1. In the browser market, Internet Explorer still lags behind Opera and Firefox. One could suppose that Microsoft is continually hiring little Dutch boys to stick their thumbs in the dike holes of Internet Explorer’s security instead of actually having a thought and adding features to IE. Unfortunately the company that in the late 80s and early 90s that could rapidly respond to the market as opposed to their competitors, (like the ever lethargic IBM), has now turned into IBM themselves.
2. Everyone at Microsoft literally sat on their hands throughout 2005 for a wide variety of reasons, most notably the shipment of SQL Server 2005 and the future shipment of Windows Vista aka Windows Katrina. Product managers seem to have sat around and said “we can’t ship ours until they ship theirs first.” Let’s face it folks: 2005 sucked for new product releases from Microsoft, with the exception of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, both of which have a scarcity instead of a robustness of new features.
3. Microsoft purchases Groove. SharePoint, despite having the worst product team at Microsoft, has become the de facto collaboration server for the Department of Homeland Security at both the Federal and state levels as well as for the Ministry of Defense in the UK. The other piece of software found in that same market is Groove. For Microsoft to get 100 percent of the pork barrel money spent in this market they needed to acquire Groove. Now they need to hire someone to actually make SharePoint and Groove work together. Ray Ozzie appears to have been hired to keep from having to pay him unemployment benefits and to incorporate him into the Department of Propaganda to write the fluffy, phony “Internet Services” memo which was “leaked” to the press.
4. The entire concept of ERP still escapes Microsoft. Instead of consolidating their enterprise products such as Axapta, CRM, Great Plains into a deliverable ERP product, Microsoft takes the low road and renames all of their business products under the moniker of “Dynamics”. Obviously the clue train has never stopped at the Microsoft ERP station.
5. Google. Enough said there. Does anyone at Microsoft actually have Internet access? Is it possible that there will come a day when Microsoft hires some visionaries that can conceive and deliver innovative products? Or shall we just see the end of 2006 arrive as another year when nothing happened, as Microsoft maintained its own status quo?
Bah. Humbug.
Happy New Year!
P.S. This will be moved to the BizTalkWorld site soon. It just isn't as simple to post there as here when one is away from the office.
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