There’s a point in a company’s lifecycle where they hit a wall. New products and innovations are slow to come out and the feeling that they are so big nobody can catch them seems to become a company’s belief. It’s these times when the innovators, the smaller companies, have their window of opportunity to make strides and 2005 saw the beginning of this happening. This is the year though that the big companies stop to take notice and wonder what just happened to their market/mindshare. When I say “fail” I am thinking they won’t disappear (although they might), but fail in the sense of what they are trying to achieve and categories they are trying to keep.
1. Microsoft
Microsoft is so far behind in the innovative desktop wars you have to wonder does it even make any sense to continue on with the development of Vista/Longhorn (of course it does, but you still have to wonder). Every new “feature” that they announce seems to have already been implemented in either OS X or Linux and the UI just seems to be made with prettier graphics.
Linux did a great job of distracting Microsoft while OS X was able to come in and start biting away at the mindshare of the public. With Apple using Intels in their computers now, that provides another blow to Microsoft not because you can easily move over from Windows to Mac OS X on your Intel box (you can’t easily), but the fact that they use the same hardware will put a lot more at ease who are thinking about making the switch. Now we are on an even playing field, which was something Microsoft always had an advantage over the last couple of years so we will see how they respond.
Originally posted on January 18, 2006 @ 11:52 am