Well Microsoft is a gaint corporation with lot of money and every big company seems to milk this ms Cow by patent or Whatever it can sue it by. Even goverment bodies has been a part of it. But among all the Patent Suit and EU fines and what not to reap this company off, this company has still been the star of the software world. There was always Competition against Microsoft and they over came that sometime with great product, sometime with great marketing and sometime with Killer Instinct and never to give up attitude, obviously there approach has created more enemies than Fans for this company but still they remain ahead of the game in many ways.
As Microsoft still holds it number one position in the software world even today, It seems that the competition against Microsoft is gearing up bigger than ever in the Past. This time it not small companies who are trying to fight Microsoft with a crappy music player (real player) or a web browser(netscape). This time it looks like a lot more organised competition with big players and big pocket with lot of money and lot of tools, as these companies gather up against Microsoft. It's fun time for it should make Microsoft stronger and faster to fight this new challenge and it would be next 5 year which will show us can Microsoft redo what it did before and come out strong even if it surrounded by all side with different competition.
Whom and What is Microsoft up against.
Google
They were just the search guy few years ago. They have become the advertisement Moguls now. They are after the medium business and enterprise market, though not in competition directly with Microsoft in any market. They are creating the service industry which is creating a challenge against Microsoft for the future. Microsoft sees the challenge of the future with Google and no doubts that is what making them react for everything that google does.
Google seems to me the smartest company in the software business currently. They have a great business model fueled by advertisement. They have a aim to grow and they have the right sight to grow. Google does not seem to be investing in any crap. They don't believe in investing in R & D like Microsoft. Where you spent billions in R & D to get cooking recipes ( Microsoft what are you thinking, you are a software company not a restaurant. You should create services that allows access to recipe not worry about cooking it.) Google is investing smart and every company that google as bought and any service they have created like Gmail, Doc and Spreadsheet, Picasa, Writely, Blogger etc is aimed at one thing and that is fueling their bottom line. They are not wasting their time or money on things that will not help their business model of Advertisement or becoming the king of content on the internet.
What has google done?
Advertisement
Advertisement done right. Google has done the right revenue generation model for their business via advertisment. There are other ways but they have got it right for the business model. Not only have they done it right. They have created a platform so that every body in the world can become the partner in that model and benefit themselves but most importantly work for google for free. How google has done it right. Search engine which is free for me to use. But for google it generates revenue in advertisement. Gmail which is free for me but creates revenue for google and many other service. I blog and advertise for google. Indirectly I work for Google.
Google Work force
Who works for google. Every user who has a google account works for google. I tell google by using Google calendar what I am doing everyday, helping them to advertise better on my Gmail. I use Google Reader to read the blog entries though there are no advertisement there, I still take time to flag the articles helping them rank the content and make their search engine better and telling them what I like the most for free and helping them advertise better when I am online. Each and every one of use who has a google account and think that google is a free service is working for google for free and in return getting a free service from google. Google has no doubt created one of the best business model and are success full and yet are being loved by all as oppose to Microsoft who is successful and being hated by everybody. They have created a place for me by knowing me well. Google is a great company with very focused business model, which is not based on free ware or open source (which it feels like), but has a very strong profit model and that is only going to grow.
Microsoft has a chance to compete against Google. Not only it just have a chance to compete against google by following the Google business model and creating cool application like google but has a chance to do it better than Google by using their Windows Platform. Windows Live and Windows Platform, couple with WPF and WPF/E and created with .NET Framework can create a killer next generation platform which cannot only surpass Google but others to.
Apple
Max OS X
Well Mac almost died and then came back, They had a clean slate to start with and they did that, they got the basic features right and started in the market. No momentum existed for OS X initially but then came the luck factor called iPod and it slowly helped MAC OS X take ground against windows.
Windows Longhorn (now windows Vista) was announced in 2003 by Microsoft they showed lot of feature in their prototype which did not exist in OS X or Windows XP at that time but than Microsoft had to stop that work for a year or more on Longhorn for Windows XP SP2 which delayed the new Windows OS for a few years and Apple used this opportunity in the smart way by putting some of the killer feature that were to be available with Windows Vista in the OS X over the last 4 years, they added spotlight, Core Image, Core Animation and such thing and charged people to buy it. Overall i believe MAC OS user paid more than the Windows Vista user for they got all of the features in One go while MAC OS X user paid for it over the last 4 year and for less features.
Anyway today with their big mouth campaign PC Vs MAC which is mostly misguiding at many times has done good for MAC OS X and along with the help of iPod , Apple has again become a fierce competition against Microsoft and with time it seem they will keep on gaining more market share in front of windows with help of iPod, Apple TV and iPhone.
