The Missing Future and the Microsoft mentality
I read Eric Kidd's "The Missing Future" earlier today, and I just read Robert Scoble's response thanks to Julia. These are uplifting words considering the somewhat morose (but excellent) content of Eric's article. Robert talks about finding the Cold Stone Creamery of the software world, and my most recent read implies that Microsoft is aware of a potential Cold Stone Creamery. A few quotes:
"If we make the wrong decisions, everything we've built over the last twenty-five years could be history."
[Quoted as Bill Gates -- p. 56]
"One day, somebody will catch us napping. One day, an eager upstart will put Microsoft out of business."
[Quoted as Bill Gates in his book Business @ the Speed of Thoughts -- p. 56]
"Our next competitor could come out of nowhere and put us out of business virtually overnight."
[Quoted as Steve Ballmer -- p. 56]
"If we don't continue to innovate to keep up with consumer needs and technology advances, we can be unseated at any time, by anyone."
[Quoted as Jeff Raikes -- p. 57]
It almost sounds as though Microsoft is paranoid and histrionic, but it just demonstrates their belief that the missing future isn't really missing at all. I obviously can't confirm whether or not this is the true mentality of Microsoft, but the speed at which they move certainly supports this.