What does someone who ’s been cover Microsoft for 25 year suppose about Bill Gates ’ retirement ? Ask Mary Jo Foley , or consider her book , Microsoft 2.0 : How Microsoft design to Stay Relevant in the Post Gates Era . I read and I detect it to be somewhat encyclopedic in its breadth and knowledge of the interior works of Microsoft , every varlet wedge - full of historical setting and abstruse noesis and liberal economic consumption of external root . It ’s all especially impressive since Microsoft PR decide against officially confirm Gates - transition stories . And she play neither fault - blind well-wisher nor superficially inform critic ; her work is pitch perfect , calling out the obscene and yet recommending doubters not consider out Microsoft as Bill leave behind .
The book is set up in these chapters : Recap of Gate Era Microsoft , Buzzwords , multitude , Short Term Products , Big Bet Products , Tried and True Business Models , unseasoned but Unavoidable Business Models , On to Microsoft 3.0 .
Again , Mary Jo Foley , as a Microsoft devoted diarist , never falls into the rabbit hole of fandom that so many Apple writer do . She quotes Microsoft ’s ambitions to embed Live cloud technical school into the group O , and then she put it like this , in regards to Windows : Give users what they require ( “ a more transparent substance abuser experience ” ) . Office is another place she establish her linear perspective is proper . “ The Office squad is focusing on two simultaneous missions : Introduce new and compelling features that will make existing customer need to upgrade … ” She keep abreast that up with a unmortgaged descent , “ authority today is seen by many as a bloated mathematical product that includes slews of feature that very few hoi polloi ever use . So Microsoft ca n’t simply keep cranking out more and more new Office feature and modules and desire it will stumble as if by magic on something that will gain over laggards still running Office 2003 , Office XP , or Office 97 . ” The full book of account is well reasoned like this . That would be state the obvious , if it were n’t so meticulously researched and engulf in tons of national linear perspective culled from that reference list .
For illustration , she has a list of 10 hummer pointed objective lens that are to set apart Office 14 , and notes that there is no Office 13 , for superstitious reasons . She has collated a list of over 40 Windows Live sub brands , and then revisited the pruned list published in 2007 . Maybe so she can marvel at their bloat . She explains the subtle divide between Ballmer execs and Gates EXEC , partial to business tending thinking or technical school tending thinking . She dive into executives and personalities and trait of 10 “ Baby Ballmers , ” far beyond the recognizable Allard and Bach or Ozzie , and even does a list of 10 up and coming execs behind that . She touch the main gain centre and goes into heathcare , auto , and far deeper into enterprise than I ’d ever care to go . This level of granularity feels exhaust sometimes and I ’d colour over section I did n’t deal to know about , but there is a lot there . She draws a picture show of the atrocious organization in in high spirits granularity , but does not often have a fortune to make horse sense of all of it under the umbrella of a caller goal . Could anyone ?
It ’s out of the question to explain the depth and random knowledge you will find here . permit me pick out a handful of details by just randomly flip out overt five pages :
•Microsoft has been test an Office renting program outside of the US
•”The Studio ” in a branding group in guardianship of bringing semblance to Xbox , Zune , etc . in the E&D groups .
•Cool codenames like Fiji and Longhorn are being used less and less . Boo !
•In the past , Microsoft enquiry has demoed using the mobile connected to a TV as a low - cost PC in break country .
•A huge ball of Microsoft ’s future revenue is from piracy crackdowns .
The facts within this book are n’t mantrap . But there is just so much information about how the company ’s line works , it ca n’t be undervalue . I could probably draw 2,000 act like this from the textbook . Is it cohesively mastermind ? As well it can be . This is Microsoft , after all .
There is one major shortcoming which I ’ve talked to Mary Jo Foley about . It ’s her ignorance of Xbox and Zune in the Quran , which get only three pageboy . Why ? Because they do n’t make any money . I get that , they ’re diminutive in financial regard , but Zune and Xbox are some of the few product done the right way at Microsoft in the last few year . Even if they do n’t make money , they ’re important for team spirit and example for the Windows groups . product have to be great before multitude bribe them and love them enough to tell their friends about them . Unless you have a monopoly business model as Windows and Office much do . Even in that case , it ’s very readable that people will resist , and resent when it ’s shoved down their throats , as evident by the room people are clinging to XP . With that in intellect , I reckon the book somewhat incomplete and I intend that these group deserve more attending and deference from Mary Jo Foley .
Does this book serve the question of how Microsoft will expand without Gates full time ? I ’m positive that it ’s a dependable look at the troupe more than anything . I entail , Gates will still be around one day a calendar week , and he ’s been transition ever since Ballmer took the CEO role about eight long time ago , so the pivotal moment of his quasi - retirement is not a shocking event as much as it is interesting .
So , I advocate this book not as nonchalant reading , but as an priceless point of reference to people who need to read up on Microsoft ’s inner workings . Most other books do n’t get past the ’ 90s or the antimonopoly issues , and Bible on tech age almost as quickly as troupe like Microsoft change rate . Being that this book is the late and the only one to have such current matter and diachronic earthing , every tech diary keeper and follower of tech occupation should have it in their subroutine library . The only excuse for not having it is if you ’ve also been cover Microsoft for 25 years . [ Amazon ]
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