Where are you going Microsoft?
Table of contents:
- The profile of the new CEO of Microsoft
- Analysis of the message to the company
- The first changes that have arrived
- A single operating system on any device
- A plausible future for the Surface PRO
- If you can not beat them, join them
- Guess, riddle: predictions
It seems like only yesterday thatSteve Ballmer shocked the world with the announcement that he was stepping down as CEOof the largest software company in the world. Opening the season to months of speculation and rumors about who would be his successor at the helm of the giant.
Ballmer, always remembered for his battle cry "developers, developers, developers", has had a visit to Microsoft that was as positive for the company's income statements as it was controversial and controversial regarding his decisions about the multinational's business lines, and the damage to the reputation that the brand has been suffering in the last decades (and that it is costing so much to correct).
But, an even bigger surprise was the choice and appointment of Satya Nadella as Ballmer's replacement at the ship's helm; which is taking an important turn in the direction of the company, and which makes us wonder: Where are you going Microsoft?
The profile of the new CEO of Microsoft
Nadella has developed his professional career at Microsoft since 1992,with a technical and management profile oriented to the Cloudand related to products and services online. He is primarily responsible for the existence of the Microsoft platform of cloud services, which serve as the foundation for products such as Azure, Xbox Live, Office 365, Skype and many more.
If something can be categorically assured about the new CEO, it is thathis communication style is much more serious and calm than that of his predecessor, which was sometimes too histrionic
Nadella transmits firmness, tranquility and positive energy. In fact, he's much closer to a suave tech guru in his jeans, jacket, and glasses than the pushy executive Ballmer portrayed. And this can be observed both in the interviews and in the presentations at events, where he maintains the public's attention through a serene language -with a curious Hindu accent- more focused on the substance of the things he says than on the way he does them. spectacular.
On the other hand, is rapidly demonstrating that beneath the sheep's clothing hides the firmness and determination that a position of such power requiresAnd, in his message to the entire company on July 10, he made it clear that he has a clear vision of how Microsoft is going to face the challenges that lie ahead.
Analysis of the message to the company
To try to predict what are the paths of this Microsoft in the hands of its new CEO, it is essential to analyze Natya's email sent to all employees of the company at the beginning of last July.
"In this statement Nadella gives a notice to sailors indicating that the decisions made previously will not be weighed on him to put his own into practice , that keep the company at what it considers to be the technological edge.
Thus, a paragraph below indicates that the senior management team will announce the changes, not only in organization, but also in engineering that they deem necessary.
"And with this phrase the CEO of Microsoft begins the description of what is involved a global society with more than three billion people connected to the Internet ; where it has gone from a limited calculation capacity to a point where the power and the device on which the software is executed have ceased to be relevant.
Where the opportunities are in the combination of all kinds of hardware with ubiquitous services based on Cloud, and in which the scarcest value to find is the personal treatment carried out by humans.
" Microsoft is the productivity and platform company"I have put it in English because I still do not have references to how it will be translated into Spanish, because although the concept of productivity is widely used in economic and labor Spanish, the term platform can still lead to confusion .
This word seems to be defined by Nadella as that set of information systems that are the basis on which build services oriented to a world of mobility and cloud computingwith the ultimate goal of boosting the productivity of the billions of users connected to an ever-growing sea of devices, applications, data and social networks.
Whereby the recent motto of “products and services” is surpassed by a much more ambitious goal where it focuses on highly abstract and global social concepts.
The first changes that have arrived
To Nadella's message, we must add the presentation of the results of the last quarter of 2014 made at the end of July.
Where not only has it been a new example of the economic power of the company with billion-dollar profits in practically all divisions, but it has also brought about the first major change: the dismissal of 18,000 people from the company worldwide
Mainly professionals from the old Nokia, some 12,500, who suffer first and foremost from the business policy of slimming down and eliminating duplication so common in the acquisitions of one company by another.
The conversion of the Nokia X and Nokia Asha programs to run -in the future- Windows Phone has also been announced.
That is, the adventure of a low-end Android phone is over. Again leaving in the lurch – as with Windows Phone 7 – the millions of users who acquired the terminals, in exchange for establishing a coherent commitment to the company's operating system.
