Headlines like this are good for a mid-day laugh.
Operative phrase: "Plans to."
Two words Microsoft needs to learn before it tries anything: "Strategy tax."
Operative phrase: "Plans to."
Two words Microsoft needs to learn before it tries anything: "Strategy tax."
Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft.
The term has been used inside Microsoft since the 1990s (and maybe before that time).
If your strategy is "Protect the crown jewels at all costs" while your competitors have discovered a diamond mine, no one needs to care what cutlery you're supposed to use.
Of course that sounds ludicrous, but the impression I get is that that kind of strategic confusion has been endemic at MS since Gates moved on.
Clever innovations like Skype Translate or even Hololens are not a strategy. Selling lots of good individual solutions still isn't a strategy.
You can't play defence on strategy (Office 2026? Windows Infinity?) You need a kick-ass plan for the 5-10 year future, and I see no evidence that anyone at MS is capable of designing a product plan for consumer markets that don't exist yet, and then wondering how to market them - while Google, FB, Apple and even Amazon are at least thinking about it.
Gates was directly responsible for imposing strategy tax during his time at Microsoft.