Daniel Eran at RoughlyDrafted performs surgery on the idea that MS is actually as strong a player as we all think they are. He focuses on two aspects of their business that can be considered failures — Windows Mobile and WMA — and kind of shows that the Zune is doomed to failure, or worse, the bargain bin at Odd Lots.
The big secret they missed is that Microsoft hasn’t ever earned significant profits in the consumer hardware business, nor has its executives proven any business acumen in delivering what consumers want in hardware or creative entertainment, excluding, of course, Microsoft’s impressive and highly sophisticated keyboard and mouse division.
Take that pie chart over there, for example. It shows the market shares of the major players in the smartphone OS space. See that big hunk? That’s Symbian. See those two 5% chunks? That’s Palm and Microsoft. MS can’t even beat Linux AND a defanged Palm in a game it should have wrapped up years ago. Read on for more examples of Microsoft’s secret shame.
The Secret Failures of Microsoft [RoughlyDrafted]