A single operating system on any device
This duality of operating systems is what I think will happen in the next version of Windows, given the possibilities of the recently introduced Universal Applications, still they are a long way from being able to build applications for any hardware with a single code
Introducing myself fully into the field of speculation, I think that the most reasonable thing to do is the announcement of the disappearance of Windows RT given the non-existent support from other manufacturers, and a lackluster catalog of applications.
This would not mean the death of Modern UI, Metro or whatever it is called, but rather the engulfment of the touch interface by the future Windows Phone 9, awaiting the arrival of Intel microprocessors for Smartphones that they are just around the corner. That the predictions of Science Fiction will come true where mobile phones take the next evolutionary step, becoming true personal computers or miniature tablets (perhaps not so much) .
As an example today, the Nokia Lumia 1520 Phablet only lacks the electronic ink capabilities to be perfectly comparable to the RT tablet, Nokia Lumia 2520. Same processor, same memory, same power , varying only in screen size and capabilities.
A plausible future for the Surface PRO
If with this speculation I just made the Surface 2 RT tablet disappear, which I would bet will be the last of its kind, now I want to focus on the continuity of the Surface PRO, currently in its third version.
As we have seen in other articles, it is a Wintel device that has no competition or competitor, since it is unique in its kind. Certainly this is the second decade of the 21st century version of a TabletPC; concept that could set a trend... or not (as happened with the iPad).
Because it may not be interesting to continue its development program either because of the criticism received by partners when Microsoft entered the hardware market; by the relatively small number of users who use electronic ink; or simply because it does not have a place in the company's plans.
In any case, currently its situation in the medium term is clear to me. According to private conversations with company members, The Surface PRO 3 is selling better than all previous versions Fulfilling the role of a reference device to encourage other integrators to follow this path.
And, even assuming a possible 1,200 million dollars in costs (not confirmed), the hardware division, where the figures of the Surfaces are integrated, continues to give huge benefits to the company. Therefore, the cancellation of the program is not to be expected.
If you can not beat them, join them
Another important change for the multinational, initiated by Steve Ballmer a few years ago, is the 180º turn in relation to its policy of prestige as a brand, leaving its past behind of arrogant monopoly and understanding that the world has changed.
That concepts such as Open Source, the free exchange of knowledge and cost containment are essential to be embraced by any company dedicated to computer services.
Thus Microsoft has licensed and released much of its development platform (the .NET framework) as open source - in addition to free in many cases – and seems firm in its intention to maintain this line of development.
And, as another sign of the new course, it is aggressively tackling the landing of its applications in SaaS mode for any type of operating system – something unthinkable just a few years ago.
Guess, riddle: predictions
The road ahead for Microsoft is a true dichotomy: while in its ecosystem there is potential, drive and enthusiasm that is shown in the constant cascade of news , improvements, evolutions and opening of new tools and markets; On the other hand, there is a constant persistent criticism from users that is going to be especially difficult to overcome.
In addition, powerful competitors, and even enemies, have landed in the market. Sweeping the monopoly of the multinational in sectors such as mobile operating systems, tablets, web servers, telecommunications tools, search engines, browsers, social networks, etc.
Even engaging in full-blown wars, like the one pitting Google against any kind of integration that could mean competition in the future And which right now is focused on restricting the use of its tools in Windows Phone or Modern UI.
However, I believe that Satya Nadella inherits a company that has already begun the change of course to get rid of bureaucracy and gain agility. Focus on innovation and face the challenges of a hyper-connected civilization.
The future of computing is something especially risky to predict, but I believe that the proposal and commitment to have a single Operating System for all devices capable of running Windows can be the first step of a true Cloud OS or Cloud Operating System.
Which would mean that we would no longer have installations of Microsoft applications on our hard drives, but rather that we would subscribe to services directly served from the Cloud (such as right now Google, OneDrive, Flirkc, Office365, etc. .), finally leading to the idea advanced by Google in its Chromebooks: an operating system on the network that automatically adjusts to each device and really shaping the same user experience, regardless of the hardware that It's behind.
And with non-Windows systems, the confrontation would end. The path that Satya seems to follow would evolve from the famous quote of “A PC in every house, a Windows in every PC” to a state of higher abstraction with “Microsoft Cloud platforms and services on all devices”.
Regardless of the operating system it supports, in pursuit of the goal indicated by the final logo of the Satya Nadella email: Cloud OS. Device OS & Hardware. Digital Work & Life Experiences.
