

Never underestimate Microsoft’s ability to turn a corner - raju
http://scobleizer.com/2008/11/01/never-underestimate-microsofts-ability-to-turn-a-corner/

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bigthboy
Article makes a good point. Microsoft is a colossal monster that, while not as
fierce as it once was back in the age of the browser wars, still no beast to
be taken lightly.

I'm reminded of pg's article about "Microsoft is Dead"
(<http://paulgraham.com/microsoft.html>). While pg makes many good points and
it is undoubtedly true that Microsoft isn't something that companies cower in
fear of anymore, they are still alive and still moving forward at impressive
speed. The beast may be dead, but the animal still lives. I don't believe
Microsoft will be going away anytime soon. Maybe in my lifetime they'll
eventually truly become a dwarf company and eventually burn out (I'm 18), but
that happening soon I just can't believe is likely.

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ojbyrne
I think at this point its more like turn a corner, find the onramp (in an
unfamiliar neighborhood), and get up to highway speeds.

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litewulf
Look at the Xbox. They pretty much said "hey, we'd like to make video games",
and a few years later are a major major player in the market (before the Wii,
it looked as if the game was just Microsoft and Sony, and Sega and Nintendo
were looking like also-rans.) Similarly, think of IE, and the amazing market
share it has (its fading a bit, but there was a while when it looked as if
Microsoft didn't care about IE at all...)

Its one thing to say "gosh, Microsoft has sucked at this internet thing", but
another to say that they're not in the game. Microsoft has proven again and
again that they can say "hey, we want to win" and they take the market by
storm.

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hs
how about zune?

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briansmith
Zune and even iPod are both going to fail, because very few people want to
carry around a music device separate from their phone.

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unalone
Well, yeah. That's why Apple introduced the iPhone. I'm interested in seeing
if Microsoft follows with their own product.

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briansmith
There's all kinds of Windows Mobile phones that have iPod-esque features.
However, the device makers don't want use the Zune branding, because they want
to use their own branding.

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unalone
But there's a difference between having a phone that CAN play music, and a
phone that's designed to make listening to music enjoyable.

My current phone has a music player. I would never use it. I would take a
crappy unknown MP3 player to my phone's music player. It's awful. And a part
of what makes it awful is that I don't intuitively know how to make it play
music.

Compare that to the iPhone. Microsoft might try to make a competing phone.
Right now, they've got nothing.

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blasdel
Never underestimate Scoble's ability to rationalize the actions of his masters

