A decade ago a sneak preview of the next version of Microsoft Windows would have been news for weeks — and not just in the tech press. With more than 90% of the market — a share it has maintained for nearly two decades — you would think we’d be riveted to Microsoft’s every move.
Instead the news — a batch of slides from a confidential Windows 8 planning meeting — appeared and disappeared with hardly a ripple. Sure, tame bloggers were on hand to squeal in geeky delight, but otherwise the tech press was too busy obsessing about problems with the iPhone 4 and drooling over Google’s new version of Android.
One blog named Microsoft Kitchen gives a good indication of the flavour of the, er, coverage. “Over the weekend, the Italian Windows site Windowsette got a hold of some super secret squirrel Microsoft presentations apparently laying around on the internet somewhere,” it gushes. It seems Apple even has better fan bloggers.
Looking through the slides it’s easy to see why the tech press didn’t pay them that much attention. They range from the mind-numbingly obvious (“Customers should know what to buy”) to the embarrassingly plaintive (“How Apple does it”).
There are a few interesting ideas sprinkled among the slides — like using facial recognition to log in to your computer — but the majority of the ideas are either old, boring, or of questionable usefulness. Microsoft is competing against Apple and Google and what is it concentrating on? A quicker way to turn your computer off. Yeah, that’s exactly what the world is waiting for, dudes.
Let’s look at its other ideas: an online app store. Boy, that sounds familiar. Tablet computers? Don’t you mean iPads? Improved help and support. I’ve never used Google’s help, or Apple’s — but you’re right guys, that’s definitely a killer feature.
Bogged down by nonsense meetings
But it’s in its product cycle slide that the clearest picture emerges — a corporation bogged down by nonsense meetings about meetings and in desperate search of a purpose. It is still talking about yet more features when the new paradigm is simplicity and ease of use. This is exactly why Apple is now worth more than Microsoft, and why Google is snapping at its heels.
If Microsoft shareholders are looking for someone to blame, they should look no further than CEO Steve Ballmer. Since he took over in 2000, Microsoft’s share price has flat-lined. For all his brilliance as a salesman and a deal-maker, Ballmer lacks the vision that made Bill Gates the richest man in the world for more than a decade.
Unless Microsoft can revive that hungry creative spirit, it’s doomed to a steady decline into irrelevance. The days of selling operating systems are over. Now it’s all about selling attention, just as every company from Facebook to Twitter to Google is doing. If Microsoft really wants to compete, it needs to do something radical, like make Windows 8 free and then make money from selling services surrounding the platform. But it seems the boys from Redmond just can’t quit that Windows crack pipe.
It’s easy to hate a big, mean, monopolistic corporation. Microsoft bashing is a very popular sport. But there’s something terribly sad about these slides and this whole abortive PR stunt. We’re witnessing the slow motion demise of what was once the world’s most exciting corporation. That it deserves its fate makes it no less tragic.