Microsoft and Google - Future

[hbhb1316]

Opinion Piece:

So before people accuse me of blasphemy, let me say that I have a Lumia 920 and Surface Pro and Windows 8 on even an old Macbook I own - I removed Mac OSX.

What I wanted to discuss today was the impact of Google's actions on Microsoft. In my view of the future, Search would inherently be tied to the Operating Systems across all form factors. We are already seeing that happen on Mobile Phones. Nobody cares about Google on WP and nobody cares about Bing on Android. iPhone is neutral to MS and Google but iPhone users will trend towards the better platform - which is Google as of now.

MS has 3 major problems according to me - Google Now, Google Glasses and Google Driverless Cars. While MS is busy integrating operating systems and architectures, Google is busy integrating their cloud based search solutions on all non MS relevant platforms. Google indexes and Google Now is acting as their intelligent search solution. They are extending these features to iPhone and killing WP in the process by making a difference. As much as am a ******, I can't help but admire when Google Now shows my cousin her time to the airport automatically or suggests routes to restaurants based on her searches. Enter in Google Glasses - it provides more information to Google thereby making their search and ads even more relevant because they know exactly what users are seeing, doing etc., Google Driverless Cares are basically the same thing - providing Google with valuable information. Imagine a Google user booking a hotel - sitting in his driverless car which drives him to the hotel while showing him restaurants nearby or directions on his google glasses from his terminal to the rental car location. The fact that they are extending Google Now support to iPhone is one thing. Evidence of them extending support to Mac OSX is worse and if they support Google Glasses on iPhone, there would be no relevant reason to buy any other platform. While MS loves to bash Google on privacy, it doesn't really look like end users will care. Once they realize the benefits of Google Now and Google Glasses, users wouldn't think twice about using Google based platforms.

MS's responses are thus far a bit scary - Windows 8 is truly a significant step to a merger across platforms but this is more of a benefit for Enterprise users. Messaging etc., syncs but it does for Google as well. Google Talk syncs across all platforms - not to mention Babbel coming up. Live Tiles are not a differentiating factor anymore. MS's steps thus far have not been towards everyday consumers - they don't care about Word, Excel, etc., unless they are making resumes. WP got a significant boost from Nokia hardware but WP is not compelling on it's own. Yes, it's a smooth platform but anyone who uses a HTC One will not deny the fact that Android has come to play. The buggy Android of old is dead - it's pretty smooth and will only become better with better hardware and batteries. While Android and iPhone are trying to put nails in the coffin, WP is still scrambling for basic features and significant apps - though this is gaining momentum, nobody buys phones based on excuses and future promises (GDR2, Blue, etc.,).

Any significant response has to come from Bing - the future is intelligence and Google's moves towards it are a bit scary. And nobody knows the response Bing has in store.

 

[mase123987]

I will guarantee one thing: Glasses will never take off as a mainstream device. At best, it might sell well (if it ever openly comes to market) just because of the novel idea. That will wear off quick though.

 

[squire777]

You're putting Google on a pedestal based on things that haven't even taken off yet. Maybe you should have a look at all the ideas Google had in the past that people thought would be great and ended up being flops.

Meanwhile you discount the positives that MS has. No one cares about Word or Excel? I'm sure more people care about those things than they do about Google Glasses or looking up porn while sitting in some magical driverless car.

Google glasses are getting a lot of criticisms and the driverless cars are no where near being reality any time soon. MS R&D dept also comes up with some very unique ideas that don't get the publicity that Google's ideas do.

 

[hbhb1316]

Nothing personal whatsoever - I think you are making a mistake by discounting Google Glasses. Whoever discounts driverless cars and glasses is being naive. AR applications and AI based interactions are the future. Their use case is not limited to porn, which would also be amazing no doubt.

I am not discounting Word or Excel here. While they are amazing as differentiators, their use case on Mobile based platforms are limited at best. The future is cloud - you are already seeing that. It was impossible for an Ipad like device to work in the past due to limitations - plugins, softwares used to work only on Windows. Cloud destroyed MS of the past. It is possible to use Office 365 from the cloud and as it gets better - their influence as a differentiating factor on a single platform starts decreasing. Office, Excel are not true consumer platforms. People check FB everyday and their mails everyday and go to restaurants everyday. Even short term utilization numbers on an independent platform - iPhone and iPad showcases how much MS needs to catch up on consumer platforms.

There is no doubt promise in Xbox, Bing, Home Automation etc., but if people were interested in single architectures and were influenced by office like platforms, Android and iPhones would have started seeing a decrease in sales. What the heck - I work for a Big 3 MC firm and I may suck at my job. But I sure do use Excel more so than most folks - we live and breathe Excel, PowerPoint and BI tools such as Spotfire and Tableau at work. I have rarely put Excel or Word for any meaningful use on my WP. Nor do I see any of my colleagues running towards WP because it has Excel.

 

[iBandar]

If I can look into the future, I can only see Microsoft succeeding in long run. Why? Well let’s see.

They are trying to build an eco-system, and trying to connect all their products. Windows Phone 7 was their first card and then Windows 8, now the last card will be Xbox. Once all these three products are in market, their next software update call “Blue” across all platforms will be very essential for Microsoft. It is going to integrate all their devices. And we will see amazing apps from developers which take advantage of 3 screen vision that Microsoft wants. At that time we will start seeing more advantage of using “Windows” based products. Because these kinds of stuff will simply won’t be available on Apple or Google platform.

Once Microsoft has the users, Google will have to come crawling to support the platform. I am surprised why lots of people are not treating Xbox as a big deal. Its going to be a GAME changer, it’s already rumored to pack Windows 8.1. And Kinect. Just can’t wait for May 21[SUP]st[/SUP].

