“Microsoft has some catching up to do. It’s not a phrase you hear every day. But whether it’s Apple Computer’s iTunes-iPod combo or Google’s advertising engine, the software maker’s top executives readily admit that they are coming from behind. In a rare joint interview ahead of the CES, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer outlined their plans to catch their rivals and discussed why it’s Sony that will have to play catch-up in the video console wars.”
Just stoke those dying embers….maybe there is someone out there that still cares about ‘innovation’ at Microsoft. Truth is….and the numbers prove it….Vista is only going to be spread via new purchases and OEM installs……not many voluntary ‘boxed’ versions sold.
Monopoly rolls along…..la la la
Maybe they can bundle Vista to sell more boxed versions. I am envisioning a Vista/COBOL pack.
That’s the same thing everyone says about every new Windows version.
The installed base of Vista will grow a lot quicker than we might imagine. This is a major revenue opportunity for a LOT of people other than Microsoft.
Not only is the hype going to be coming from Redmond, but all of the OEM’s will aggressively push Vista in their own media advertising. Every other word from Dell, HP, Best Buy, Circuit City, and others will be “Vista”.
Look for one of the largest advertising campaigns in history to push Vista sales. It will be impossible to watch television, read a magazine, or pickup a newspaper without swimming in a sea of Vista.
The installed base of Vista will grow a lot quicker than we might imagine. This is a major revenue opportunity for a LOT of people other than Microsoft.
The main revenue stream for Windows is in business, and it just isn’t going to be there for Vista because people’s upgrade cycles are way, way out of synch with Microsoft’s idea of when they think they’ll buy a new version of Windows – even after all these years. People are going to be using 2000 and XP for a long time.
Truth is….and the numbers prove it….Vista is only going to be spread via new purchases and OEM installs……not many voluntary ‘boxed’ versions sold.
Non-OEM installations comprise less than 5% of MS’s sales, according to detail from the MS antitrust trial.
They said so in the interview…
Quote:
”
Question:With previous releases, the upgrades were mostly new computers sold with the latest version, correct?
Ballmer: Numerically, that will be the dominant factor this time, too
“
Gates: We are shipping faster than any videogame has ever shipped. The thing is just hot.
Yes it’s hot alright, literally. Maybe a bad choice of words there Bill 🙂
Lol, liquid cooling, makes sure the console doesnt run hot, but the PSU does sure get hot… and if not properly positioned will make your console Kernel panic or BSOD
“We know what it’s like to go second. We’ve tried that. And that was last time.”
Heh.
That last time, they actually went third, not second. Second was the PS2, first was the dreamcast – Which was hyped out of the market by the ps2.
And the dreamcast had online services too.
Not saying the xbox2 will know the same fate as the dreamcast though, the context is different now than what it was then, especially the importance of online gaming.
Actually the correct order was:
1. Dreamcast
2. PS2
3. Gamecube
4. Xbox
Gates: We are shipping faster than any videogame has ever shipped
Is there any truth to that statement? I don’t really think so…
Sounds like you don’t actually know, and are just grasping for air.
So maybe you shouldn’t post if you don’t know?
The following doesn’t necessarily prove the point, and I don’t even know how genuine the story is, but if there is any truth to this article (which was widely reported) then it does cast some doubt on Bill Gates’s claim.
According to NPD: 325,902 Xbox 360s were sold in the US in November, compared to 556,221 Xboxs in the US in the same number of days following launch (see http://tinyurl.com/asyyb ).
[Edit] Rereading the article and other comments, I’ve now noticed the distinction between items shipped and items sold. So the article I quoted wasn’t so relevant after all.
Edited 2006-01-06 18:45
The following doesn’t necessarily prove the point, and I don’t even know how genuine the story is, but if there is any truth to this article (which was widely reported) then it does cast some doubt on Bill Gates’s claim.
According to NPD: 325,902 Xbox 360s were sold in the US in November, compared to 556,221 Xboxs in the US in the same number of days following launch (see http://tinyurl.com/asyyb ).
That only takes into account the US. The XBOX 360 is shipping worldwide.
That only takes into account the US. The XBOX 360 is shipping worldwide.
That’s true. I’d be curious to know how they are doing worldwide, actually. I know that their Japanese launch has been worse than the last time, but I don’t know otherwise.
So maybe you shouldn’t post if you don’t know?
Maybe Gates shouldn’t give soundbites in interviews if he doesn’t know…….
I was just at an E/B store yesterday, he said the only issue is that he is not recieving them very quickly. Only like 2 a week.
So, unless the distrubuter has something aginst E/B stores, I find gate’s statment to be somewhat false.
EB isn’t the only distributor of Xbox 360’s.
