What Is Microsoft So Afraid Of?

ABC News Writes: "It is hardly news when the Redmond software giant behaves a little oddly. But usually that behavior takes the form of bullying competitors or the self-delusion of believing that it is a major technology innovator.

But Microsoft's unusual behavior over the last few weeks has taken a different form: for the first time, perhaps since the Netscape threat arose in the early 1990s, Microsoft is acting scared."

[Mr PS3]

.

[Viktor E]

The Ps2,seeing as how they both utilize DVD,both don't have Wi-Fi,both are outdated,and the Ps2 is outselling the Xbox 360 worldwide.

[Hydrolex]

I'm afirad of RROD. OMG that's scary

[Zerodin]

They're afraid of Ted Koppel. The one true constant in the universe.

[Sir_Ken_Kutaragi]

Sir Ken Kutaragi!!! ;-D

[Thoas]

Ain't no such thing as a halfway crook, M$ is shook!

[AngryTypingGuy]

It's hard to see why MS would be afraid of Sony. After all, we all know that the 360 is the one that actually making a profit. :-D

[Tmac]

Of course you'd get some money back if you stick crap in a box and people buy it LOL.

[Pain]

Number 1 reason , APPLE
Number 2 reason , Sony Playstation 3

thats all.

[OSIRUSSS]

"Ain't no such thing as a halfway crook, M$ is shook! "

WOW!!! MS fears Mobb Deep!!!

[t-0_ot-]

Hmm, so the 360 is crap? Yet, that "crap" puts out games that rival the best of the PS3's games. Yet, this "crap" out performs the Ps3 multi-plat games. Yet, this "crap" has the best online experience.

Yea, the 360 is "crap." t-0_ot-

[Alexander Roy]

Afraid? Recently? I think they act that way since Bill Gates announced he would leave.

[meepmoopmeep]

Bill Gates was the only good thing MS ever had in regards to people and products. IMO.

I hope he does well with his quest to make the world better.

all we hear are high profile execs jumping ship left and right. new products being failures. something bad must be going on down there.

[KingME]

I think they are getting that way because every time they act like bullies. Crybaby a$$ companies get together and file whiny little lawsuits and cry because they can't compete.

Not the minute they take a more conservative stance, you call them scared.

ABC, Go to hell, and get back to covering news that people actually care about.

[mfwahwah]

The article made it clear that that isn't the case. It's showing that MS has more competition than it's ever had, and there is no talk of lawsuits. I really don't see where you're coming from with this.

[Idonthatejustcreate]

M$ year profit has sunk below standard as they spend too much money on bad deals. FFXIII multiplat, Vista "It doesn't suck parade", and more.

They have to slow down but they can't because if they do Sony, Nintendo, google and other companys will take thier place.

M$ has droped the ball yet again and im surprised it takes so god damn long for folks to realise it...

[xhairs9]

This article is BS. How can you trust this PS3 loving website ABC.com. BS!!!!!!! Where's my POG? :'()

Beyond the sarcasm: I recently was working on a website for my company in Flash CS3. When I realized (my PC is built for gaming and is above average standards by...a lot) it was telling me I didn't have enough memory. I had 2GB of RAM so I was curious why it was telling me that. When I looked up the Error on the Adobe servers it told me that this Error is RARE on average home desktops. Average? Not quite. It wasn't until I upgraded to 4GB of RAM and cut the file size down by 50% that it finally compiled correctly.

You might be asking that "oh the file was too huge" Incorrect. 4GB of RAM is WAY more than enough to do anything on any computer - simply put, "a waste of money". However with Windows Vista stealing so much resource and so much memory leakage that you have no choice but to upgrade, upgrade, and upgrade some more. That's why I say: Vista, You suck balls.

[Viktor E]

These are all companies that keep Shane Kim and Steve Ballmer awake at Night.

Not to forget,the ol chief o smug Mr.Don Mattrick as well.

