
The irrelevance of Microsoft - Nimi
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2013/7/20/the-irrelevance-of-microsoft
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ekianjo
Here we go again. The same story on how PCs are dead and will be replaced by
tablets and smartphones and Google Glasses. Never mind there is a sizable
amount of people who need huge screens for what they do everyday, who need a
mouse to do proper work, who play high end games in Full HD and full details
with graphics cards that consume more watts that you can ever hope your whole
ipad10 to use, and you'll see this story is seriously outdated.

PC sales may go down. A bit. So what? The PC will not die. You're just looking
at a more fragmented market. End of story.

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alipang
Sure, but that doesn't guarantee Microsoft's relevance in that space. I still
have a feeling that many of MS's cash cow products in many cases could easily
be replaced by FOSS, and increased irrelevance on other platforms could make
things suddenly swing that way. Though I guess I'm kinda talking about the
year of the Linux Desktop here, so yeah...

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ekianjo
Totally agree with you, but the article was clearly mentioning Microsoft is
losing relevancy because the PC is dying... which is not the case.

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taylodl
I don't think this article is claiming the PC is dead or that there's no need
for anyone to do work at their desks using keyboards and large monitors. No,
the irrelevance of Microsoft is they no longer _influence_ the market. They
are no longer perceived to be the leaders of change. This is quite different
from the height of their influence in the 90's.

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michaelwww
Microsoft's share of connected devices will continue to drop as connected home
appliances become ubiquitous. I'm sure what this number proves. How about
Microsoft's share of computing power, say n connected devices x m processing
power. I'm sure Microsoft dominates in a world full of under powered "smart"
phones.

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amac
Saying Microsoft is dead is a bit like saying working at a desk is dead.
Habits change, but neither the desk nor Microsoft is going away any-time soon.

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a3n
They'll be around longer than me no doubt. The default OS on a PC will be
Windows for many years to come, but that won't last forever, and obviously the
percentage of sales of traditional PCs to all other consumer computing devices
will decline. Their other businesses may or may not thrive.

But to address the title literally, the relevance of Microsoft to me is about
the same as the relevance of General Electric to me. I just don't care.

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cliveowen
PC division != Microsoft

MS will do just fine.

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Toshio
Well, I want to agree with other commenters here, but the way I see the PC
market is similar to a bicycle: accelerate or fall to the ground. PCs are an
absolute necessity for maybe 20-30% of the consumer population. Whereas until
now a household of 7 people would require 5-6 PCs, it's getting to the point
of only needing one or two, and then only occasionally. This is, I believe,
the fundamental driver behind the weak PC market.

