New Microsoft? Nadella the right guy?

[Byrese]

I read this last night and thought I'd ask the community for their thoughts. Has Nadella taken Microsoft down the right track with "mobile first, cloud first" strategy? Is he the right person for the job? I really like this article and thought it made a lot of sense. It kinda gives me the big picture of Microsoft vision which I think is right on. Interested to hear your thoughts.

It really is a new Microsoft | ZDNet

 

[jmshub]

Some of these initiatives were being implemented by Balmer before he left Microsoft, but either way, Microsoft appears to be in better shape than they have in a long time.

 

[fdalbor]

It will be some time before anyone knows if Nadella is the right guy or if they are going down the right path. They have some strong ideas and the enterprise market could be theirs for the taking. BUT, and its a big BU,,. They have got to get the mobile phone division doing better than what it is doing. If they could even get to 10% of the market it would be a stepping stone to better things. Apple is never going to get any higher than 15% and even then they will probably slide down a bit. But the common people (us) are locked into Android. I even use an ANdroid as my backup though I much prefer WP. Put your post back up in a year. Should have the answers by then.

 

[a5cent]

^ I don't think 10% is the magic number. What will turn heads and get people thinking is when MS can say : "we own a larger chunk of the mobile market than Apple and are now number two".

 

[theefman]

It will be some time before anyone knows if Nadella is the right guy or if they are going down the right path. They have some strong ideas and the enterprise market could be theirs for the taking. BUT, and its a big BU,,. They have got to get the mobile phone division doing better than what it is doing. If they could even get to 10% of the market it would be a stepping stone to better things. Apple is never going to get any higher than 15% and even then they will probably slide down a bit. But the common people (us) are locked into Android. I even use an ANdroid as my backup though I much prefer WP. Put your post back up in a year. Should have the answers by then.

As far as they are concerned their mobile division IS doing better than ever. They've changed their focus to providing their software on every platform so larger WP marketshare is not really a necessity any more.

 

[Guytronic]

Stock dividends are the telling factor of course.
Microsoft isn't a one man show yet I think Nadella has been a good face for the company.

I can see now how spreading Microsoft services across other platforms will strengthen Microsoft's position.
Microsoft has become pretty good at not hiding in the corner wondering what to do in my opinion.
Looks to me like MS has settled down quickly after major changes on it's corporate field.

 

[Byrese]

^ I don't think 10% is the magic number. What will turn heads and get people thinking is when MS can say : "we own a larger chunk of the mobile market than Apple and are now number two".

I believe in WP but that will never happen. To late in the game.

The only exception to my statement would be the developing markets. In the US and even UK it went happen. I think when Nadella s speaks of market share he's talking about market share for Windows mobile services and cloud services. I think the strategy in part is make these available across platform so people get hooked to the sugar if u will. Then they may see the brand of Microsoft refreshed and broader then they originally thought. They may trickle over to more Windows devices and services. So the big vision is not market share in terms of devices but mobile and cloud services which will lead to the former.

The stores are also a apart of the rebranding. I was at a store opening in Dallas this weekend. I can't overestimate how many times I heard people say they had no idea Microsoft had such a large array of products and services. It was a big eye opener to many in this Apple invested area.

 

[Jas00555]

I believe in WP but that will never happen. To late in the game.

The only exception to my statement would be the developing markets. In the US and even UK it went happen. I think when Nadella s speaks of market share he's talking about market share for Windows mobile services and cloud services. I think the strategy in part is make these available across platform so people get hooked to the sugar if u will. Then they may see the brand of Microsoft refreshed and broader then they originally thought. They may trickle over to more Windows devices and services. So the big vision is not market share in terms of devices but mobile and cloud services which will lead to the former.

The stores are also a apart of the rebranding. I was at a store opening in Dallas this weekend. I can't overestimate how many times I heard people say they had no idea Microsoft had such a large array of products and services. It was a big eye opener to many in this Apple invested area.

I think he's talking about worldwide usage, where iOS has 12% market share, not places like the US.

 

[a5cent]

^ Jas00555 is right! I was talking about global market share. If Apple doesn't change their strategy, I fully expect WP to eventually surpass iOS.

I believe in WP but that will never happen. To late in the game.

