

Study: Microsoft has 'fallen off the mainstream media’s radar' - cwan
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/09/study_microsoft_has_fallen_off_the_mainstream_medias_radar.html

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mixmax
This is more significant than you might expect from a first glance.

the media writes about companies or technologies that are innovative, game
changing, cool, popular, controversial or scandalous. Companies that are
feared, loved or admired get press - companies that aren't don't.

If you look at the press Microsoft is getting relative to its size (whether
you choose turnover, profits, number of employees, market cap or any other
metric) it's even worse. Microsofts market cap is $214 billion _[1]_ and
twitters is $1 billion _[2]_ , yet twitter receives twice as much press as
Microsoft. If you factor in the fact that almost every technology consumer on
earth has some sort of exposure to Microsoft (thus making it an obvious
company to write about for the press) it's even worse.

This is a strong indication that Microsoft is neither feared, loved or
admired. It seems like a company past it's prime.

[1] <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=msft>

[2] <http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N39/long2.html>

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pyre
On the other hand, it could just be that they've faded into the background.
People don't often spend hours discussing something that is 'the default.'
Windows isn't going anywhere for a long time.

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orangecat
_Windows isn't going anywhere for a long time._

True in multiple senses.

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Hoff
Not enough at this site to be worth reading.

Filler. Link-bait.

If this topic is interesting, here's the original source for the article over
at Pew, and which has a little more detail:

[http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/when_technology_ma...](http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/when_technology_makes_headlines)

And here's what that whole Techflash article was hung on:

"...Microsoft, on the other hand, once the feared technology behemoth, fell
far behind—attracting just a fifth of the coverage of Apple and less than half
that of Twitter..."

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gamble
The business press is like the t-rex in Jurassic Park - they only see motion.
Microsoft is big, but not growing.

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nhebb
I take it as a validation of how meaningless most business news is. Take
Microsoft out of the equation so there is no emotional spark and replace it
with IBM or Oracle. Both kill Twitter and Facebook in revenues and net income,
but I rarely see anything about them in the news. Just because they're not
interesting doesn't mean they're not profitable.

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chanux
In other words "Apple dominates tech news"

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1730962>

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redorb
If it were true it might be a good thing in the sense of more privacy to
create great products, without the scrutiny they have gotten recently...

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marze
I can't think of anything Microsoft has done recently that would be
interesting to mainstream consumers.

~~~
loumf
I saw some new Xbox thing at Gamestop this weekend that looked cool:
<http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinect> \-- uses cameras for gameplay in a wii-like
way.

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danilocampos
The funny thing is that Xbox has almost become a brand unto itself at this
point. I've been following it since the beginning, and even so I forget
Microsoft is behind it.

With J. Allard and Robbie Bach gone, that could easily change. Without fierce,
passionate protectors who get it, Microsoft could easily screw up one of their
most awesome products.