To me it seems very clear that currently Apple is clearly targeting Microsoft at the home user segment by trying to make MAC OS as a part of living room, fun and entertainment for the home user and slowly with Boot Camp in the business world.
Good luck to the apple you are doing a good job. I still don't believe that MAC OS X is any where near to the Windows Vista. MAC has still got a lot of catch up to do.
iPod
Well the scroll wheel along with iTunes did the magic. This is a pure apple product as it is fun and easy for every user to use without any issues. There is no doubt that this is the most popular device of this decade and would not be replaced by any other. Microsoft effort with Zune is the only promising challenge that looks like can stand in front of iPod all other like iRiver, Creative, Toshiba and other looks like stupid company to even try to fight Ipod.
Waiting to see how good the new full screen Ipod would be.
No-doubt world goes ga ga about it, I have never got used to the scroll wheel and feel like is the most annoying feature of iPod, but the touch screen ipod with iPhone looks really promising and unless Microsoft Zune effort comes out with something great. I don't see any other great competition against this great music player.
Apple TV
Copy of Windows Media Centre packaged with Apple Marketing and a good UI (which is still i believe not as good as new Windows Media Centre edition of Windows Vista) and arrogant user fan club of apple, this seems to become one of the technology which i will see in many houses in the coming future. If apple get it right with iTunes integration of this technology which Microsoft has yet not got it right compelety. This can become the next big thing for Apple iTune Shop.
Waiting for it release and market reaction to it.
iTunes
I never liked it, I am a huge fan of Windows Media Player 11, it is fun and easy to use but for the rest of the world who owns a iPod and don't have much choice love this or have to love it. What I feel is the brilliant factor is how Apple keeps on adding cool UI Feature to Wow the people up. They may be not that useful once you start using them but they do have the factor which makes people talk about it and that is always good for Apple. Keep up the good work apple and hope you don't start annoying people by acting like stupid and not providing proper support for Windows Vista user, which apple is doing purposely and shows a desperate attempt of Apple to stop people to moving to Windows Vista.
Hardware
One thing for which there is no comparison and i believe only apple did the right job than any other company in the world is the hardware. Apple has done serious innovation in hardware and all the other company who should be shame full of themselves for not being their first than apple are DELL, HP, IBM, TOSHIBA, ACER, ASUS and all other PC manufacturer. Dell and other being such big player as compared to Apple has not done a single good innovation in the hardware business and to me it seems that Apple should one day replace them for this manufacture don't deserve to be in the hardware business.
Apple has done great job in hardware end, no wire mess I love it. Simple and innovative design. In hardware design you guys are the king only if you would have opened up your hardware and allowed people to run Windows or Linux on it, You would have become the world leader in the hardware business. Well you made your choice.
Hope Dell and HP get some good sense and come up with more innovative hardware and for Microsoft if it is going to rely on this partner to make next generation PC they are going to loose more market share. It's time they enter the Hardware market and start standing up against Apple to get ahead of competition before it's late for them.
Adobe
I always believed adobe was a crap company and made hard to use software and PDF was the biggest annoying software product ever to program with. I always believed Macromedia was a great software company and Flash was a very great platform even better than JAVA. Though it hasn't done much good for the Developer community but still has been a great platform. When Adobe and Macromedia combined they not only created a great company, it was like a match made in heaven. The day they combined I was sure here comes a great competition environment against Windows Platform. Obviously Microsoft is not sleeping and they have come up with WPF and WPF/E which I believe will provide a really great competition to Flash and along with .net Framework will someday replace Flash completely. But currently WPF hardly exist and is the only opportunity that Adobe has to strike hard in the market.
The biggest mistake I believe Adobe did was not porting their application to Linux by 2002. They made great software and became like default application for MAC OS X. They helped the MAX OS X bottom line but did not helped their own. Not only did they create competition for themselves against Apple they lost a great market of Linux Community. They have started the effort now somewhat and I believe they need to do more and get Linux community on their bandwagon if they really want to compete against Microsoft and keep Apple under control from taking away their market.
Flex + Flash + Apollo
This three are the one that will create a real challenge for Microsoft in the desktop and Web application environment. If Adobe can create a great developer community, it will surely become a parallel environment to WPF and WPF/E in the future. They had the greatest opportunity to take the great amount of market share when they came out with FLEX first but they did not do much to get it in hands of developer. They still have a chance and they have gathered more momentum than WPF I believe. I will just wait and see how it turns out.
Photoshop + Illustrator and other printing software
Well great software, no competition against it. Even I believe Microsoft is not even trying to compete in this area and I believe they will never. So as long as they can keep on doing great in this area. Adobe will always have chance to compete against MS. But really there bigger fear for Adobe in this area should be Apple than Microsoft.
