Monday, February 17, 2003
Three Initial Thoughts
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "THOUGHT" @ 02:23 AM
Back from Microsoft headquarters in Redmond. Over time and as Non Disclosure Agreements expire you will see quite a few posts related to what we've seen and heard. In my first "thought", I will highlight three (of many) things that struck me during the week.
First, it is amazing how well synchronized Microsoft is throughout its organization. It is very apparent that executive directions articulated in high level executive presentations by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are materialized in physical deliverables from product groups, teams and developers. The consistency spans both tangible aspects such as technologies and features as well as intangible aspects such as passion for great software. Specifically, I went from listening to Microsoft executives to participating in really technical sessions with the Windows .NET Compact Framework developers. In the chats we had on the topics of namespaces, security, dynamic link libraries and so forth, the Microsoft developers clearly showed that what they did really linked up to the overall architectures.
Second; price, hardware creativity and development tools. In my personal opinion, these three PDA factors will alone decide how well Microsoft succeeds in the PDA market during the coming 12-18 months. The average Pocket PC price has to come down, OEMs will have to start innovate their hardware and Microsoft has to successfully bring its .NET development tools to developers. Failing in any of these areas will bring pain and agony.
Third; Smartphones. With a market share of approximately 0%, Microsoft needs to get its act together. I can't reveal anything of what we saw and what we didn't see, but regardless of that, this is what needs to happen: more partners throughout the value chain and many more very innovative Smartphone models. Failing in any of these areas is fatal.
All in all, we will see very cool things happen during the coming months and it is clear that Microsoft is highly committed in winning in the PDA market and getting into the smartphone market.
First, it is amazing how well synchronized Microsoft is throughout its organization. It is very apparent that executive directions articulated in high level executive presentations by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are materialized in physical deliverables from product groups, teams and developers. The consistency spans both tangible aspects such as technologies and features as well as intangible aspects such as passion for great software. Specifically, I went from listening to Microsoft executives to participating in really technical sessions with the Windows .NET Compact Framework developers. In the chats we had on the topics of namespaces, security, dynamic link libraries and so forth, the Microsoft developers clearly showed that what they did really linked up to the overall architectures.
Second; price, hardware creativity and development tools. In my personal opinion, these three PDA factors will alone decide how well Microsoft succeeds in the PDA market during the coming 12-18 months. The average Pocket PC price has to come down, OEMs will have to start innovate their hardware and Microsoft has to successfully bring its .NET development tools to developers. Failing in any of these areas will bring pain and agony.
Third; Smartphones. With a market share of approximately 0%, Microsoft needs to get its act together. I can't reveal anything of what we saw and what we didn't see, but regardless of that, this is what needs to happen: more partners throughout the value chain and many more very innovative Smartphone models. Failing in any of these areas is fatal.
All in all, we will see very cool things happen during the coming months and it is clear that Microsoft is highly committed in winning in the PDA market and getting into the smartphone market.