 

[Jazmac]

Almost always when detractors begin an opinion piece with, "I have all the latest Windows 8 stuff", what they mean is, they want to be free to disrespect YOUR platform on YOUR forum. They want to continue with the reason why they came here in the first place and that is to praise android/google. Its textbook .
There is a name for people that do this but I won't say it here but the truth is the truth. Google glass? A major problem for MS? Driver-less cars? Google Now? Based on what? Something you read on android central?

Siri hasn't lost a step and for what its worth, OSX still deploys it. TellMe is making moves and it is still under development. When it reaches 1.0, it will be pretty dang awesome. Its not bad now but again, its a product in development. But for the advertizing agency, all it did was what they always do, steal from other platforms and pretend as if they were there first. Google + / Facebook Android / OSX. Google search / Microsoft Search.
Google needs to show some respect for the platform that helped to make them rich. Microsoft Windows.

 

[anon(5973126)]

I understand your concern. Google Glasses, Driverless cars, Google Now and not to mention Google Fiber are coolnew technological advancements.. and each one has its own uses.. No doubt all the technologies mentioned above will be a successful and Microsoft doesn't seem to have an answer to them.. on an average any new technology needs atleast 4 years incubation period to go mainstream.. hopefully It will come up with something by then.

I was an early adopter of android, used it for almost 3 years.. trust me android will never get better as long as they are an open platform and don't have any quality control.. There may be more android devices than iphones but the iphones always beat android in usage, store earnings.. this is because of usability, you may install many apps on android but you will never use many of them.. this is because they don't have a specific set of design principles and there is a learning curve for each app.. on the contrary, WP has a specific set of design principles and the apps are mostly consistent, intuitive and easy to use.. WP will beat Iphone and Android Usage provided the market share increases a bit..

not to mentions business user will choose either WP or Iphone but never an Android Device... mainly because of security and controllability..

One more thing, Microsoft doesn't need to compete on every front, it just needs to hit hard on the ones it thinks it can win(see XBOX)

 

[anon(5973126)]

Jazmac..I think hbhb1316's concerns are legitimate.. you can be fan of a platform/company and still have issues with it.. nothing's perfect.. People generally start with "I have all the latest Windows 8 stuff" because want to have a legitimate discussion and prevent comments like these..

 

[Jazmac]

Jazmac..I think hbhb1316's concerns are legitimate.. you can be fan of a platform/company and still have issues with it.. nothing's perfect.. People generally start with "I have all the latest Windows 8 stuff" because want to have a legitimate discussion and prevent comments like these..

Not legitimate. Not at all. I too have had my issues with MS and have voiced it here on this forum. So have others. NEVER have I began with the preamble, "I have xbox, windows 8, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, MSOffice etc," now here is why MS sucks compared to what the ad agency has done. That is so much better yada yada yada. I have admitted the HTC One impressed me when I had the chance to use it, and said so IN THIS FORUM. Straight out, no preamble. So no, I don't except any of this "legitimate discussion" as legit. Because its not. It is a Trojan horse. I've seen it before.

 

[tiziano27]

Microsoft knows that search is important, that is why they kept Bing and ate big losses. So, expect an answer to Google Now (which I don't think is that good yet).

Glass is useless at this moment, just a prototype with so many drawbacks. I think It's 10 years away of becoming a mainstream product. It's too early to worry about this.

Drive-less cars are even more into the future and totally irrelevant. The software that drives the car is an implementation detail that probably will be standardized and managed by governments. More important is the software for humans that is in the car.


IMO Google is more vulnerable than Microsoft, they make money only with ads. If you hurt that source of revenue all the structure collapses. There are a lot of dangers for Google.

 

[Jazmac]

Microsoft knows that search is important, that is why they kept Bing and ate big losses. So, expect an answer to Google Now (which I don't think is that good yet).

Glass is useless at this moment, just a prototype with so many drawbacks. I think It's 10 years away of becoming a mainstream product. It's too early to worry about this.

Drive-less cars are even more into the future and totally irrelevant. The software that drives the car is an implementation detail that probably will be standardized and managed by governments. More important is the software for humans that is in the car.


IMO Google is more vulnerable than Microsoft, they make money only with ads. If you hurt that source of revenue all the structure collapses. There are a lot of dangers for Google.

Amen and well said.

 

[hbhb1316]

@Jazmac, your accusations are due to your cynicism to some extent. The only reason why I started out the way I did by introducing my tech stack is because I have a fairly new user ID. I didn't want others to mistake me to be a troll on these forums and the points I have raised are valid and genuine. Your comments are more trollish than anything else. Pointing to Siri is inane at best. Siri does not use Bing. Siri's technological advancements are not helping MS in any way. Your accusations of the advertising agency stealing things holds no merit either - at the end of the day, if people cared about who came up with an idea first, Android would not have sold any devices. Google Now may be a copy of Siri but it is a superior implementation of the service because it uses your data from the cloud. Maybe Apple and MS may not choose to go that way but you cannot achieve personalization without diving into your personal data and yes, at the cost of privacy. You seem to be an Ambassador on these forums - while I will acknowledge and respect your comments, I also personally think they are drivel and I shall not respond anymore.

As far as the replies thus far, everyone seems to be dismissing things things than coming up with logical answers. Under development is not an ideal answer. It is merely a synonym of "Oops. We are behind." in the tech world. Yes, MS has Bing and TellMe - and I am hoping they do something with it. But with devices converging, MS better pull something out of their bag in a very short period of time. My point is this - architectural convergence seems to be having very little effect when cloud data convergence is what appears to be driving things.