Microsoft’s business has never been superior. Ironically, that might well be the problem.
I will admit to a love/hate relationship with Microsoft. I tend to respect Microsoft’s technology but not the business practices wrapped around it. In fairness to Microsoft, it has traditionally been the latter that really drives its business, pushing the company into new markets.
Of late, however, Microsoft’s successful business strategies seem to be stifling, not stimulating, the company. The company’s success at hoarding existing monopolies seems to have made it intellectually lazy in seeking new ones. Even SharePoint, which has been phenomenally successful financially, is tiny more than a lightweight portal designed to prop up Microsoft’s existing businesses: Office, SQL Server, Windows, etc.
This may be good for the industry, but it’s certainly not good for Microsoft. Whatever Microsoft may think of itself, it has never been much of a technology pioneer, preferring instead to copy others’ ideas but deliver them more conveniently and at superior pricing.
Not anymore.
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