This piece is in response to The Register’s “A decade to forget – how Microsoft lost its mojo“
Microsoft is not cool. From Windows and Office, through server products and the Zune, the Redmond-based firm currently exudes an air of creatively running on empty. It’s not broke, of course, it released results of $12.92bn for the quarter to September 09 (http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1774268/microsoft_reports_firstquarter_results/index.html), but it doesn’t feel like it has the mojo it once did.
Indeed it’s hard to escape the feeling that we’re seeing the start of the demise of this once all-powerful organisation. Many of the core products mentioned above seem naturally at odds with the way the world is moving, with online Office-replacements moving centre stage with Google Docs and their ilk.
So here, in my utterly uneducated wisdom, are my top five ways Microsoft can claw back some of that indefinable good feeling for the beleaguered brand.
Make IE9 the best it can be
MS will unleash Internet Explorer 9 sometime next year. You can see where it’s going here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/11/18/an-early-look-at-ie9-for-developers.aspx
Some good headline features here, but where’s the commitment to HTML5? Further, how is it possible to brag about an Acid3 score of 32/100? The lack of HTML5 canvas support in particular means that mainstream developers won’t be able to use this most revolutionary of HTML5 tags for years to come.
So, as a list within a list, here’s what needs to happen:
- Proper CSS3 support
- Proper HTML 5 support
- Proper standard @font-face support
Further, testing your site on IE is problematic because you can’t easily install multiple versions of IE side by side. So Microsoft, how about a developer tool that allows side-by-side installs of all the IE browser releases since version 6? Just that one simple thing would bring some very disgruntled web developers back on side, and save us all having to run multiple PCs for testing and indulging in massive hacks to get alternative versions running side by side.
All this is possible, with corporate will.
Ship the Courier
This thing is seriously amazing:
http://gizmodo.com/5369493/leaked-courier-video-shows-how-well-actually-use-it
It’s an “infinite journal” with dual screens and what looks like a lovely shiny OS. If they actually got this thing out the door without the Windows team screwing it up it would be a complete win. I would actually buy this so long as it worked, and never purchase another Moleskine as long as I lived. It’s innovative and exciting; just what MS needs.
Win big with Mobile 7
Microsoft’s mobile operating system is in tatters. Mobile 7 has slipped to 2010, and meanwhile, 6.5 has been released as a stopgap measure. With handset makers defecting in droves to Google’s Android platform and the iPhone stealing marketshare like a fox in a henhouse, Microsoft are in real danger of their mobile offering dropping off the cliff.
Windows Mobile 7 has to be spectacular to bring this one back from the edge.
Replace Steve Ballmer
I’m sorry, but the man’s a joke. Even non-techys think so. From the “Developers, developers developers” debacle to his sorry premonitions about what will happen to competing technologies (”There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share“) he has become a byword for what’s wrong with MS.
Get some taste
One of Microsoft’s big issues is very simple: they have no taste. From Windows 7 to Office to IE, MS proves time and again that there’s no-one at the helm with a sense of what makes a product really lovely. Sure, it’s all very shiny these days, but that’s not the same thing at all. Indeed, whilst this surface-level sheen gets them by, the lack of taste shines through.
Whilst the issue is simple, the solution is complex. It requires putting taste at the centre of things. I’ve no idea if MS has an overarching Creative Director or similar, but they could do with one who has the power to stop a product shipping. Sack all the ad agencies who make you a laughing stock and encourage a sense of the aesthetic at every level, including developers.
The Courier mentioned above displays a sense of taste somewhere in the bowels of Redmond. Find those people and promote them.
Fin
I have no idea how MS works internally, but from an outsider’s perspective it’s beginning to feel distinctly over the hill. I believe the world is better off with a strong, innovative Microsoft, so come on Redmond, how about a solid kick up the arse?
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Updates 05.02.09:
The NYT: Microsoft’s Creative Destruction
Microsoft answers the NYT (kind of)
