back then. I'd like to see them get that fire back, and I agree that chasing Apple is a bad idea. However, I don't think chasing Facebook is the solution. Microsoft needs to focus on its software ecosystem. It needs to focus on bringing us the best computing experience possible instead of kicking out half-baked products like Window RT and 8. They need to stop trying to be Apple and go back to being Microsoft.