Stores in my town seem to get about 3-12 360’s a week depending on store size, and 2 of the larger stores (PC World and Curry’s… both part of the same chain btw) have yet to run out of XBox 360 Core systems.
So either the supplies are as fast as Gates says or… they’re not selling that many… the latter is very doubtful
Unlike the XBOX360 (where MS is not the leader and not specialised in it), Windows is something different.
By the launching of Vista, the processor and graphics card will be much stronger (the Dual Core thing is just out, and come more later in this year).
By the Vista launched the standard of RAM would be 1,5 – 2 GB. I know many people would ask what bring the full-candy UI (incl I). But I do think the GUI in Vista is something different than in XP which is only green and blue with alpha-transparent. Vista has a huge UI improvement in UI. And yes they did the innovation, at least an innovation in windows world.
And of course Vista has many technical improvement under the hood.
I do believe it will be indeed a hot product this year, it can be only somewhat stopped if OS X for x86 released with a capability to run it on general hardwares (not just on by-apple-certified-only hardwares).
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http://www.bcm.fh-furtwangen.de IT Business Consulting BCM – Faculty of BIt – Furtwangen University – Germany
And yes they did the innovation, at least an innovation in windows world.
You mean to tell me that the company ‘innovated’ it’s own product simply by copying features found in OS X?
… So by the same fact, Microsoft ‘innovated’ DOS… right?
I think that you’re using a strange definition of “innovation”. There are plenty of dreamers with good ideas that will never come to fruition because they lack the intangible “whatever” necessary to come to market. So, in my way of thinking, true innovation is about the process of making useful functionality available to a wide market. Whether or not you like Microsoft, they are indeed bringing new functionality to their market. That’s innovative.
Innovation != invention.
Yes I said, at least innovation in Windows world.
Hmmm…I just wonder:
at the beginning there was unix. The computer was too pricey and only geeks could operate them. Than come someone called Bill Gates who make corporation with IBM and produced Basic and DOS and as the result the pc is really cheap. Than in 80s-90s come Tannenbaum with his minix which try to simulate unix for education world. Than come Linus who try to something similar minix with his Linux. Than come win 3.1 with ist first windows based os. Than win 95 and so on.
O yeah about windows, the first idea come from Xerox I believe.
What I want to say is: even a small improvement is an innovation. The improvement can effect the end-user directly or not-directly. It just depends on you: how small or how big the improvement so that it can be called innovation.
It is the same like: your city has an old train-system. And than your neighbour city build a modern fast train-system. Your city governour decide to build a similar (but not the same) modern fast train-system? It it an innovation? For you, of course it is something new in your city. But what say the people of your neighbour city? Copycat?
Another example: Did Toyota or Mercedes or whatever make no innovation at all? And all the car (except Ford) are something a copy of Ford-T?
If I must judge to your definition of innovation than Linux (KDE/Gnome/whatever) has made almost no innovation and about this you would attack me.
If you want to protect your “innovation” than you should agree with the software-patent which would be a catastrophe for IT Business.
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http://www.bcm.fh-furtwangen.de IT Business Consulting BCM – Faculty of BIT – Furtwangen Univ. – Germany
For starts… ‘Pricey’ is relitive. Just like with anything, prices fall when the product inproves. Linux was not developed because computers COST to much. By your terms ‘small improvement’ could mean innovation… Where is the improvement? Point me out one single feature of Vista’s UI that has not been done before? And yes, there have been inprovments & innovations in cars, just not baisc’s like wheels. Most other things that are ‘stolen’ between car companies are federally mandated. Your idea of cities sharing ideas with transit systems is STILL not innovation. BTW: I never said Apple’s UI was innovative… so far the best out there, but not innovative.
Vista is a pig with lipstick; it STILL isn’t UNIX. Jobs moved to UNIX with NeXT when–1985? Mainstream Mac users in 2000-2001. Windows guys? 2006 and still waiting!
I wish people would state the amount of sold items instead of shipped items.
I could manufacture and ship five million pairs of moose-skin tanga panties. That doesn’t mean five million girls would actually buy them though, does it.
I could manufacture and ship five million pairs of moose-skin tanga panties. That doesn’t mean five million girls would actually buy them though, does it.
No, but it does mean that Microsoft has put out 5 million Xboxes to its resellers. And that’s what matters to Microsoft.
No, but it does mean that Microsoft has put out 5 million Xboxes to its resellers. And that’s what matters to Microsoft.
And why is that news? they’re filling up the supply chain, 5million units is chump change, the issue should actually be whether there is a trend upwards of the number of units shipped to the supply chain to keep it full.
They’re looking at selling an HD-DVD drive later on this year, which raises the second questions, whether there is actually going to be stuff out later in the year to take advantage of it.
