Ask YC: If you were the CEO of Microsoft (with $45B budget) what would you do ?
how will you increase revenue/profit and gain market share without buying yahoo?
2. Release all Windows development tools for free. Free as in free for commercial use too. Build all the Windows apps you want, please!
3. Revamp the Windows API. Make it stupid easy to programmatically create and manipulate all types of media files and office documents.
4. No more DRM on anything. Tell Hollywood to get bent.
5. Simplify the Windows EULA: You own this copy of Windows. You can sell it or install it on as many machines as you like, even your friend's machines. No license keys required. You say you didn't even pay for this copy? Good for you. Enjoy.
5. Force OOXML designers to create their documents in OOXML using only Notepad. Watch format miraculously improve.
7. Open dust bin, deposit Vista source code, wash hands, walk away.
This means stripping the OS to it's bare essentials and allowing modules to implement different features.
Kill the visual effects and focus on stability, speed and security.
This should be as small as possible, without loosing any of the items just mentioned.
Ship a version of Office lite, that strips out many of the extra features from Word/Excel/Powerpoint and provides the basics. Ship stripped down copies of Office '07 if necessary.
Be working on an online version of office. It's not important now--but in 5 years when Google's stolen your Office clients you'll be wishing you had a competitor.
Make syncing to/from Office and Web Office seamless. This means I can write my document in Word on my desktop and with no effort edit the document online. Leverage the user base here.
I don't see users shifting away from Office completely--more than likely there will be a balance between desktop and web users. Microsoft can and should dominate both.
Give up on the Yahoo! deal and partner with more content producers--say AOL, by providing advertising in order to expand your reach.
Your Facebook/Digg deals just aren't doing a lot here--focus on vertical niches that are profitable and then slowly fill the cracks.
Make advertising rates extremely competitive--perhaps even consider taking a loss until you build momentum in the market.
Adopt a pay-per-action model for search advertising instead of pay-per-click. There are some issues with this--but it's not impossible.
Advertisers are only paying for leads and sales now, merging affiliate marketing and search engine marketing--two fields that have been closely related for years.
You're not going to beat Google by copying them, you've got to change the game somehow.
Re-focus your efforts on search. MSN is the easiest engine to game right now--without decent search results, search advertising will never work.
Consider search engine acquisitions and heavily investing in researching new ideas (think AI, Semantic, Social, Personalized searching).
Do what you did with Halo again. That seems to have worked well for you.
Just a few thoughts.
I do believe the Yahoo! deal will not help Microsoft. Sure the reach Yahoo! has helps Microsoft--but there are other (better) ways to achieve this.
Not to mention without the core (good SERPs) search advertising just won't be effective.
Much of what I've said can be summarized in focus on the core and strip everything else. It's weighing you down.
With these in mind, I would commit to these steps:
In Business: I would throw my eggs in the virtualization basket. I would be promoting the hell out of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and reorienting the entire business strategy around it. I would make sure it trounced VMWare infrastructure and brought using virtualization over a thousand-PC cluster into the imaginations of every CTO in the country.
With this, I would be building a Microsoft BSD from FreeBSD. This BSD would be marketed as a JeOS type system with virtualization in mind, and I'd be working with Oracle and IBM and every major builder to certify their products for it. This would be completely managed from VMM 2008 and would be touted as Unix for business with the ease of use that Microsoft has made with its server line. (I'd also give back to the BSD community any speed tweaks and such, and try to get as much positive press as I could from that -- and deliniate between open source good, gpl bad.)
I would also extend this to development and allow a simple license for MSDN developers the legal right to pull an image from a cluster and work with it on their own machines, as well as web interfaces that allow an untrusted user (such as an outside developer) to log into a single system that is encapsulated by a sandbox. (That's a lot harder than it sounds, but I'm thinking encapsulated zones and highly granular security.)
I would introduce the pricing structure as per-instance. I would drop the price to the point where it is more cost-effective to run virtualized systems than dedicated systems currently, and encourage people to get the beefiest boxes they can.
On the desktop, I would introduce virtualization through the idea of a "sandbox." I would make new images as simple as a few clicks, and copying images with the same ease of use. Then, hammer in the idea, "If you want to test something, like a new program, or if you're afraid you might break something, just make a new sandbox!