Open Source
Mozialla / Firefox
The biggest blow against Microsoft came from an Open Source community than any other company in the last decade. Mozilla Foundation FireFox web browser not only seems to have stirred Microsoft but also made them aware that being top of the game does not mean you stop, you still have to fight for the position ever day.
FireFox is a very good browser available in the market and with the community running behind it there are no doubt it just going to keep on adding more market share in front of IE and other web browser.
Best part of FireFox the ability for the community to easily create plug-ins and IE needs a lot to do in that area to achieve this. Waiting for MIX 07 and hoping to hear some great announcement for IE and top of the wish list for me is full support for CSS 2.1 standard and a new environment based on .net framework to write plug-ins for IE and ability to run application as part of IE from desktop.
Ubuntu
Linux is fragmented community before Ubuntu showed up. It seems ubuntu is doing the right thing for Linux for the rest of the Linux Community which involves Novell, Red Had, IBM and others, this companies never did anything to benefit Linux they just looked after Linux to achieve their bottom Line. Ubuntu is what i call Serious Linux and this is the first time I feel the power of Linux growing against Microsoft and Ubuntu is leading the Pack.
For Microsoft Apple is a great competition but the bigger competition than Apple is Linux and not just any Linux it's Ubuntu Linux. Why is Ubuntu Linux great competition? for their is a huge Asian market which is a combination of India and China to be fair. They are going to become the biggest IT consumer in next few years and Microsoft Vista is really costly when it comes to Asian country. How does this sound. A average $250 US for Windows Vista Business or Home Premium will amount to 11,250.00 Indian Rupees. This can be like a normal pay for a month for a middle class family person in India in which he would support 3 other family member along with him. He needs a computer which is obviously going to cost him a lot for hardware and the only way he can get windows XP or Vista is either get a pirated version or just forget about it. And it's not only that you need MS office, Antivirus software to get some use out of that computer. But put Ubuntu for him, with a cheaper second hand hardware he may be able to afford it and get Open Office and he is a happy guy.
Microsoft really need to work out it pricing strategy for the Asian market. Microsoft can creat a cheaper useless version like Home Basic or create a componotised version of Windows Vista (Which i believe is what Microsoft is doing with Windows Vienna) so that people get what component they need and can still afford the computer. I liked the scheme that Microsoft came with where people can own PC and make payment in part by buying time to use the computer and own it once they have paid it off or something like that. It is a great scheme I hope Microsoft advertise that more and work more harder on that to compete against Linux in Asian market. Windows is a great platform compared to Linux but Microsoft need to work out the right way to push it to the market and understand economics of different market and tailor windows accordingly for them.
Mono
Just a humble mention for Mono here. .net Framework is a great platform and getting it to Linux will just make Linux look more lovely.
Web 2.0
You tube, My Space and other not a competition for the Microsoft currently but with changing times and more broadband connection and speedier Internet this seems to become the next challenge for Microsoft in coming year. If i store all my computer online and just use browser I may some day just need a mobile OS and screen to do my work. Microsoft need to prepare itself with great business service to keep their customer on their end and at the same time create a next generation platform and tools with .net framework and WPF to become the choice of platform and Tools for all the Web 2.0 company. It will be fun who reach their first Adobe or Microsoft. But this is the area that Microsoft seems to have got serious about but it seems they have no clue what to do. Windows Live is the start and hopefully they will make it the greatest platform for developers, end users to be on it. But before that they have to show me how Windows Live make more sense for me than using Google App. Well google has already created the part of the platform and Microsoft not only need to catch up with it but also go beyond it.
Asian Open Source Movement
The more Asian community move toward open source, it more of a loss to Microsoft. It's greater loss than loosing market share against Apple. Why? Because the Asian country are going to be fueling the next generation of IT movement and Microsoft really need to focus on the Asian Country problem and create solution for them to keep them on board with windows platform.
VM Ware Virtual Machine
The next generation of operating system should be a virtual OS. Microsoft has just got into game but obviously it need to evolve and innovate faster, like iPod created the market for Digital Music. Microsoft need to create the market where Virtual Machine becomes the norm and Microsoft need to innovate to make it happen. This is the battle when there is only one competition against Microsoft and if Microsoft evolve itself here. It would be like windows 95 which was the greatest evolution in desktop PC and so would be this. I believe Ray Ozzie sees this and has plan to work upon it. If not he really need to start thinking on this end.
Microsoft need to redefine it's approach and it can not go on each an individual business separately and compete with them in their respective market. It has to create a combined effort by using Windows Platform, .NET Framework, WPF (part of .net Framework) and create a next generation Operating System based on Windows Live and Windows OS integrated together which is not available in Linux or Apple. Which is a service oriented, Componotised Platform. Which creates a one true interoperable platform. And there is only one company which i see can make it Happen and that is Microsoft
