Interesting article about the future of Microsoft/Windows

[SenatorBen]

Hey all, I found an interesting article from the CBC (Canadian news) web site about the future of Windows and of Microsoft:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/04/11/tech-windows.html

I thought it was interesting, but I don't know if I believe that Microsoft will eventually have to rely completely on online advertising revenues and that Windows will "die".

 

[zap2]

I wouldn't use the word collapsing, but weaking. MS needs to do something great in time for Windows 7, but for now XP and Vista are usable.


MS didn't plan to have to keep XP around for so long, but MS is going it. Now XP is like Garnet OS. Hopefully the same will happen to MS, that happened to Palm

 

[robanga]

All companies need to reinvent themselves on a continual basis and update how they generate returns for their investors. I am sure Microsoft will. Windows 7 will be better than Vista (it had better be), Windows Live will continue to get better and they will likely acquire yahoo etc etc.

Their market share is pretty amazing, their financial results for Q4 were very good. Now is the time for them to reinvent not when things tank.

 

[clevin]

there is only that much you can do with an OS. reinventing isn't as easy as we think it is.

To call an OS with 95% of world market (Vista has at least 10%) collapsing.... is just media hyping...

 

[MisterMe]

...

To call an OS with 95% of world market (Vista has at least 10%) collapsing.... is just media hyping...

Where do you get the 95% figure? MacOS X's marketshare is rising rapidly and it is not coming out of Linux's marketshare. Microsoft's marketshare is declining.

 

[Eraserhead]

Where do you get the 95% figure?

Its right, Apple has a generous 5% share, and Linux has a very generous 1% share, so Microsoft's share must be pretty close to 95%.

 

[clevin]

Where do you get the 95% figure? MacOS X's marketshare is rising rapidly and it is not coming out of Linux's marketshare. Microsoft's marketshare is declining.

http://onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox58-microsoft-windows-vista-global-usage-share.html

its actually 95.88%, with 13.24% for vista, It is declining, yes, but not as fast as you think.

Mac has 3.36%.

I never give too much credit to netapplications, since it measures largely US markets, even when it claims "global" (i mean, e.g., iphone globally 0.15%??). I do like their monthly tracking #s, its always good to see numbers more frequently... Am I biased toward EU firms? IDK, maybe

 

[Eraserhead]

Onestat looks like its the largest stats company in the world, much bigger than NetApplications so they are more reliable, they just don't release figures as frequently.

 

[Markleshark]

Honestly? Unless we see some amazing things happen with technology in the next year OS X is going to start going stale.

You can only add things that people use now and again before your just charging for the same ole.

Saying that, Apple have an amazing record of getting the 'Wow, how did I live without that?' products and features, but I think those in Leopard are a bit stretched.

 

[chagla]

windows will stay, for a very long time. neither linux nor mac offeres the features, controls etc that business need. i personally think linux will gain more shares than mac. true few more home users are getting macs but in business world?

without revealing details, at a college i worked previously, the "authorities" bought number of macbooks for library, but students borrow then and guess what they use? they boot to windows partition! they buy "spare" macs and store them in a room.

then they couldn't get Samba file sharing/permissions to work smoothly with users and groups. they are ms haters. like really. so reluctantly ms is still here. and will probably be here.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Business computers is MS bread and butter and that is not going to change any time soon. It will say that way for more than likely the rest of our life time and then some.

 

[ZenErik]

Do some of you guys SERIOUSLY think Apple will ever overtake Microsoft in the OS market with their current scheme? They have ZERO CHANCE until they allow other companies (Like Dell and HP) to use their OS.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Do some of you guys SERIOUSLY think Apple will ever overtake Microsoft in the OS market with their current scheme? They have ZERO CHANCE until they allow other companies (Like Dell and HP) to use their OS.

Which will never happen.

I don't think Apple ever really intended to overtake Windows, especially in the corporate market. Apple will be happy simply taking a very deep, high-profit slice out of the market and holding onto it very tightly. Plus, an Apple with an OS marketshare like Microsoft's--with Apple's tight hardware-software integration--would yield anti-trust lawsuits the likes of which even MS has never seen.