[Viktor E]

I heard Kaz Hirai was the reason why Bill Gates quit

[t-0_ot-]

Hello, QueefyB. =)

[Viktor E]

Daaaaamn

[GameDev]

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, what exactly has Ms EVER innovated??

a crappy last gen console?

a failed personal music player?

they embarrass america.

[t-0_ot-]

Now... List the Sony failures.

[Fishy Fingers]

Zombies...?

[solsub]

That must be it.

[ThanatosDMC]

Fishy, bubbles up

[juuken]

Doom, gloom, and destruction.

That's what they're afraid of.

Bill Gates is gone even though he retains his chairman status. Microsoft now has to face the world without their leader.

And daaaaaamn ABC News. That was cold man...cold.

[Surfman]

afraid to have nothing more to copy.
Ctrl+C people.

[PimpHandHappy]

and the hardware they have giving you all will not last! If they cut the 360 off in 4 years like they did the Xbox1 they might as well just stop making hardware!

I cant see the 360 lasting into 2010 and i cant see a new XBOX720 going up vs the PS3 with a 30-40 million install base

They have dropped the ball and they know it! They cant use blueray in the new xbox because who would buy it with the PS3 leading the way....

[orakga]

As much as I enjoy the occasional xbox-bashing, this is not true.

The gaming division actually happens to be one of Microsoft's few profitable divisions, and the 720 does have a great chance of keeping a decent marketshare against the PS3. (put aside the temptation to make fun of them for competing against the PS3 with TWO consoles; just look at the practicals for now)

If anything, the ones that appear to be jumping ship are those on the Windows/CorporateSW side, where things are "not as great as before" due to increased competition in those spaces.

I hate to say it, but I think the XBox has at least another generation of a good fight left in it. It'll really come down to whether or not the PS3 can deliver on all its promises by 2010 and secure a strong (and respectful) hold on the market.

... oh well.

[MattFoley]

Good point and a bubble for you.

[Percy]

In regards to where microsoft's profits come from you could not be more wrong microsoft is just now starting to become profitable in games. When the xbox one was dropped they were 25 billion dollars in the whole and im not sure they have even recouped those losses yet. The gaming division also includes the failing zune.

[aggh im on fire]

Typical press talking out there rear's.

[Bill Gates]

Chuck Norris

[DevastationEve]

is this the whole "3rd fist" thing? yes, i would definitely be scared of a man whose rumored to have no chin under his beard, and instead has a 3rd fist.

[360rxorz]

Microsoft isn't scared at all. It is the PS3 owners that are scared. Microsoft is being very successful right now, and will probably destroy the PS3 this gen. It is the scared fanboys that are saying Microsoft is scared. Hell, Microsoft could probably buy Sony if they wanted to.

[juuken]

Successful?
Name me ten ways in which Microsoft is successful right now.

And WTF...Microsoft can't buy Sony. Do you REALLY think Sony would let Microsoft buy them off? Microsoft can't even make a solid deal with Yahoo!

Yeah, you're right Zo6. I should know better. -__-

ApocalyPS3, yes the PS3 has faults but you can't let the 360 off the hook either. The PS3's issues are not as huge as the 360's issues.

[zo6_lover27]

Don't mess with that dumb@$$, he obviously doesn't know what hes talking about, he thinks ps3 is the one with outdated hard ware.

[DevastationEve]

Actually, PS3 does have some hardware faults. Its RSX is based on the Geforce 7 series, whose direct ATI competitor at the time was the Radeon x1xxx series. The Xenos inside the 360 is based off ATI's HD 2xxx series, being a FULL generation ahead of the PS3's "standard shader array" GPU. Xenos has a universal shader array.

edit:

yes cellbe can alleviate the RSX's poor performance. but that will always mean the CellBE's provably superior architecture will waste its life (in the PS3) making up for the ends that RSX can't handle.

edit2

disagrees when the guy bellow me agrees, and shows his efforts to make public his opinion? i respect z06 more than those who proceed to phantom disagree.

[zo6_lover27]

Yes, but that's the only one I know of and Cell can be used as a GPU also so that solves that problem.

