Does Windows 7 Really Matter?

Which lead me to the question of is Microsoft relevant any longer?

There are three areas that Microsoft has held a historical dominance: the desktop operating system, the productivity suite, and the Internet browser.

Vista, by all metrics, has been a dismal failure; it’s amazing to me that Ballmer is still in charge. In my experience, small to mid-range organizations are biding their time waiting for Windows7 or something better to come along, leaving a huge hole for rival Apple to demonstrate their competitive differentiator – an o/s that works _and_ is visually appealing; when my customers demand that Vista isn’t on their new machines when I stage them, this should be a key indicator. And although I have yet to see sales stats on Windows 2008 Server, I’m guessing that platform isn’t going to move like hotcakes either. Windows Server 2003 works just fine, thank you.

Microsoft Office 2007 has a love-hate relationship with my userbase; I’d say that roughly 60-percent of my clients have no interest in it, and another 20-percent wanted me to rip it off their systems after install. Deliberately, at least three of my clients asked – point blank: tell me about OpenOffice and how to get around Office 2007 licensing. Presently, I’ve got those three clients using OpenOffice without significant difficulties (even with a runtime license of Access 2007 to run their Access apps), saving thousands in licensing.

Finally, Firefox distribution as an eight-million user market, however Google’s new browser – a completely open source invention whose pieces are likely to end up in Firefox’s base code at some point in time -makes Chrome a double-headed hydra for Microsoft. Not only is this an open competitor as well, but Chrome has been so efficiently re-designed as a browser that the Java VM runs 57-times faster (57x!!) than the IE7 Java VM. Combined with built-in search features and mulithreaded tab control to avoid crashes, Chrome is a self-replicating giant-killer that will run cloud computing apps faster and more reliably than Microsoft’s offering.

Practically, does substantial market losses in these asset classes kill Microsoft? Not likely as the company is well-diversified beyond the PC and may even transition its business model to cloud computing quite effectively. However, what we can say is that – realistically (not just through opinion, distate, or distrust, but through actual licenses sold, consumer trends, and the presence of viable, well-funded competitors) – Microsoft’s dominiance in these three crucial software categories is coming to an end. Average consumers with average technical skills are viewing the microcomputing universe without the lens of Windows, Office, or Explorer, and their opinions are being re-shaped, re-defined, and re-directed.

I honestly can’t believe that Microsoft is relevant any longer: unless my company is running an XBox, Microsoft consistently avoids giving the consumer what they’re looking for. All appearances would suggest that it’s giving them more of the same things they already disliked.

R