Where Microsoft Wants to Go Today: Further Moves Into Home and Office for the Software Giant nytimes.com
Reasonably, the good gray Times doesn't bother with this "where we want to go today" blather, it doesn't exactly seem to be our choice where Bill's concerned. We get three biggies, NT, WebTV+Cable, and a shift from "content is king" to web commerce.
Jeffrey S. Raikes, Microsoft's group vice president for sales and marketing, said: "In corporate America, the debate about switching to Windows NT has moved from 'if' to 'when,' and companies are increasingly using Windows NT for what they used to use Novell and Unix for. That's a very positive trend for us."
Not exactly news here, but this is a marketing peer talking. It's all sort of confusing, with this "bet the company on NT5, which is slipping indefinintely". Meanwhile, I actually got NT4 back up on my home machine, but I got this problem with SP3, which needs 60 meg to install, which I have, until nt4sp3_i.exe insists on uncompressing itself onto my C: disk, taking up my free 60 meg before it can actually do anything. It doesn't seem to give me a choice where it wants to go, but that's Microsoft. I changed my temp directories and everything, but nt4sp3_i seems to know better.
"WebTV is the terminal device, and cable television is the connecting device -- the high-speed conduit -- for Microsoft driving itself into every living room in the United States and later in the world," said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. "This is an expansion of Bill Gates's original vision of Microsoft software on every desktop. Now, he's going for every home as well."
This is not exactly news either, but there are 2 questions. First, even 2nd generation WebTV isn't Windows CE, right? But that's the future "proprietary lock", right? And of course, the second question is how is Bill going to get the Cable Guys to go along with this second front on the Microsoft plan for world domination. Being good monopolists themselves, they've shown some skeptism about handing control over to Bill. How many billion will it take to win them over?
Finally, retooling the old "content is king" line:
The third big trend at Microsoft seems to be a retooling of its media strategy, after heavy losses at its MSN online service. The emphasis, industry executives say, will now be more on on-line commerce, like its popular Expedia travel site, and less on producing on-line programming. "It's a savvy move on their part and an admission of failure -- Microsoft is not good at creating media properties," said Michael Slade, chairman of the Starwave Corporation, a new media company.
But how can this be true? The local New Media expert, also antitrust expert, financial engineer, software technology seer, and in general omniscient guy has assured us otherwise. After all, Microsoft ran over Britannica with the artfully edited Funk and Wagnall's, how could they fail on other fronts? Never mind.
But, of course . . .
The wild card in Microsoft's future is Washington, the Government's antitrust challenges to its marketing practices. Later this year, a Federal judge is expected to issue a final ruling on the suit alleging that it is violating a 1995 consent decree.
On the other hand, the Judge and DOJ are far too stupid to comprehend Microsoft's global strategy and the necessity of the proprietary lock aka monopolist death grip in all of this. Truth will out, right guys?
Cheers, Dan. |
