But unless Microsoft finds a new vision and direction, they're in serious trouble when those cash cows start to go dry.
What makes Microsoft's floundering under Ballmer particularly galling is the fact that Microsoft has been acutely aware of this for a very long time; the Sun and Netscape antitrust suits were born of Microsoft's fear of a platform-neutral world.
It's not here today, and we're only starting to see the first seeds of it with the rise of rich web applications and platforms like ChromeOS, but it's on its way. Microsoft still has a timeline in the scale of years to work with, but they need to start focusing aggressively on the future sooner rather than later, and, frankly, I don't see Ballmer as being the person capable of guiding the company through a transition they're going to have to make if they're going to survive in the long-term.
What makes Microsoft's floundering under Ballmer particularly galling is the fact that Microsoft has been acutely aware of this for a very long time; the Sun and Netscape antitrust suits were born of Microsoft's fear of a platform-neutral world.
It's not here today, and we're only starting to see the first seeds of it with the rise of rich web applications and platforms like ChromeOS, but it's on its way. Microsoft still has a timeline in the scale of years to work with, but they need to start focusing aggressively on the future sooner rather than later, and, frankly, I don't see Ballmer as being the person capable of guiding the company through a transition they're going to have to make if they're going to survive in the long-term.