[GameDev]

FOR THE TENTH GABILLIONTH TIME, STOP COMPARING THE PS3 TO PC PARTS.

IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY YOU GENIUS.

The RSX has ONE and only ONE task in the PS3, to rasterize a 1080p image up 120 times per second. THAT'S IT, that's all its needed for. It doesn't need to do lighting transforms or even picel shading for that matter. THE CELL CAN HANDLE ALL OF THAT. The rsx is nothing more than the turbo scoop sticking up out of the hood.

stick to playing games kid not pretending to know how they work.

[Tmac]

Lol Sony still makes more revenue then Microsoft, run a long little boy.

[blahatthat]

Why is this here again?

[juuken]

The person who wrote this article has a point.
Microsoft has been acting a bit scared lately. One has to wonder how they will do without Bill Gates in the following years to come.

[TheColbertinator]

Microsoft was handled by Bill Gates very effectively for the past 20 years.He was a very decisive businessman and very intelligent for his innovations in the computing world.The creator of many programs,interfaces,accesories ,and operating systems made him a tremendous sucess.Ballmer does not seem like an inventor or genius but more like a typical businessman.

[Lionsguard]

Quite a few top MS execs had already jumped ship when Bill's time to leave came near perhaps not much faith in the new head honcho.

[TheColbertinator]

I would'nt say afraid,just uncertain.Bill Gates is gone so thats left Microsoft without its key player.As for the company they are fighting a war on three fronts.Vista is losing ground to Leopard and Linux,MSN is getting raped by Google in terms of internet revenue,Wii and DS is stealing away the casual market profit,Sony is fighting for the hardcore dollar very well against 360,and the Zune is eliminated by the Ipod/Ipod Nano/Iphone etc etc.

Fighting a war on four fronts is a very difficult task.

[Zerodin]

So, then It's a Sony operating system that Sony PCs run on?

[juuken]

You're pathetic Zerodin. XBots can never admit that they're wrong can they? What does a PC have to do with a PS3?

Instant Fail.

That is all.

[t-0_ot-]

It installs games like a PC. ;)

[Says you]

Zune gaming division your delusional logic doesn't make sense as usual considering I've been saying that you XBox 360 fans always try to construct a paragraph and fail at the end of it just proven by theMart at XBoxkings proves my point and Zhuk and Bangladesh etc etc.

[DevastationEve]

Go to open zone. Vent. Now come back here and let's have a civilized discussion.

edit at below:

...yes, whoops! I deserved that one. Chop!

[zo6_lover27]

This is the open zone

[DevastationEve]

A good example of freely using the media as a way to sling mud. Maybe ABC is sorry it didn't partner up with MS like NBC did. In this country, we do so easily make readily available to mindless masses ways of venting their aimless frustrations.

If Microsoft was scared, its because I got out of college and started programming. So they offered me a job and now they don't fear me at all. Actually, now I grab coffee for the office whore mongers and take their messages:P lol

But don't kid yourself that the corporate world is any nicer at Sony:P They want you to be their b*tch just like any other boss.

Then, maybe MS is scared of a world where Sony ruled.

Actually that world is long since gone. This isn't the 32/128bit era. This is the HD era.

(funny, the filter won't let me say b*tch...that's not even barely PG rated swearing!?)

[TheColbertinator]

I agree with you that Microsoft isn't scared.Simply concerned with the competition just like any other company.Remember that they are fighting several enemies at the same time like Apple,Google,Sony,and Nintendo so Microsoft is going to have to make some good decisions to stay in the game.

Personally I'm going to wait and see what happens

[DaKid]

This artical is just dumb, if making 60 billion in revenue, and having an 18% Qtrly revenue growth (yoy) is acting scared and doing poorly. Then sign me up! I will be all for acting scared and such. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

[GiantEnemyCrab]

This was simply an editorial piece by someone with an axe to grind with MS. Like you said a 60bil company with an %18 growth in revenue doesn't sound like a company that is "on the edge".

MS no doubt has a lot of work to do but all this "fear" talk is nothing more than the giant finally waking up from its complacency.

