Friday, February 15, 2002
Innovate or get hit on the head
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "THOUGHT" @ 01:57 AM
I have with great interest read the discussions that followed the "What if"-post. I find the opinions and comments expressed there very thoughtful, to say the least.
I'd like to elaborate a bit further on why I made the remarks I did. The simple reason is that there are two options for Microsoft mobility initiatives: Innovate or get hit in the head.
Take a second and assume that Microsoft had pulled out from the mobile devices market three years ago, when even most analysts described that option being likely. What would we have had today? We'd have had a market leader saying that users don't want more, they want "zen"; which really means less. You all know where I could go with this analysis of how Microsoft brought sanity, health, energy, and innovation to this market, and to competition. But that's not what is occupying my mind at the moment.
This is what is occupying my mind: I am getting increasingly frightened of a type of self-content ostentatious attitude that seems to grow amongst the "Pocket PC fans". If that attitude would spread into the Microsoft Mobility Division, we'd be extrapolating market share trends with axes in our heads. In fact, that type of attitude is very "un-Microsoftish". The volatile dynamics of this young market will hit you in the head if you don't constantly increase speed of innovation. If it took only two years to gain x% of market share, that means just one thing in a market that moves faster and faster: It will take a lot less time to lose it.
I want more paranoia, underdog, "Microsoftish" attitude in the Microsoft mobility-camp, not less. And then I want:
• Microsoft to increase the speed of Pocket PC innovation.
• Pocket PC OEMs get their act together, and make even better hardware.
• Microsoft to get at least two of the top five cell phone manufacturers making the Smartphone 2002.
• Microsoft to convince mobile operators that Internet is really not a threat, and why this is so.
So, there you have it. I am not less passionate, just more paranoid.
I'd like to elaborate a bit further on why I made the remarks I did. The simple reason is that there are two options for Microsoft mobility initiatives: Innovate or get hit in the head.
Take a second and assume that Microsoft had pulled out from the mobile devices market three years ago, when even most analysts described that option being likely. What would we have had today? We'd have had a market leader saying that users don't want more, they want "zen"; which really means less. You all know where I could go with this analysis of how Microsoft brought sanity, health, energy, and innovation to this market, and to competition. But that's not what is occupying my mind at the moment.
This is what is occupying my mind: I am getting increasingly frightened of a type of self-content ostentatious attitude that seems to grow amongst the "Pocket PC fans". If that attitude would spread into the Microsoft Mobility Division, we'd be extrapolating market share trends with axes in our heads. In fact, that type of attitude is very "un-Microsoftish". The volatile dynamics of this young market will hit you in the head if you don't constantly increase speed of innovation. If it took only two years to gain x% of market share, that means just one thing in a market that moves faster and faster: It will take a lot less time to lose it.
I want more paranoia, underdog, "Microsoftish" attitude in the Microsoft mobility-camp, not less. And then I want:
• Microsoft to increase the speed of Pocket PC innovation.
• Pocket PC OEMs get their act together, and make even better hardware.
• Microsoft to get at least two of the top five cell phone manufacturers making the Smartphone 2002.
• Microsoft to convince mobile operators that Internet is really not a threat, and why this is so.
So, there you have it. I am not less passionate, just more paranoid.
