

Sales down, Microsoft raises prices radically - mtgx
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/12/03/sales-down-microsoft-raises-prices-radically/

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walkon
> The company is repeating the one still working play they have [raising
> prices], circling the wagons around the enterprise market, effectively
> raising the barriers to exiting.

Raising prices _lowers_ the barrier to exit because the costs of switching to
another platform become that much less expensive relative to staying with the
Microsoft stack.

~~~
craigching
What I took from that quote was that this was the effective MS strategy before
and it worked, but that it won't work this time. So I think your response is
in agreement with the article, at least the way I read it. It's hard to know
for sure, though, with so much sarcasm in the article.

EDIT: Changed OP to article.

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megaman821
Why is this site not perma-banned? Every article is just anti-Microsoft, hate-
filled drivel.

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general_failure
I would have taken the article seriously if not for the website name.

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recoiledsnake
Ugh, another ranting raving Charlie Demerjian hitpiece on Microsoft(other
candidates include Nvidia and Intel) low on facts and analysis and high on
hyperbole and juvenile language. I regret clicking on the link, just like
always. I don't want to even bother wasting my time on debunking this crap.
The only redeeming factor in his blog is that he sometimes gets a few good
leaks from industry sources on graphics cards, CPUs etc. Other than that it's
just a pathetic tabloid.

~~~
SwellJoe
It may not be the best article on the subject, but, well...let's be honest:
Microsoft is in trouble. Not, as in, "going out of business" trouble. But,
definitely in the _Innovator's Dilemma_ sort of trouble, and a price hike is
exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a company that isn't going to
figure it out in time.

The hard fact is that Windows device sales are down 21% from last year
(desktops only 9% down, but desktops are not where the market is going).
Devices with a shiny new Windows version are selling significantly worse than
devices with several year old Windows 7 was last year. We can't blame the
sluggish economy; it was sluggish last year.
([http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/29/npd-u-s-windows-device-
sale...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/29/npd-u-s-windows-device-sales-
down-21-on-last-year-windows-8-tablet-sales-almost-non-existent/))

I wouldn't necessarily want to bet against Microsoft, as they've managed to
correct major trajectory errors in the past (Internet, though one could argue
their early mistakes resonate through the industry today in the form of almost
_no_ major website running on Windows tech), but I'm not seeing an immediate
way forward for Microsoft that doesn't end in their utter irrelevancy in a few
more years. No one wants their phones, or their tablets, compared to Apple and
Android (both of which are outselling Windows devices by an order or magnitude
or two). The desktop is in a long slow decline. Even laptops are transforming
into the thin clients long ago envisaged by Sun (even running a variant of
Java in many cases), via tablets and hybrids, and Windows has no foothold
there and less and less value proposition for end users.

So, if you were to waste your time "debunking this crap", you'd have to put
forth some kind of compelling argument for why those scary facts about
Microsoft's future aren't going to be a big deal in the long run. It'd require
some pretty imaginative fortune telling about what Microsoft will do over the
next couple of years to turn the tide back their way.

