Microsoft's alt-OS strategy strikes loyalists as class warfare
Microsoft's alt-OS strategy strikes loyalists as class
warfare
But the emphasis on rival OSes, making Windows seem
second fiddle, will be temporary, say analysts
Gregg Keizer By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld | Dec 8, 2014 12:24 PM PT
Long-time Windows users may feel like second-class
citizens as Microsoft continues to push its products and services onto
alternate platforms, but the problem will clear up next year, analysts
predicted today.
"It's a question of whether Microsoft is sending a
deliberate signal or just shipping things when they're ready," said Jan
Dawson of Jackdaw Research about Microsoft's new-found favoritism for Android
and iOS. "The problem is that if you send a message to one group, you end
up sending messages to others. And sometimes that can backfire."
By "backfire," Dawson was referring to the
undercurrent among Microsoft and Windows loyalists who have expressed concern
-- in emails to Computerworld, comments on stories there, on other outlets'
news stories, and even on Microsoft's own blogs -- that they're getting the
short end of the stick from many of the moves made during 2014.
While the most notable example remains Office for iPad --
which was released in March, likely a year-plus before something comparable arrives
for Windows -- the list ranges from the pseudo-layout Sway and Outlook 2015 on
OS X to Cortana and the acquisition of Acompli. The more Microsoft launches
products and services first on non-Windows OSes, buys companies that specialize
in Android or iOS, or simply makes once-Windows-only features available on
competing platforms, the more uneasy it makes Windows fans.
"I am personally totally fine with Microsoft
developing apps for iOS or Android," wrote someone identified as danielgr
in a comment appended to a Microsoft blog announcing new versions of Office on
the iPhone last month. "And yet I am EXTREMELY disappointed to see those
capabilities going well beyond anything Microsoft offers on its own platform.
That wouldn't be bad for a week, a month or two, but then you tell me that I'll
have to wait over half a year to get something I could get right now if I
bought an iPhone."
The angst has been building since Satya Nadella stepped
into Steve Ballmer's CEO shoes. His first day on the job, Nadella refashioned
Microsoft's strategy as "cloud first, mobile first" and quickly
pushed to put as much of Microsoft as possible on non-Windows OSes. That only
sped up this summer when Nadella struck another motto: Productivity and
platform.
There has been no sign of a let-up.
Last week, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner,
parroting Nadella, said, "Our uniqueness is really about our ability to
reinvent productivity ... and we're going to do that across mobile, and so that
any device can become your device regardless of the operating system (emphasis
added)." Later, Turner seemed to put Windows in the
"afterthought" category. "We're also still going to run great on
the Windows platform and continue to bring it along there, too." he said.
Yikes.
For some analysts, the push beyond Windows was not only
smart but a sign that Microsoft had sniffed some reality smelling salts.
"They have to face market trends," said Wes Miller of Directions on
Microsoft. "People on iOS pay money for apps, there are lots of Android
devices, and then there's Windows Phone. It's Microsoft's [financial]
responsibility to go where the users are on mobile, and that's not Windows
Phone."
Others echoed Miller's necessary-evil take but also
delved into the why.
"Products for its own platforms were far more
advanced than for alternative platforms, so Microsoft has a lot more to do on
other platforms than on Windows," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver in
an email. "This also means that Windows platforms are likely evolving more
slowly anyway. [And] Microsoft has a lot of internal expertise on Windows
platforms and less on others, so acquisitions, which are more visible, are more
likely to be done for supporting alternative platforms."
Analysts agreed, more or less, that the emphasis on
everything but Windows was more a result of timing, resources and the rethink
of strategy at Redmond than a deliberate snub. But some saw it as exactly that
nonetheless.
"When the biggest base is pushed back in a queue,
you're now a second-class citizen," said Dawson.
Microsoft was simply between the proverbial rock and a
hard place, said Silver. "Microsoft is damned if they do and damned if
they don't, aren't they? How many articles were there over the past few years
about how far behind Microsoft was in addressing other platform?" Silver
noted. "Now, they're addressing other platforms and they're being faulted
for it."
But while loyalists' resentment is real, it will probably
be temporary, the experts argued. As Microsoft rolls out, for instance, the
next version of Office on Windows, including a long-awaited touch-centric
edition, the sniping there should stop.
"This will correct in 2015," predicted Patrick
Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "Once you
get to Windows 10, which looks like a very, very high-quality platform, [a
touch-centric] Office will scale not only to ARM but also x86 tablets and
PCs."
Miller chimed in, too. "What we're seeing is that
the next version of Office and Windows 10 will go out at the same time. And the
new Office will be the best experience when you're using that platform,"
he said. He also called this in-between moment "awkward," and blamed
at least part of Microsoft's problem with its boosters on an inability to make
its own smartphones compelling.
But the world will never be what it once was for Windows'
proponents -- something they'll have to learn to accept no matter how
cockamamie they think it is.
"Most favored nation status is over," said Miller.
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