[DaKid]

I was wrong, and the link i supplied was fake. thanks for the disagrees to make me realize my mistake. This site is something else.

[Skadoosh]

Welcome to ng4. The home of the silly articles and random disagrees to proven facts.

[kingme71]

Seems a bit too "sky is falling" to me. MS may not be the market leader in alot of areas it competes in, but it definitely isn't about to sink.

[Ali_The_Brit]

Q. What Is Microsoft So Afraid Of?

A. Sony

[Ice2ms]

hey thats FAQ's job lol

[JEDI WOLVERINE]

" But usually that behavior takes the form of bullying competitors or the self-delusion of believing that it is a major technology innovator. "

That quote says it all - abcnews are obviously annoyed about something with regards to MS but have wrote a BS article to try and give it some substance.

[ash_divine]

all the time.

Look at won't they about Sony, and even Nintendo. and they've ALWAYS thought they were the best or most innovative no matter what.

check you're facts.

[Wii60Fan]

On Ng4? Its not about gaming.

[silverchode]

microsoft is afraid of not makin a profit since thats all they care about.

[unbiased]

Google OS.

Final nail

[MrSwede]

Linux is doing a pretty good job so far ;-)

[KazumaKiryu]

A Google and, say, Ubuntu collaboration would be great.

[LoVeRSaMa]

Agreed.

Google are very good =]

I must vist there site 100 times a day =x

[dachiefsman]

the crab people.

crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people... crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people... crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...crab people...

[ash_divine]

W...T....F

[mabreu]

South Park FTW!!

[DJ]

The fact that the majority of consumers are refusing to buy any of their new products shows how dangerous their situation is, and how out of touch Microsoft has been with its userbase. Strictly relying on annual contracts with PC manufacturers is not a sustainable business model since PC manufacturers will only include whichever operating system their customers choose.

Don't be surprised if Windows XP is offered by Dell and their competitors for the next 4 years. It's in Microsoft's best interest to keep XP available until their next OS is released, otherwise they risk Apple and Linux chewing off an even larger chunk of their market share.

[yanikins111]

Im getting a laptop in the next few weeks, i need to record some audio stuff, and i know already im getting a mac.

I havent looked at prices, or features yet. All I've looked at is Vista running on a computer marked Vista Recommended.

No thanks.

Im thinking about getting a 360 but the reliability and short sighted hardware design have me doubting whether that is a good idea.

In short, yes they made 60 Billion dollars, and had an 18% year on year growth, but if more people start deliberately avoiding their products (and i must say, i dont know how many people are doing this) 60 billion and 18% growth wont go along way. Sure its alot but if you dont have any products that people want/need, it wont last long.

Public perception means alot. If you constanty break the law and engage in business practices that, while legal, are frowned upon, when you try and take over companies that people enjoy and use (read yahoo) and if you release bad products and offer no/ridiculous support to your customers, you start losing them. This is what has ms worried. They know they have been doing this and they are worried about their market share dropping due to more public image.

[FFXNo1]

Thanks to their new crappy OS, people are more afraid of buying crap that will end up like windows ME. That has helped other companies to come up with better and more reliable OS. I was a big supporter of windows and I used to make fun of MAC user. That changed when I bought my new SONY vaio on February with Windows Vista. I have had so many freaking issues with hard drives getting corrupted several times, programs crashing so often that I had to stay at campus writing a program for my final.

I put my Sony Vaio under my bed and I bought a MacBook. Story short, I haven't had any problems with my mac and I'm never buying another MS OS soon. Viva Leopard

[AcidHorse]

As everyone knows Microsoft is slowly losing its monopoly over PC software. Many alternatives, many of which are better, has sprouted up every where. Everything from, Firefox, Lynx, Google's free software, and pirating of Window's programs, have taken a huge bit out of MS profits. Now they are struggling to keep the lead in their new venture, Xbox 360.

