Newsletter Issue #746: The Microsoft is Blowing It Report
March 17th, 2014So CEO Satya Nadella has only led Microsoft for a few weeks, so it would be unfair to judge his performance. He deserves to chance to prove his mettle. At the same time, the company remains in deep trouble, despite still delivering decent sales and profits, particularly for software and services. And, yes, the Xbox One has sold well.
But Microsoft has confronted a dilemma of its own creation. Despite announcing that support for Windows XP, circa 2001, will end on April 8th of this year, some 30% of Windows users going online are still using it. That number doesn’t include PCs that contact private networks, such as ATM machines. Indeed, I’ve seen estimates that as many as 95% of those ATMs are still running Windows XP.
Indeed, it’s enough to encourage me to make all withdrawals inside a bank branch, and I would if I didn’t have any online bank accounts. Oh well, I suppose there’s always a mattress, but don’t assume I’m going to take that approach. I can always hope banks will update their systems after XP support ends.
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It’s not just OS issues. Microsoft is and has been blowing it in lots of ways. For instance, it took them until yesterday (March 17) to announce a forthcoming release of Office for iOS. Which has given plenty of users time to discover for the first time that it’s quite possible to live without Office. And, evidently, in order to use the iOS version users are going to have to take out an Office 365 subscription, something a lot of people neither need or want. That’s not going to help Microsoft’s sales.
Honestly, Gene, I think you use to much of your time writing about Microsoft, a company whose glory days are long gone. It’s about as unsportsmanlike as clubbing a baby seal. If you’re looking to write about a contemporary rival to Apple with serious ethics problems, you’d do better to focus your attention on Google.
@dfs, Microsoft has not yet announced the release of Office for iOS. That is expected during a March 27 media event in San Francisco.
As to Google: I write about them too. I’ve focused a great deal of attention here, and on the radio show, on the rampant security problems afflicting Android. I spent seven full months using nothing but Android phones, and gave status reports from Day One.
Next?
Peace,
Gene