Identity Crisis

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, recently wrote a 3,100 words memo on the company’s new direction. It rambles on without any indication of how Microsoft intends to deal with the post-PC world that even Nadella acknowledges:
“We live in a mobile-first and cloud-first world.”

Microsoft is singularly badly placed to do anything about mobile. Here’s why:
1)      Their original plan had been to license the Windows Phone OS to manufacturers. Google destroyed that plan by making Android free.
2)     With nobody other than Nokia making Windows phones, Microsoft had to buy Nokia. Because Nokia was going bankrupt and also “defecting” to Android.
3)     Having refused to write Office apps for iOS and Android until very recently, they found that the mobile world had moved onto other editors. Or to non-Microsoft Office apps. Like the Polaris Office suite.
4)     Microsoft makes around $2 billion a year from Android manufacturers as royalty for its patents. This puts them in the very awkward position of wanting Android to succeed and to also beat Android!
5)     The mobile world loves free and hates to pay for anything. Apple and Samsung make money through their device sales; and Google makes money via its services that run on all devices. Microsoft is in no man’s land in the world of mobile: neither in devices nor in popular services.
6)     Apple and Google give OS updates for free: that makes desktop/laptop users curse every time they have to pay for a Windows update.

Nadella tries to get out of this impossible situation by wanting to focus on productivity apps to “help people get stuff done”. Chris Matyszczyk nails the problem with that approach:
“It's not an attractive word. It's not one that excites, moves, stirs feelings. It's one that sounds like work…Productivity isn't a personality. It's an engineer's idea of what better looks like.”
Personality, you ask? But when you are fighting Apple, the “personality” of the device/experience is a very big factor:
“Apple has symbolized enjoyment, fun, style and excitement, while Microsoft has been, well, hard work.”
And Microsoft’s bullying you-don’t-have-a-choice image doesn’t exactly help. Contrast that with Apple:
“People actively embraced it, rather than passively coming to terms with it.”

Matyszczyk says the problem is that:
“Microsoft doesn't know who it is anymore.”
I think the problem is that Microsoft doesn’t know what to become either!

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