Linked List: August 29, 2013

Thursday, 29 August 2013

No Excuse 

Timothy Lee, writing for the Washington Post, “Microsoft’s Decline Wasn’t Steve Ballmer’s Fault”:

But Ballmer’s larger problem is that throughout his 13-year tenure, he was swimming against some very powerful economic currents. His company’s fate was inextricably tied to the success of the PC, and the PC’s fortune peaked with the Nasdaq around 2000. The emergence of interactive Web applications around 2004 began to turn PCs into interchangeable commodities. Then Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad three years later, kicking off a tablet computing boom that left the PC in the dust.

These developments were a classic example of what Clay Christensen called disruptive innovation: cheap, simple innovations that gradually displace a more complex and expensive incumbent technology. History suggests that firms rarely survive when their core product is undermined by a disruptive technology.

Seems to me Lee is in fact arguing that Microsoft’s decline was exactly Ballmer’s fault. His refusal to allow any other projects within Microsoft to disrupt Windows or Office made it inevitable that such disruptions would come from other companies. Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma was itself disruptive to standard business practices, but it came out in 1997. Did Ballmer not read it? Did he think Microsoft was somehow immune?

No one is arguing that Ballmer does not deserve credit for leading Microsoft to huge profits. That’s undeniable. But their weakened position today, more legacy company than technical innovator, is entirely his fault.

Keith Olbermann Talks About His Dad, Satchel Paige, Martin Luther King Jr., and Racism 

Such a great story. Good having Olbermann back on TV.

Rob Enderle: ‘Why Steve Ballmer’s Early Retirement Is My Own Greatest Failure’ 

That headline is no joke. That’s really the headline and premise of this, perhaps Rob Enderle’s nuttiest column ever. A few excerpts:

My last in person meeting with Steve Ballmer was in 2002. I remember it more distinctly because I had just thrown my back out and was in extreme pain. However, I was also the Senior Fellow for Forrester, which had just acquired Giga, and not only was I the most senior analyst in the room, I was also known to know Steve personally and was expected to guide the meeting. I’d opened with some banter, which Steve shut down immediately and, unlike in our prior conversations, he was combative, angry and polarizing. I was personally embarrassed. His behavior reflected on my own performance adversely, and it was clear he wasn’t there to listen to but to tell us the way things were.

I’ve heard from a few people that this is Enderle’s modus operandi for any meeting — he just starts talking as soon as he enters the room and never shuts up.

‘Good Luck With That’ 

Garrett Murray on the 2DS. The biggest WTF aspect is the price — it’s only $40 cheaper than the regular 3DS.