Microstiff – Late Sunday Night Pissed Off Response to a Typical Mini Commenter

Typical Mini Commenter said:

I have to agree with many comments above, Vista's adoption rate does not matter on the desktop. Mac and Linux are not real competitors there. Upgrades are not common outside of system upgrade cycles. Computers will sell if they have Vista on them, they'd sell if they still had XP on them. Either way, we make our profit.

Then why bother? Why spend $6 billion to develop Vista and $500 million to promote it? Why put hopeful employees and anxious customers through five (5) years of shit just to give them…well….shit? Why take five years to tell us all that “something good’s comin’ round the corner” only to give us…something bad?”

Who in their right mind conducts business, pleasure, family, church, community like that? No one, I submit, except people totally out of touch with the here and now. And, it looks like you're all congregated at Microsoft. Jeezus! Good News! You’ve drained all the other companies of “the walking unaware”!

Only we can break our dominance of the desktop and we could only do it through a total meltdown. In spite of the fear, we aren't anywhere close to that point.

Who says you “aren’t anywhere close to that point”? I say you are. Go ahead. Refute that with some facts. You can’t. Your guess is as good as mine. In fact, based upon your corporate behavior and thousands of pundits scratching their heads, I say, anecdotally, I am “more right” than you.

As management has seen, something else will have replaced the desktop as the key platform long before we lose our grip there.

You’ve given up, haven’t you? You’ve admitted you’re going to lose your grip. So, it’s not IF it’s WHEN. Right? So, WHEN will Google surpass you? Hear those footsteps?

The key is to use our dominance to establish positions in these new markets so that whichever one expands, we're ready to jump on it. This is the Xbox, Windows Mobile, Zune, etc strategy. Yes, in spite of the horror at the losses, this is a great strategy. A few billion (or even tens of billions) _invested_ in order to be ready for whichever way the market moves is a much better use of those profits than buybacks or other short-term efforts to move stock prices.

Oh, you mean like the $6.5 million you've invested into the dog formerly known as XP? Yeah, you're right on the cusp with that one!
Truth is, you have been a two trick pony for years with DOS/Windows and Office. Now, as a monopoly in every part of the world except USA, your only real claim to fame is Office. Right place, right time, right money.

There are no more of those opportunities left. You're done. Google and your own arrogance will tear you asunder. Tick, tock.

We could have left XP unchanged and still dominated the desktop market for the next 5-10 years.

At a rapidly declining rate; 850 million now; how many in 10 years. The world is on to you, MSFT.

The fact that we're still focused on innovation is more about preparing for the next market, whatever it turns out to be, than worrying about this one.

Oh, you mean the market you just totally obliterated with your arrogant backward offerings of Vista and Office? Innovation? Innovation! How much of your R & D billions have you put towards Vista innovation. Office? Must be ZERO, zip, nada, zilch because there's ZERO, zip, nada, zilch innovation in those products. Call the ribbon innovation and you'll prove your stupidity.

All the complaints about how minor the changes in Vista are ignore the fact that this is a mature market. This is how things are going to be. It's why management's focus on new areas makes so much sense.

And, which new areas might those be? Live. Ha! Zune? Ha! ha! It's time to turn you over. You're done.

Mini-Microsoft: Where's Ray? Where's the Vista Campaign?