Microsoft wants to move their users to the 360 which they have a strangle hold on the content on that platform. Want to release a game? Want to have another feature? Have a problem? Well you're going to have to go to Microsoft for those things, because on the 360 you are stuck; where as on the PC anyone can create a program and share it freely, or at a low fee, on the internet. Microsoft hates that. They hate you, if you don't want to sell your first born to use their Software (which costs around a hundred dollars).

[DJ]

Billions of dollars on their Xbox Brand. It's the only trump card they have.

[Nathaniel_Drake]

@15 I didn't think about that, very interesting take

[gololo]

ok...im sry but you guys are completely retarded!!! Moving from the PC to the XBox...yeah freaking smart move...let's replace millions upon millions of computers in everyone's work environment to xbox's...yeah let's put outlook,word,powerpoint and all of their office software on the xbox so people at work can use the xbox as a computer yay...
i love open source, i run linux at home/work (im a developer) but in order to communicate/work effectively with all the other departments in the company i have a 2nd pc with XP on it so i can run outlook, office, project, visio etc...so in the corporate software world MS has a stronghold and i don't see this changing anytime soon (as much as I'd like, I don't see fortune 1000 companies changing to OpenOffice or GoogleDocs anytime soon).
But yeah, lets move everyone to the XBox...it just makes sense (wait wasn't MS's gaming dept the one that was in the red number until a few months ago??)...
What MS needs is a bunch of fresh young talent that companies like Google are attracting...THEY DON'T NEED TO MOVE THEIR USERS TO THE 360...

[Light Yagami]

They're afraid of originality. What new stuff has MS invented? Avatars, lips, xmb rip off dashboard. Must I say more?

[Light Yagami]

Also, Apple pwned Microsoft's ass with the iPod. RIP Zune.

[gololo]

I don't think MS is scared, I think the biggest problem they face is that they are no longer attracting super talented engineers/programmers. The top of the cream are looking more at Google and Apple for grounds where innovation occurs, just like they use to look at MS a few years ago. Having said that, MS has the resources to get back on track but they need something to gain some momentum, the Yahoo buyout would have been perfect but now they have to look somewhere else.

[dcbronco]

Well informed reply.

[unbiased]

They are making their move now while the beast is weak. Its a taste of their own medicine. Also. let[s not forget that Genentec pays top dollar for MS programmers to jump ship. Some of MS's best programmers have left the company for an opportunity to work for the pharmaceutical giant. As drugs get more advanced the computer science field needs more and more programmers and believe that the money is there!

Windows mobile phones are not first choice. They still freeze and suck up too much CPU power, running down your battery. Google teams up with Nokia to make a more powerful OS that uses much less battery than WM phones. Don't even get me started on iphone, we all know that story.

MS is a hollow shell of its former self. FACT

[solsub]

And this is directly related to gaming how?

[LoVeRSaMa]

I don't know if you knew but...

Microsoft Own Xbox.

if you need more reasons:
Tactics for the whole company that could affect the outcome of the xbox and decisions with that product?

[Infernus]

Since I installed Vista back in March I've had no problems with the OS itself, however, very recently that changed and now I can't actually right click on any icons on the desktop, toolbar and in many cases even folders. It's a problem that isn't critical for the OS to work but is damn annoying for me trying to alter anything. I've turned the irritating UAC off and have kicked Windows Defender into touch. I'm now in the process of reinstalling what's been called a broken OS.

I've been backing Vista and Microsoft on that front since I adopted the OS but I can now see the blatant issues arising and they are numerous (Having checked the troubleshooting sections on various sites and forums) and I'm considering a drop back to XP. It's a shame because I like the Sidebar and make use of it a lot and many other features of Vista are nice, but if it requires a complete OS reinstallation every few months I want no part of it.

So what are they afraid of? Well, they're threatened by the looming failure of Vista (following people like me returning to the more stable XP, although I'm not quite there yet), the failure of the negotiations with Yahoo and their move into the online market and now the 360 is in trouble with a lack of future innovation and hardware issues still troubling them and more complaints arising once again.

