Is Microsoft an Underdog?

This past week, while I was back in Ohio, I ended up--as I often do--doing a lot of computer repairs for my family. I recreated Mom's defunct home wireless network, I resucitated Mom's year-old but dead as a doorstop HP TouchSmart computer, I refreshed Mom's slightly older notebook computer, and helped salvage a hard drive from my sister's and brother-in-law's ancient business computer (destroying the rest of the computer in the process).

Image from source, Huffington Post

These procedures were performed on machines running various iterations of Microsoft Windows (Millenium Edition, XP, Vista and 7), all with their attendant ideosyncracies. Along the way, I got to thinking, what's the future of Microsoft anyway? While the overwhelming majority of computers still run on one of those operating systems, the era of boxed software on a specific platform is clearly waning. Even a long-time Mac-O-Phobe like me now owns a Mac. We've got smart telephones with their own software (only a minority of which are run by Microsoft software). We've got PS3s and Blu-ray players that wirelessly connect to the internet. There are countless other devices, new ones all the time, and many of them are neither Microsoft Windows, nor Mac OSX related. And even when they are, there are tons of ways to get your work done without laying out $300 to upgrade to the latest Office suite.

For years, it has been obvious that we're headed to some sort of convergance of all of this technology. The real winner is going to be whatever company becomes dominant in tying together our entertainment systems, computing systems, gaming systems, cable, and telephone into one cohesive, interconnected thing. That's my opinion anyway. And who knows, it could be Microsoft. Or it could be CyberDyne Systems, and we could be headed for the dystopian future of The Terminator.

[Excerpt]

Microsoft's Cracked Windows: How The World's Technology Juggernaut Lost Its Buzz And Became The 'Underdog'



. . .Microsoft as underdog. At the beginning of this decade, this description would have been ridiculous, like referring to the Yankees as an unsung, longshot baseball club. From the spread of personal computing through the dawn of the World Wide Web, its software governed the desktops of more than nine in ten desktop computers. Microsoft was so dominant that it became a symbol of monopoly power run amok, supposedly snuffing out innovation. Its rivals affixed pejorative labels like "Death Star" and "Evil Empire. . ."
 
Read more at: Huffington Post