Today's New York Times has a most interesting article on Microsoft's new attempt to enter the e-commerce world. Here are all the quotes from non-Microsoft people in the article:
"They're definitely late; it's a me-too strategy compared to companies like Yahoo and America Online," said Michael Putnam, a business and technology analyst at Forrester Research Inc...
"I don't think Biztalk is a good thing," [Putnam] said. "Standards are critical for the growth of Internet commerce, but this is like General Motors making the traffic rules."
"If they're not using industry standard XML, they're out of luck," said Kimball Brown, a computer industry analyst at Dataquest, a San Jose, Calif., market research firm. "Microsoft is going to have to play by industry rules."
My question to the peanut gallery: One year ago, would any of you imagined that analysts would talk this way about a Microsoft strategic venture? What happened to the "this could spell the end of Company X" or "there will be a standards battle, but Microsoft obviously has the advantage"?
The game is over, guys, it's just that most of you don't realize it. Microsoft may earn 5 billion a year, but it's not going to take over the world. And if it doesn't learn to adapt, it will not gain new revenue sources.
Oh, and 5 billion a year is worth closer to 100 billion than 400.
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