A follow-up to the Microsoft piece I wrote this morning
I was actually looking at next writing up a piece describing the competitive landscape associated with my Apple 3.0 platform meme, but there's been a lot of reaction even today to Microsoft's layoff notice. All comments below are from the articles cited.
Barron's Tech Trader Daily | Microsoft: 18,000 Layoffs Painful Way to Clean Up Ballmer’s Mess, Says Street
12,500 of the jobs eliminated will be in the former Nokia devices division, the company said. The cuts equal about half of Microsoft’s Nokia division, according to analysts, and 6% of the core work force.
Microsoft will take a $1.1 billion charge, over multiple quarters, to carry out the layoffs, it said. The deal is expected to be mostly complete by the end of the year but not fully complete until next summer.
ComputerWorld | Surface survives Microsoft cuts, but tablet strategy remains muddled
"Microsoft was clear that it wanted to complement OEMs versus competing with them, but they gave no details on how they would do that, nor did they give new insight into the demarcation between Surface and Nokia," [Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy] said. "I expect that in the coming months, though."
Mashable | Microsoft's New CEO Says He Wants to Learn From Google (excerpts from linked tweets)
Nadella on learning from google moonshots: "always a lot to learn from people who market themselves well."
Apart from these brief bursts of quotability, and his rousing style notwithstanding, the rest of Nadella's Q&A came across like a Microsoft services catalog. The words of veteran VC Jean-Louis Gassée in Quartz are starting to ring true: Nadella is a "repeat befuddler," Gassee said.
pretty adept at pivoting each question to msft software and cloud products without sounding like he's ducking
Never thought I'd hear a Msft CEO be passionate about open source. It must be a cold day ...
Probably the most coherent message I've heard in years from MSFT
Quartz | Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella needs an editor (by Jean-Louis Gassée)
Tortured statements from CEOs, politicians, coworkers, spouses, or suppliers, in no hierarchical order, mean one thing: I have something to hide, but I want to be able to say I told you the facts.
With all this in mind, let’s see if we can restate Nadella’s message to the troops:
This is the beginning of our new FY 2015–and of a new era at Microsoft.
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is the old Devices and Services mantra won’t work.
For example: I’ve determined we’ll never make money in tablets or smartphones.
So, do we continue to pretend we’re “all in” or do we face reality and make the painful decision to pull out so we can use our resources – including our integrity – to fight winnable battles? With the support of the Microsoft Board, I’ve chosen the latter. We’ll do our utmost to minimize the pain that will naturally arise from this change. Specifically, we’ll offer generous transitions arrangements in and out of the company to concerned Microsoftians and former Nokians.
The good news is we have immense resources to be a major player in the new world of Cloud services and Native Apps for mobile devices. We let the first innings of that game go by, but the sting energizes us. An example of such commitment is the rapid spread of Office applications–and related Cloud services–on any and all mobile devices. All Microsoft Enterprise and Consumer products/services will follow, including Xbox properties.
I realize this will disrupt the status quo and apologize for the pain to come. We have a choice: change or be changed.
Stay tuned. |