Apple was once practically bankrupt. MS was once a monopoly with virtually unlimited power in the IT field. Nokia invented the mobile phone and was once many times larger and more successful than its closest competitor. IBM was once the only relevant PC manufacturer. Sony was once the biggest name in portable music players. Things change.

For as long as we have advertising, Google will remain a very tough competitor and is likely here to stay. Apple however is fully exposed to the winds of the fickle consumer market and will rise and fall together with consumer sentiment. At least as far as Apple is concerned, never say never...

 

[jwinch2]

I am curious about one of the statements he made which suggested that MS does not really care to be a hardware company, but is focused on productivity. Why come out with Surface and buy Nokia then? Either you do care about getting into hardware or you do not. If so, those moves make sense. If not, not so much.

 

[_Emi_]

Microsoft is not just Nadella, just like Ballmer was not the only one taking decisions.
Also many things today, are thanks to Ballmer like reorganization, I wonder... do you think Nadella would have done it better? I think not. but then "Microsoft's Executive Vice Presidents" are not painted, and then they do more for Microsoft than what Nadella can do. like people have said Terry Myerson is the most important person in Microsoft today, and he seems to be the right person there, and Ballmer was the one putting him there. so time will tell if Nadella keeps the good things going at Microsoft, but I think, in my opinion, for the moment, he seems good because of what Ballmer did in his last days at CEO.

 

[Byrese]

I am curious about one of the statements he made which suggested that MS does not really care to be a hardware company, but is focused on productivity. Why come out with Surface and buy Nokia then? Either you do care about getting into hardware or you do not. If so, those moves make sense. If not, not so much.

Are you referring to something I said? No where did I suggest they don't care about hardware. They do, hence my reference to the brick and mortar stores. Their hardware strategy however is part of a larger strategy. Much like like oil, wind, solar, and other renewable energies are apart of a larger energy plan for the US and not just oil. Also remember that they really can't dominate with their own hardware in certain respects because unlike Apple, they have partnerships with companies like Levano, HP, and others. Microsoft has always depended on these relationships. This will not change any time soon. So the plan as I see it is diversity within the ecosystem via hardware, mobile, cloud, and services.

 

[jwinch2]

See you taking about me?

No.

Microsoft Tries to Find Its Niche in the Mobile First, Cloud First World | Paul Thurrotts WinInfo content from Windows IT Pro

 

[a5cent]

I am curious about one of the statements he made which suggested that MS does not really care to be a hardware company, but is focused on productivity. Why come out with Surface and buy Nokia then? Either you do care about getting into hardware or you do not. If so, those moves make sense. If not, not so much.

Nadella was allegedly opposed to purchasing Nokia. He has since said he's changed his mind, but we can't know what he really thinks.

The currently accepted explanation is that MS doesn't want to be an all out hardware manufacturer, but can't get by without doing any hardware at all either. Why? because:

a) MS would otherwise be too far away from consumers and their feedback. Ballmer thinks their lack of a hardware smartphone division is part of the reason why MS missed the mobile revolution. If all the feedback you ever get reaches you only indirectly through OEMs, you'll never really have your finger on the pulse of what consumers want.

b) MS needs at least some Windows devices to be best-in-class products. Most hardware companies aren't too interested in taking on that task. You can't confront companies like Apple if your software is only ever delivered to customers on cheap hardware. Somebody needs to be pushing the envelope of what a combined Microsoft Windows + Hardware package is capable of, and that simply takes to long if you can only get your innovations to market through other OEMs. The recently released band, according to Daniel, also follows that strategy.

 

[Jas00555]

^

For as long as we have advertising, Google will remain a very tough competitor and is likely here to stay.

I dunno a5cent... Google's most recently quarterly report showed that their profit has gone down YoY because money from ads keep dropping like a landslide. Youtubers especially have been very vocal about this and its why you'll see so much sponsored content. Sure, Google probably wont go away, but if they can't reverse the course of downward profitability, they're either going to have to accept smaller profits and losing all of that investor money (because would you back a company that was content with losing money? Especially when your rival keeps growing profits?) or find a way to grow profits. How can they do the latter? Robots? Smart cars? Glass? Phone hardware? Idk the answer, but it's an interesting thought and I definitely believe that the recent Nexus strategy where they no longer sell phones at cost and the gradual closing off of Android have something to do with it.

