Moving on up to Microsoft

No, not really. I doubt they would ever be willing to pay what it would take for me to work there. But it is Sunday, day for giving, so here is my opinion on what Microsoft should do.

First, let’s be honest. Despite the recent fat trimming, Microsoft is the most dominant computer company around. Apple gets all the love and the hype but single digit market share compared to Microsoft’s 89%.

What is the real problem with Microsoft? Aside from Office and Windows, both of which are under attack, company is bleeding cash chasing more innovative companies. Without ability to focus, it is starting to lose the turf not just to it’s direct competitors but also to it’s own older operating systems. 

At this point, Microsoft Windows Vista may as well be the last OS that Microsoft gets a significant market share with.

But it doesn’t have to be.

It is up to Microsoft to make Windows 7 what it’s customers – ALL of it’s customers – want it to be.

Who are Microsoft’s customers? Well, everyone. On every kind of a device. This is why Microsoft has 852 (estimated) SKU combinations of Vista and Office alone. Same OS should smoke on a 8″ Netbook and give the same sort of experience a $3,000 laptop does.

Microsoft should immediately kill Software Assurance.

Microsoft’s goal is to go to software subscriptions. In order for that to happen, Microsoft needs some sort of a promise that it’s OS will keep on evolving in order not to treat the OS purchase like a fixed, aging part of a PC.

Microsoft’s partners – from VARs to OEMs to ISVs – need a predictable environment to operate in and make a profit. It takes years to write solid software and pay off the R&D – so ISVs need to make sure the software they write will be sold. OEMs and device manufacturers aren’t going to waste time writing drivers for an OS that will run on a few PCs. VARs are deploying their solutions on top of an OS core that is supported by all their other value adds – from service management to the vertical business application integration. Everyone in the chain waits for Microsoft to present something.

For Microsoft, OS and Office business has not changed in the past 15+ years even though the demands of it’s users has. On one end Microsoft is losing to competition, on the other end it is losing by having it’s users with an inappropriate version of OS or Office running on their device.

It sucks for everyone.

Microsoft needs to do two things:

1. Monthly Subscriptions. Deliver a simple-to-license, everyone-can-play subscription version of Windows that can get addons for an additional monthly fee. Let’s say Windows is $5 / month. Want a DVR functionality, that is $6.99 / month extra. Want enterprise integration – $1.99/month. Let your customers build what suits them best, give them the right to keep the same kind of experience that grows on top of a stable core that everyone from ISVs to device makers can  get behind.

2. Deliver long term reliability promise. The reason very few are willing to go to Vista, and will go to Windows 7 even less, is because there is no incentive to change the status quo if it causes a chain of changes that will just put the company onto the install/upgrade/migrate/relicense treadmill. In order for the CIO’s and CTO’s to bite anything beyond getting the latest OS only when the new piece of equipment is purchased there needs to be some promise behind it. Microsoft has always been seen as “well, it’s sucky now but it will be fixed in the next release” kind of a company and this is an opportunity to break out of it.

We are heading towards the world of web based apps. If the desktop is reduced to a browser interface between the application, keyboard and the printer it’s value goes from $180 (Windows average) to $0 (Linux / embedded OS) that more and more manufacturers are shipping with their new PCs. Users seemingly don’t care. It just works, eh?

Microsoft is currently trying to fix Vista, the PR campaign gone awry, with cosmetic enhancements without addressing the core problem. On the web services side it is even more sketchy.

Time to get it together. In words of Office Space: What is it you would say you DO around here?