Wither Microsoft?

I’m not quite sure where I am going with this post. It is probably best to file this under “knee jerk reaction”.

So I wanted to do something simple. Really simple. The New Year approaches and I thought I might spruce up my Windows™ 7 desktop. So I start with looking to see what desktop gadgets there are these days. Right click, etc, etc.. Hmm… not much there. Lets try “Get more gadgets online”… click… and what do we find? Thirty, yes only thirty gadgets. Now there used to be a lot more, mainly rubbish it has to be said, but they did exist. It seems that Microsoft™  have decided to torch Windows™ Live™ Gallery as a bad idea and concentrate on Windows™ 8 instead.

Now in the wider scheme of things this is of course small beer but it really annoys me. My over inflated interpretation is that Microsoft™ have devalued support for Windows™ 7 to make it a lesser consumer experience and encourage migration to Windows™ 8. Windows™ 8 let me remind you doesn’t exist at this time. So what I originally paid for I now cannot get. You can argue that this is typical Microsoft™ in action and you would be right.

Cutting through emotion, you have to wonder what Microsoft™ thinks it is doing. Microsoft™ has a problem in the consumer market. Basically two tanks have been parked on its lawn:

• Touch screens
• Small Apps

They have a brave but probably irrelevant answer to the former with Windows Phone 7™ and obviously precious little in the latter if they are having to pull support from other current products. How they got themselves is down to corporate complacency and a tried and tested business model. That model is now broken. Windows™ is only good for laptops now. Corporate desktops are being virtualised and consumer desktops are becoming a thing of the past. Touch-pads and smart-phones are also invading the laptop space. The operating systems and environments they use evolve daily – not annually. Microsoft’s™ answer? To make you wait, and remove existing functionality and then make you pay for the privilege of restoring the functionality you once had. However, consumers expectations have changed and with the influence of consumerisation even their corporate customer base is not safe. So their complacency still stands while the consumer boat leaves port. Madness.

ITDullard © 2011