Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Microsoft is Ossifying

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that good products won't come out of Microsoft or that they won't continue to be successful. What is happening though is that they are too dependent on their core technologies which they still do very well that they will not innovate fast enough to keep up with the likes of Google and Yahoo. There really isn't sufficient incentive for MS to pursue the innovation that Goohoo are.

I had this epiphany when I received a call from one of their employees that follows up on web inquiries. The conversation that I had was such a waste of time that I couldn't believe that they were actually paying someone money to do this. The purpose was purely one of trying to generate sales leads (and thereby value) for their channel partners.

MS is throwing money around trying to improve on their monoply share of the business in their time tested manner. What I mean to say is that seven to ten years ago when I first was exposed to this process, it worked. Now it is truly just a waste of time and evidence of their ossification.

There will be products that compete with Goohoo, but as they compete with and canabalize their cash cows, they will retrench and ultimately lose.

It will still be good business to own MS, but it will be more like owning the venerable GE or potentially ATT...