Microsoft's new mission statement: No more computer on every desk

[Brink]

Microsoft used to have a succinct mission statement: Put "a computer on every desk and in every home."

It's new one is more of a mouthful. Outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer called it out in his final shareholder letter, which is part of Microsoft's Annual Report for 2013, which the company published on its investor site on October 7. Ballmer used last year's letter to shareholders to communicate the idea that Microsoft planned to morph from a software company to a devices and services company.

Microsoft's new corporate mission for 2013 and beyond is "to create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most."

I'd humbly suggest a slightly shorter version: "Create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses."

Read more at: Microsoft's new mission statement: No more computer on every desk | ZDNet

 

[brotherboard]

"services for individuals"

"for the activities they value most."

A "proper" pc on my desk. With a proper desktop O/S and decent sized monitor [min23"] Not some touchy feely teenage facebook toy with a minuscule screen

 

[Layback Bear]

I hope all that means is that desktops and laptop is also included in their game plan.

 

[ThrashZone]

Sorry I didn't come away with anything from that article ?
Any translators

 

[Layback Bear]

I know it's some what hard to know what they intend.
I'm guessing that it means that Microsoft is hole hog for not only making Operating System, Office products ect. but also get big in hardware. Probably Tablets and Phones or other portable computing devices. When Microsoft states
(consumer and devices) to me they are saying portable.

To me when it says getting into a service company means to rent or lease by the month or year programs instead of selling such things out right.
i.e. You can rent or lease things like Office but you wouldn't be able to buy it. That would probably slow down the counterfeiting because of the monitoring ability they would build into the programs.

From:
Microsoft's new mission statement: No more computer on every desk | ZDNet

Microsoft management's contention is Microsoft needs to be a provider of technology from consumer device to enterprise service and control the entire end-to-end stack and experience.

Notice the word control in the quote.

 

[Iforgot]

Sounds like....

They want to be Apple.

 

[Layback Bear]

I do believe that Microsoft want to take a big chunk of Apples market when it comes to portable computing. I.E.; Phones and Tablets.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yep control is one thing Apple does very well and pretty much why most people go to Android
I was attempting to figure out the Device we all use bit,
Which consist of a Desktop/ Laptop/ and Cell phone,
Not a X-boxer,
So via the article I was left with only a cell phone and I suppose the Laptop could be considered a Tablet with allot less disk space,
Cheers for the interpretation much appreciated

 

[RoasterMen]

I don't want to work with a touchpad for pete's sake.

 

[fireberd]

I have an iPad but its not something I would want on my desk, if I were still working. Tablets, Apple, Android, Microsoft or whatever, have their place but its not in most work environments.

Same way in recording studio applications. There are those that are using iPads for recording but its not mainstream. Most recording workstations (DAW's) are still the PC. The tablet can't do everything a PC can do or do better.

I won't say it will never happen. Someday a device will probably replace the current PC as the primary production device. I come from a mainframe background ("BPC" - Before PC's), originally, and many things a mainframe could once do is now done by desktop PC's (and many times better or faster).

 

[alphanumeric]

A thingy on every desk, or to be more specific, a thingy running a Microsoft OS on every desk.

 

[Iforgot]

A thingy on every desk, or to be more specific, a thingy running a Microsoft OS on every desk.

Yes I get it now...
The thingy can dock into a thingamajig..
But you do also need the thingamabob to plug into, with mandatory flashing lights.

And whojamaflip will be very happy..

Allan

Sorry I almost forgot about the whatchamacallit,
but then I think that will be revision 1. (hardware version of sp1)

 

[marsmimar]

Something I posted on Nine Forums:

Rumor pegs Windows 9 release for next year, Windows 10 as a Cloud OS. | Windows 9 Forums

 

[margrave]

Good points ...

I have an iPad but its not something I would want on my desk, if I were still working. Tablets, Apple, Android, Microsoft or whatever, have their place but its not in most work environments.

These devices exist for use when you don't have a desk to work on. So you make sacrifices.

