Winga
4 Dec 2006, 6:51pm
Industry critics are wondering if Microsoft will ever build another Vista (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36155).
According to Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8LNO9B00.htm?chan=search) and the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003460386_btview04.html), it took more than five years and 10 000 people to make vista. With the average salary at Microsoft at around $200,000 that's $10bn shelled out for salaries alone. It's just had its debut and already experts are predicting Vista may be the last of its kind.
"Suddenly, the market changed and competitors started delivering technology at the speed of the Internet," said James McQuivey, professor of market research at Boston University. "In some cases, they do it for free, and that's painful for Microsoft."
Vista was made the old-fashioned way. A single packaged product put on a disk, so users can buy it in a store and load it onto their computers. By contrast, rivals like Google are creating spreadsheets and browsers that you simply download from a computer server. It delivers what you need, when and as you need it. If Google continues with more offerings of free, ad-supported software over the Internet, Microsoft won't be in a position to charge a premium for its operating systems anymore.
Since Vista first hit the drawing board, the development of software has changed a lot. Linux has made a huge splash on the market and has changed the way that projects are managed.
Vista has shown there is only so much an Operating System can do without it getting unmanageable. In the meantime the Open Source community have been adding extra packages onto Linux so that users can choose what they want the application to do. This flexibility makes it incredibly useful in a business framework.
Microsoft has been so focused on its monopoly, it has missed the fact that punters want to see the software and don't care much for the technology it sits on.
Yet Microsoft is still expected to hang on to it's monopoly, despite coming out with a product a couple of years late, because it has no direct parallel competitor.
It seems less likely that Microsoft will want to blow billions and another five years on an operating system again. If it has any sense, it will be looking at ways to connect consumers to services, while unlocking a computer's full potential for the likes of applications like gaming.
According to Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8LNO9B00.htm?chan=search) and the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003460386_btview04.html), it took more than five years and 10 000 people to make vista. With the average salary at Microsoft at around $200,000 that's $10bn shelled out for salaries alone. It's just had its debut and already experts are predicting Vista may be the last of its kind.
"Suddenly, the market changed and competitors started delivering technology at the speed of the Internet," said James McQuivey, professor of market research at Boston University. "In some cases, they do it for free, and that's painful for Microsoft."
Vista was made the old-fashioned way. A single packaged product put on a disk, so users can buy it in a store and load it onto their computers. By contrast, rivals like Google are creating spreadsheets and browsers that you simply download from a computer server. It delivers what you need, when and as you need it. If Google continues with more offerings of free, ad-supported software over the Internet, Microsoft won't be in a position to charge a premium for its operating systems anymore.
Since Vista first hit the drawing board, the development of software has changed a lot. Linux has made a huge splash on the market and has changed the way that projects are managed.
Vista has shown there is only so much an Operating System can do without it getting unmanageable. In the meantime the Open Source community have been adding extra packages onto Linux so that users can choose what they want the application to do. This flexibility makes it incredibly useful in a business framework.
Microsoft has been so focused on its monopoly, it has missed the fact that punters want to see the software and don't care much for the technology it sits on.
Yet Microsoft is still expected to hang on to it's monopoly, despite coming out with a product a couple of years late, because it has no direct parallel competitor.
It seems less likely that Microsoft will want to blow billions and another five years on an operating system again. If it has any sense, it will be looking at ways to connect consumers to services, while unlocking a computer's full potential for the likes of applications like gaming.