Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Feeling the heat at Microsoft
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
>| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
>| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?
>|
>| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
>| to go with that. Perhaps Google on that layer, although frankly speaking,
>| most of what we have there is upside. We're small and they're big. (With)
>| most things, we're big and the other guy is small, so we have more to lose
>| than gain. In this case, we have more to gain than to lose with Google.
> `----
>
> http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
>
> No, not Apple, not IBM, not Sun, and not that 'open' cuddly thingie Microsoft
> pretends to be a part of. It's Linux and the GPL that Ballmer and his lackeys
> are scared of. Did you hear this, Apple users?
>
Apple is doing a good job of maintaining a business model based on
proprietary hard and software, but they continue to aim at the wealthy
market, rather than the mainstream, and continue to derive income from a
relatively small user based compared with Microsoft, but at a much
higher ARPU than Microsoft get.
The GPL, open-source, Linux, however, has a zero Arpu requirement.
Business models have to be different, of course, as lock-in is no longer
effective, but even so, ARPU is no longer the key metric, rather, it's
about integration, support and development revenue. These are not
processor or user-based, they are per-purchase or per-contract revenues.
>
> Related:
>
> Can Ballmer pilot Microsoft through a changed tech course?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Can Ballmer steer Microsoft out of the roadblocks?
>|
>| The highly competitive Ballmer, you might say, is the man who cried "nice."
>| And like the boy who cried wolf, no one believed him. The software giant's
>| attempt to make nice with much of the developer community by opening up its
>| APIs for key products was greeted with a jaundiced eye by regulators at the
>| powerful European Commission.
>|
>| However sincere Microsoft's stated change of heart may be, it is becoming
>| clearer and clearer that Microsoft -- which knows it has to change -- is
>| still struggling to find a fresher path.
>|
>| What's a poor CEO to do?
>|
>| Now that Bill Gates has effectively left the building, Ballmer is free to
>| transform Microsoft, a job made all the tougher by the enormous reservoir of
>| mistrust the company has engendered over the years.
>|
>| Case in point: the open APIs. Microsoft will give its competitors free access
>| to the application programming interfaces and protocols it uses to ensure
>| interoperability between its own products, a very significant change in
>| business practices.
> `----
>
> http://weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2008/02/microsoft_open.html
>
>
> EU May Fine Microsoft Over Antitrust Case, People Say
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| The fine may be announced as soon as Feb. 27, said the people, who declined
>| to be identified because the decision isn't public. Microsoft said in a Jan.
>| 24 U.S. regulatory filing that the penalty may be as much as 1.5 billion
>| euros ($2.2 billion).
> `----
>
> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=MSFT:US&sid=aG8SwG8llTmM
>
>
> Microsoft's Last Big Beat: Internet Domination or Death
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| What can $44.6B USD mean? Well, for Microsoft (MSFT) it may mean the cost of
>| survival.
> `----
>
> http://seekingalpha.com/article/63876-microsoft-s-last-big-beat-internet-domination-or-death?source=yahoo
>
>
> Microsoft says to borrow money for Yahoo deal
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Microsoft Corp said on Monday it may borrow money for the first time in its
>| history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo
>| Inc.
> `----
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN0455692920080205
>
>
> Will Microsoft Survive the Next 10 Years?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| I am not really an expert in this but when I read all the negative
>| headlines and articles I ask myself if Microsoft really will survive
>| the next 10 years.
>|
>| [...]
>|
>| I am pretty sure that the Open Source Community, the new Ubuntu,
>| Google and of course Apple are those companies that are ready for
>| our century and they will get more and more people that know what
>| they really want.
> `----
>
> http://websquirrel.blogspot.com/2007/03/will-microsoft-survive-next-10-years.html
>
>
> P. Graham: Microsoft is Dead
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead. I was talking
>| to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo.
>| I said that Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of
>| Microsoft. That was why they'd positioned themselves as a "media
>| company" instead of a technology company. Then I looked at his face
>| and realized he didn't understand. It was as if I'd told him how much
>| girls liked Barry Manilow in the mid 80s. Barry who?
>|
>| Microsoft? He didn't say anything, but I could tell he didn't quite
>| believe anyone would be frightened of them.
> `----
>
> http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
>
>
> Microsoft's DreamSpark ? What a Giveaway
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| The rest of the $44.6bn (£22.3bn) deal would be financed with an undisclosed
>| amount of credit.
>|
>| What that means is that it must squeeze as much money as it can from its
>| operations to fund that debt and still pay dividends to shareholders, who
>| will be looking for some payback from the Yahoo takeover. Giving away
>| software is the last thing it would want to do in these circumstances, and
>| the DreamSpark announcement shows just how worried it is about the future.
> `----
>
> http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsofts-dreamspark-%E2%80%93-what-giveaway
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