 

[Jas00555]

I am curious about one of the statements he made which suggested that MS does not really care to be a hardware company, but is focused on productivity. Why come out with Surface and buy Nokia then? Either you do care about getting into hardware or you do not. If so, those moves make sense. If not, not so much.

I do wonder how many times Satya Nadella has to issue a press announcement that specifically says "no, we're keeping Surface, Windows Phone, and Xbox and will continue to make hardware" until tech bloggers finally get the message.

 

[three_thoughts]

I don't agree that MS doesn't need windows Mobile platforms to have good market share because the services are on other platforms. Sure some services like office are miles ahead of the competing products and people will choose to use them regardless of the platform they are on. But others like Bing, outlook.com, MSN apps, Onedrive and Xbox services aren't so good compared to the competition that people will choose to change their default behaviour to give them a try. They will be used more on the windows platforms however because it's the default and because it's easier.

I doubt there are many people on Android using Xbox music or Bing.

So once you realise that MS needs it's OS platform to succeed, and they themselves are the only hardware manufacturer taking their mobile platform seriously, they have to force themselves to be interested in hardware as well.

 

[a5cent]

I dunno a5cent... Google's most recently quarterly report showed that their profit has gone down YoY because money from ads keep dropping like a landslide. Youtubers especially have been very vocal about this and its why you'll see so much sponsored content. Sure, Google probably wont go away, but if they can't reverse the course of downward profitability, they're either going to have to accept smaller profits and losing all of that investor money (because would you back a company that was content with losing money? Especially when your rival keeps growing profits?) or find a way to grow profits. How can they do the latter? Robots? Smart cars? Glass? Phone hardware? Idk the answer, but it's an interesting thought and I definitely believe that the recent Nexus strategy where they no longer sell phones at cost and the gradual closing off of Android have something to do with it.

I completely agree with all of that. I also think Google's average advertisement profit will continue to fall, but even with only half of their current income they will still earn billions and billions of dollars each quarter. I don't think Google is safe from downsizing, but their business model is so solid I don't see them ever being seriously in jeopardy anytime soon.

Overall though, all these companies are headed towards "tougher times". Google has so far failed to earn money on anything except advertising and their margins are shrinking. Apple's iPhone margins continue to plummet and many carriers are slowly migrating away from their phone-subsidization plans. As for MS, well, they have been forced to often give Windows OS away for free, which 15 years ago was basically their only bread earner. Competition is hurting all these companies.

The only reason MS is still as powerful as they are is because they earn almost 80% of their revenue in the enterprise market, from products and services most people have no idea even exist. That market is even more solid than Google's advertising business.

 

[jwinch2]

Nadella was allegedly opposed to purchasing Nokia. He has since said he's changed his mind, but we can't know what he really thinks.

The currently accepted explanation is that MS doesn't want to be an all out hardware manufacturer, but can't get by without doing any hardware at all either. Why? because:

a) MS would otherwise be too far away from consumers and their feedback. Ballmer thinks their lack of a hardware smartphone division is part of the reason why MS missed the mobile revolution. If all the feedback you ever get reaches you only indirectly through OEMs, you'll never really have your finger on the pulse of what consumers want.

b) MS needs at least some Windows devices to be best-in-class products. Most hardware companies aren't too interested in taking on that task. You can't confront companies like Apple if your software is only ever delivered to customers on cheap hardware. Somebody needs to be pushing the envelope of what a combined Microsoft Windows + Hardware package is capable of, and that simply takes to long if you can only get your innovations to market through other OEMs. The recently released band, according to Daniel, also follows that strategy.

Agreed. In another thread, we are discussing the idea that MS can use the Lumia and Surface lines in a similar way that Google uses their Nexus products.
http://forums.windowscentral.com/ge...cussion/322562-lumia-brand-now-overrated.html

 

[theefman]

I do wonder how many times Satya Nadella has to issue a press announcement that specifically says "no, we're keeping Surface, Windows Phone, and Xbox and will continue to make hardware" until tech bloggers finally get the message.

I think, as a5cent says above, they are keeping them around as mainly proof of concept mechanisms, to show what is possible and for OEM's to be inspired by, applicable especially to the Surface line; WP not sure what their thinking is. But as well as him saying they are keeping their hardware he has also said they will go where the users are, and that is being borne out in their actions with their new focus on servicing ios and android users before their Windows users so questions are bound to be asked about their commitment to being a hardware vendor. .