On the web, I would drop back to creating things that create value to the user. I think Live has lost sight of that. I think they've been thinking too strategically in the domain.
Can you name a single thing on msn.com or live.com where they do things better than the competition? Yahoo doesn't seem to do things much better either, but they did it earlier. Google did it better.
Picking up a few web 2.0 startups might not be a bad idea, but I think a more interesting approach would be to set up a subsidiary of 500 people or so and have them all set up as groups of 5-10. (A designer, content creation, liason, and other staff that allow a 2-3 person core to do what they're best at.) Have them throw as many things as they can on the web and see what sticks. Don't worry about monitization until later, create it as a startup culture. Things that are successful (by some metric) and monitizable get their founders a bonus where 100k is the minimum. At specified points, they have the option of moving it into mainline MSN with a larger team. They can either be a lead developer on that team or start with something new.
This would flood the net with new startups that may be competing with each other, but a few sensational products would be all that was needed to invigorate msn.com/live.com.
edit: one thing that i realized is that _is_ possible to dress unix up quite nicely. an iron fist with a velvet glove.
1. Startups that add value to current product line of windows, office, xbox, etc.
2. Startups that are disruptive, i.e. which will pretty much kill that cash cow
Have the dudes at Microsoft Research re-write the OS from scratch and see what happens.
Now the problem of legacy compatibility can be contained to VM's with support for the previous gen and the latest kernel can be free to update itself.
I'd clean up security and put out some smaller security X-prizes to make reporting exploits more profitable than selling them elsewhere.
Search Engine: Simple, accurate & useful. Innovate & release.
Office: Web & desktop access, track feature usage, cut unused features, online storage
Windows: R&D stands for Release good stuff & Drive industry.
Win Server: Diamond strength reliablity. Easy life for admins.
Zune: Make deal with studios for unlimited free music for $50 per zune. Do it now! R&D on UI methods. More social!
XBOX - Beautiful. Social. Fun.
SQL - Simplify.
Visual Studio - Gemme new flagship product in half the code as VS. You've got 2 months.
enterpreneuship, try to get max stake in promising startups.
You would never know you are 60 % stake holder of next
Youtube or Myspace.
Ashish A india
Specifically I would work on making the brand name as strong as possible, and put a very high value on quality assurance and scalability. I'd try to set up a reputation of, "Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft." I'd try to dominate the mid-low server market with ease of use for business applications and become the "premium brand".
Microsoft isn't going to beat Google or Apple or Redhat at their respective games.
I think many criticize Microsoft from a consumer standpoint, but the CEO of Microsoft is going to know where his bread is buttered.
If any of us was the CEO we'd realize that we couldn't make the kind of radical changes we crave as consumers.
Changing course will take them some time, but I believe we'll see MSX eventually (in some horrible form).
In the meantime I'll keep using Mac/open source at home and (barely) tolerating MS software at work.
In my market the money's in .NET. The customers are all very nice people who appreciate my efforts, and I work no more than 40 hours per week, leaving me (a little) time for my own projects.
The work isn't especially fun, but that's why they call it "work" and there are times when it's interesting. And, the users _deserve_ attentive and considerate software development.
The main development is in .NET, but I introduce open source alternatives whenever possible (jQuery I love you!). It would be irresponsible, though, for the customers to abandon their massive investment in MS technologies. I believe this to be true of the enterprise in general; at home it was easy to say I'd never use Windows again, but this isn't feasible for a large organization. I think this will eventually change, but over a couple of decades and not years.
That's the reality facing IT executives, and I think it bothers us as developers more than anybody else. Most folks just want to do their jobs, watch a couple of viral videos, and go home.
P.S.: I've enjoyed reading some of your recent comments.
Part of my current job involves trying to figure out how to help midsize companies leverage open source technologies. I'm thinking of putting together a list of common questions and misconceptions companies have about OSS and the respective answers and clarifications. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what roadblocks you have encountered in trying to pitch open source solutions.
No more command prompt.
BASH baby. BASH in Windows 7 - I'm happy xxx
A new search engine marketed with Apple's style, while building hardware and converting apps to search/ads?
Set up a commercial software repository and get into the business of managing a marketplace rather than just providing desktop software. Prepare the company for the day it will need to give away its operating system to attract users for ancillary services.
that worked great for fiat http://fiat.it