I see plenty of problems that money just won't solve for MS, Bill Gates' departure changes nothing really. Yes, he created Microsoft and built up the empire of a money-making company that it is today. However, Microsoft was always obsessed with software and OS sales and getting their product onto new PC's and laptops and preventing the competition from doing so. That's no longer the biggest market these days...

The 'Netscape incident' as I call it made Bill Gates very aware of what was coming, the future was no longer in the physical software being put onto the PC but instead was all about the Internet and online products & services. The market has gone virtual and Microsoft still hasn't got into that market in a big enough form to challenge the leader Google. MS have XBL but that's restricted to the 360 and isn't in the same league as Google's market domination.

[Obama]

I really hope that MS would buy out AOL, since AOL is such a failure. What are the directors of MS thinking imao.

[psnCAShville_615]

here the link, i hope microsoft end up with fattest lawsuit of there life morons!!! how dare you http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[Lost00]

I think microsoft has been doing pretty bad since that got a big ego with halo3 releasing and then losing bungie in there team

[zag]

MS has a big problem it's beeen around for a while.

the OLD MS would simply buy out everyone then bring out the bought out products then turf them then bring out the real MS oproducts which 9 out of 10 times were complete crap.

Then MS would push the MS line majorly, which would force most of the market into using their products.

Take the xbox and 360, MS were on the line of thinking that every gamer on earth would simply buy the xbox because it's a MS product, not because it's a game PC.

that didn't happen so they jump the gun and bring out the 360 early to force users onto their MS product, this has basically only worked in the USA out side the USA it's barely got a market.

Forget about the WII and PS3 sales and just take into the 360 sales 10 million in the USA and 10million all up in the rest of the world.

hardly ground leading, in fact the 360 hasn't expanded the xbox market at all, simply upgraded the xbox user base to 360 boxes as the old xbox market was 20 million as well.

Now windows is lagging as well, not due to mac software (that would never happen as the machines are too limited compared to a PC) but due to Linux as the corporates are using Linux as the server base then have MS workstations at the desk.

MS requires companies to be using their servers because this forces companies again into having to use their office products.

MS is wanting to turn windows into a rent-a-software-for-a-price ie xbox live

And well google and a big bunch of other companies have jumped the gun before MS has gotten anywhere with it, because they don't want to lose out on office sales either, so they are in a bind, probably the biggest one because their server product isn't stable or functional as the linux server base and so no one is out rushing to get their products anymore because there's no real requirement to run out and use them anymore.

[Mr_Potato_]

MS is loosing on every front right now. Vista's loosing ground to linux fast. Xbox 360 is already dead in Japan and dying in Europe, it's constantly outsold by PS3 everywhere. MS Office is loosing ground to Open Office. They failed buying yahoo to find an exit door. Zune is killed by Ipod.

Basically, they have less and less money, less and less ideas, it really looks like they're not dominating anymore. And I doubt they can turn the tide without Bill Gates...

[jinn]

without Bill Gates they will suffer

[dcbronco]

I can't believe people are buying into this bull. MS is losing market-share, from what 97% to 87%. Most companies would kill for that kind of market-share. Sony in the last generation had 68% of the market. Microsoft couldn't get Yahoo. The author did mention that that might still happen. The shareholders took a vote the other day after their meeting to decide if they should get rid of the board of directors who didn't take the deal MS offered. And since the board refused to release the results of the vote, they must have gotten kicked. Yahoo's share price has dropped 33% since they didn't take the deal. Microsoft is not making as much money. Microsoft had record profits last year. They estimate a profit of over 25 billion this coming year. And on top of that the Xbox division is actually making money too. All of this nonsense about Microsoft being scared is stupid. They are looking for new sources of revenue like everyone else. They understand the importance of having a major presence on the Internet. But to believe that Microsoft is in any real trouble is ridiculous. They have 30 billion in the bank and no bills. They have the resources to remain a force for years to come. And right now they are becoming a force in the 30 billion dollar(and growing) gaming industry. Shark attack!

[Morgue]

Who cares about M$ and they only have themselves too blame for whatever problems have arose over they're quest for world domination.