May 10, 2006
“microsoft bristles at being cast as a laggard.”
[NYT:] History, then, suggests that past success is often an anchor holding a company back, and that Microsoft is at risk from the Google challenge. “The wind is really behind Google, and Microsoft’s main tool for navigating the future is the rear view mirror,” said Paul Saffo, a director of the Institute for the Future, a forecasting consultancy in Silicon Valley.
[Thanks to Dave Winer for the link.]
I read that on a nice dead tree this morning, and it’s a really good article.
OK, not so amazingly in-depth, but a good read.
My favorite bit (paraphrasing): Microsoft and Google pass each other’s “silver bullet test:” if you had one bullet, whom would you shoot.
But the main point of the article is that while this showdown is very serious, the long-term winner of MS vs Google could well be some little company you haven’t heard of yet.
While Microsoft can’t seem to get anything right lately, I wouldn’t count them out. OTOH, if I were Gates, I’d find something else for Ballmer to do.
The author of this quote works for the ‘Institute for the Future’, which I think is a very cool name for any organization.
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