No keyboard. No mouse.

And no display. The "display" on a phone or tablet should be labelled "serving suggestion", like the pictures on the frozen dinner packages. I use a pair of 24" displays. I could tolerate a single 20" display, if pressed. But an 8" or 10" display is simply not a display, any more than a picture of a Ferrari is a Ferrari.

Somebody needs to invent a hologram projector. You wouldn't carry ANY display. The device would generate the display out of thin air, as in "Help us Obiwan. You're our only hope."

Or maybe a paper thin display made of memory metal. You'd just fold the foil into a little square. To use it, just push a button and it would unfold into a full-size screen. When finished, you'd just crush it into a little ball and put it back in your pocket.

Does that sound far-fetched? Well, long ago I wondered why TV sets were so big. Why have all that "load" behind the screen? Why not just a flat-panel you could hang on the wall? That seemed beyond reason when I was young, but it's real today. It took 40 years to get there. I hope it doesn't take 40 more to get a proper portable super-display.

 

[diskdoc]

"services for individuals"

"for the activities they value most."

A "proper" pc on my desk. With a proper desktop O/S and decent sized monitor [min23"] Not some touchy feely teenage facebook toy with a minuscule screen

I couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[Iforgot]

something to think about...

ok M$ want to make there own hardware then provide there own software for it..

I have no problem with that.... but

What about the large amount of hardware venders at present?
Will they just OEM to M$ ?

Wouldn't that slow the progress of technology development.
At present they compete with each other in a highly competitive market.

This competition started when IBM released the rights to the IBM compatible to all.
All the pc hardware companies have been in a highly dynamic and competitive market ever since..
M$ just jumped on this bandwagon.

Do you think, if one company said to hardware manufacturers, "we want it this way". behind closed doors too.
what would happen to the competition?

Apple failed at it.
With the market penetration that M$ has already, I can't see the hardware manufacturers enjoying it.

 

[kronckew]

sounds like the early days when everyone had a terminal on their desk (sometimes it was just one shared terminal per dept.) connected to a mainframe computer and everything was controlled by the ibm computer jocks, you did what they said on software they approved and if you wanted something different, tough. you did it their way or the highway.

they fought the anarchy of the PC for years, end users writing and using unapproved programs and storing their own data locally was an anathema and heretical.

looks like some of them still exist and want to go back to the central computer philosophy where the end user takes what they are given and likes it or else. they touted the ease of setup and control too. and effectively cloud storage.

you could log on to any terminal in the company and get your own permitted software and data. you could also schedule jobs to run to give you your results eventually, as everything was queued and prioritized bu the IT folk, their priorities were not always yours. ends of month, it could takes three days to print your monthly reports at the central office printer, as accounts had priority. of course if the link went down, you were out of luck, and couldn't access your data. tough. wait till they get around to fixing it.

a local 8086 pc and dot matrix printer and a spreadsheet program using local data on a 360k floppy disk could produce better results in minutes. heresy to the suits at the IT dept. they did their best to ensure it was difficult to budget for and get a pc, and the each had to have a terminal emulator and be connected to the mainframe to continue justifying their existance and budget.

i started my IT career as a 'security specialist' for our engineering dept's mainframe systems. i got to create, and control everyone's accounts, storage, priorities, security access, etc. i could also let someone else see your private data. or look at it myself. i slid sidfeays into that from being a construction project engineer whose side job was to assist the project manager in preparing his monthly reports to management.

i managed to take over the engr. dept's IT section (all 3 of us) and successfully ensured all the project groups got a pc with a printer and lotus/symphony and wordstar. (with terminal emulators)

we even created a symphony spreadsheet todo the project groups monthly reports in the format the project managers needed, rather than the format the central computer dept. had given them. it cost about $100,000 to develope & install but replaced their $5 million (developement cost) mainframe program that didn't do what was required, and wasted tons of fanfold printout paper while not doing the job.

as someone once said,

this is deja vue all over again.