First of all, I want to especially emphasize that the content of this blog post is completely my own synapse connections and not those of my employer.
This recent article from ReadWrite.com (http://bit.ly/XUwvAF) got me thinking in terms of the old saying "what goes around, comes around". I spent a few years of my life passionately working on IBM's OS/2 operating system (a loooong time ago). I still believe that OS/2 was technically a product that led its market segment at the time ... technically. As an engineer, you could love it.
But Microsoft concentrated on other aspects of its Window OS and effectively captured market mind-share and applications quickly. By the time we realized their advantage, it was too late to recapture the industry focus & mind share. Users had to be willing to pay a hefty price in terms of giving up applications, and engrained habits, in order to switch to OS/2. I think that it is fair to say that OS/2 never overcame the entrenched advantage that Windows was able to rapidly establish. Many people said that Microsoft did a better job at marketing Windows than IBM did with OS/2, and that is what made the most difference in the eventual outcome. I don't mean to reopen any of those debates, but instead consider whether there are similarities with the situation today where Microsoft is playing a very different part in the story.
Fast forward almost 20 years. Today, Microsoft has a new system that can be considered to be technically ground-breaking in some ways. However, the user base has already shifted and become entrenched with the applications and engrained habits of either Apple iOS devices or Android. No matter whether Windows 8 and Windows Phone and Surface are impressive (or not), the fact remains that a lot of people have already made their "choice". As Brian Hall points out in his article: "To succeed in this environment, Microsoft ... has to ... demonstrate how its product is so utterly superior that customers should leave behind all their iPhone or Android content, apps and familiarity. This is a tall order, indeed".
Maybe I am wrong about this, but it seems to me as though Microsoft has gotten itself into the exact same situation that OS/2 was in when that product was struggling to compete with Windows OS, back "in the day"....
But Microsoft concentrated on other aspects of its Window OS and effectively captured market mind-share and applications quickly. By the time we realized their advantage, it was too late to recapture the industry focus & mind share. Users had to be willing to pay a hefty price in terms of giving up applications, and engrained habits, in order to switch to OS/2. I think that it is fair to say that OS/2 never overcame the entrenched advantage that Windows was able to rapidly establish. Many people said that Microsoft did a better job at marketing Windows than IBM did with OS/2, and that is what made the most difference in the eventual outcome. I don't mean to reopen any of those debates, but instead consider whether there are similarities with the situation today where Microsoft is playing a very different part in the story.
Fast forward almost 20 years. Today, Microsoft has a new system that can be considered to be technically ground-breaking in some ways. However, the user base has already shifted and become entrenched with the applications and engrained habits of either Apple iOS devices or Android. No matter whether Windows 8 and Windows Phone and Surface are impressive (or not), the fact remains that a lot of people have already made their "choice". As Brian Hall points out in his article: "To succeed in this environment, Microsoft ... has to ... demonstrate how its product is so utterly superior that customers should leave behind all their iPhone or Android content, apps and familiarity. This is a tall order, indeed".
Maybe I am wrong about this, but it seems to me as though Microsoft has gotten itself into the exact same situation that OS/2 was in when that product was struggling to compete with Windows OS, back "in the day"....
