The Empire In Decline?

An anonymous reader writes "Pundits continue to weigh in on Steve Sinofsky's sudden exit from Microsoft (as executive head of Windows Division, he oversaw the development and release of Windows 7 and 8). SemiAccurate's Charlie Demerjian sees Microsoft headed for a steep decline, with their habit of creating walled gardens deliberately incompatible with competitors' platforms finally catching up to them. Few PC users are upgrading to Windows 8 with its unwanted Touch UI, sales of the Surface tablet are disappointing, and few are buying Windows Phones. On the Sinofsky front, Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley is willing to take the Redmond insiders' word that the departure was more about Sinofsky's communication style and deficiencies as a team player than on unfavorable market prospects for Windows 8 and Surface. Meanwhile, anonymous blogger Mini-Microsoft had suspiciously little to say."

Microsoft is an excellent company

[Anonymous Coward]

When you think about the innovation at Microsoft I can't see a decline. Rather Microsoft is drawn into the economic turmoil and will experience slower growth rates. I am a PC! Microsoft should reinvent itself and beat Apple with an open source strategy. That would win the hearts and mind of the ubergeeks.

Re:Two thoughts: 1. Pies 2. Innovation

[wonkey_monkey]

I have two thoughts on this issue. The first is: Pies.

That's my first thought on any issue.

Re:It was his people's skills, not products.

[WillAffleckUW]

I like to call it Zune 8.

Re:Seriously, no way?

[man_of_mr_e]

The limited shelf space is due to Microsoft's rollout schedule, not anything related to stores. They've had the Surface for sale exclusively at their Windows Stores. No other brick and mortar store has been allowed to have them.

No, Windows Phone 7 phones have no bearing on Windows Phone 8.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, it's a totally different OS (it's based on the Windows 8 RT OS, not the old CE based OS. RT is the same code base as desktop Windows 8, just recompiled for ARM.)

Second, the previous generation of Windows Phones had largely substandard, low-end hardware that nobody wanted. The exception was the Lumia, but even that was not up to phones like the Galaxy SIII. The new phones are actually using quality hardware, with specs similar to high end android phones. For instance, the Samsung Ativ is essentially identical to the Galaxy SIII.

Third, Apps can now be shared between Phone, Tablet, and Desktop OS's, so you only have to uby it once and can use it in all three. Again, thanks to them sharing the same OS.

Nokia is not dead. Certainly, they took a hit, but they were dying anyways. They knew what was coming down the pike and they knew it would take time for the strategy to evolve.

Windows Phone 8 was announced on October 29th, but the phones didn't actually go on sale until November 2nd, which was 12 days ago. Almost 2 weeks, but not quite.

You seriously consider a review to be "Honest" when it claims that tablet and phone users don't want touch?

Re:Still going

[westlake]

The debacle of Vista would have killed most other tech companies, but thanks to inertia and near-total monopoly, Microsoft had room to breathe while it fixed its messes.

Vista peaked with a global market share of 20 to 25 percent.

Not half bad considering that most installs can be traced back to the retail purchase of a fairly muscular and expensive 64 bit OEM Home Premium system bundle.

Re:It was his people's skills, not products.

[PiMuNu]

I used to have an application that would let me use the keyboard to find and launch applications. I had to remember quite long key combinations, which was a pain, but I could do a manual search for them if I needed to. But then windows 3.1 came along and ever since then it never seemed to work quite so well...