“I wish people would state the amount of sold items instead of shipped items.”
True, businesses do this all the time. No idea on the exact number actually sold, but a good indication they are close is that one can not buy the xbox 360 anywhere as it is on back order. They got sold out quickly. So looking at that fact, I will guess that a majority of the units shipped were sold. The places I looked out of curiosity for it were CompUSA, Circuit City, and Amazon. For CompUSA and Circuit City I checked multiple stores, not just one.
Or they are all tucked in a warehouse as a strategy to make the unit a hot product and “the Holyday” gift everyone whant hence drive the demand and price since you control the production and delivery as it garner free press ( read Marketing praise for free ) for your own product.
There Pre-order system whas all done wrong for pre-shipp̨ng , but it whas great to maximize profit as the preorder system where system that where 1000$ bundle Р1500$ bundle Р3000$ bundle , when what people where looking for is the console at 400$ each.
It whas all a strategy for maimizing profit and good press.
Why does Microsoft feel that they have to dominate every area of technology?
Neither search, advertising or music have ever been important to Microsoft until now. Its as if they just want to crush anyone else who makes money.
Every other company has a core business and expands in ways that compliment this business or have no clear leader.
Microsoft waits for an area to have clear leadership and then uses their large reserves of capital to destroy them, they usually expand into areas completely unrelated to their core business, which is operating systems and office applications. WHY?
Since they have no technologically strong products, they need to resort to shady business practices. Example: they get a cut on every PC sold whether you intend to run Windows on it, or something good, like LINUX, or Solaris, or BSD.
Your post was so far from the truth, I actually cannot see it from here !
Microsoft do not get a cut of every PC sold. contrary to popular belief, there is a large amount of systems sold without operatin systems.
Each one of those sold, puts 0c in Microsofts fund
I’ll bet the percentage of systems sold worldwide without an OS are well under one percent of the total.
Why was my previous response modded down?
All of the sales numbers I’ve seen from Dell, Gateway, etc., show that almost all of their systems are sold with a copy of Windows preinstalled. Even Dell systems set up with BeOS in a Dual-boot configuration had a copy of Windows install (and the dual-booting option hidden).
There are certainly speciality vendors who sell naked PCs, and they’ve been around for a long time, but the percentage of systems they sell compared to the total PC market (which is what is being talked about here) is very very small.
I hate it when people simply censor comments they don’t like instead of actually addressing them…
Try sell a naked system to your friend who is not so computer literate (typical joe and jane users which are about 90% of pc market). Than tell them what are the benefits of Linux/BSD/Solaris. And I bet they wont give a damn.
I know about this because I have similar exprience:
I have a friend of mine (typical joe user) who have problems with viruses. He used 99% of his pc-time for internet and office for school-things.
I tried to promote Linux SuSE, which is one of user-friendliest Linux, to him. And yes, at the beginning he okayed me. I installed it and configured it for his needs. The next day, he called me to replace the SuSE and install windows on it.
This is the strongest part of Windows: it just works.
Linux/BSD/Solaris are very okay. But desktop is not their place.
——————————-
http://www.bcm.fh-furtwangen.de IT Business Consulting BCM – Faculty of BIT – Furtwangen Univ. – Germany
“I tried to promote Linux SuSE, which is one of user-friendliest Linux, to him. And yes, at the beginning he okayed me. I installed it and configured it for his needs. The next day, he called me to replace the SuSE and install windows on it.”
That is when I would say “I get back with you when I have some free time…maybe next week…or month.” By the time you got to him he would have “gotten over the hump” and be using it.
Gates on the new Xbox: “I spent over 100 hours playing with it over Christmas”. Is this normal behaviour in a man of around 50 years old? Korean gaming fanatics have gone to the mortuary in less time. Very worrying.
Ballmer’s every other word seems to be “experience”, as in “ad-funded online experiences”. He does most of the talking but it is really quite hard to understand a word he is saying. People in mental asylums babble like this.
A very interesting interview, topped by pictures of two blokes in glasses with wolvish smiles. But not interesting for the reasons they thought, perhaps. I wonder why Microsofties always speak in this extraordinary way. Other IT luminaries manage to talk like humans, so why can’t they?
I’m in my forties and I like games. Got a problem with that? I also do dital video and keep a web page. I find time by skipping TV. Gates can afford to hire people to watch “Lost” for him
I’m in my forties and I like games. Got a problem with that? I also do dital video and keep a web page. I find time by skipping TV. Gates can afford to hire people to watch “Lost” for him
Of course I don’t have a problem with that. I like games as much as anyone. But he said “100 hours over Christmas”. That’s more than four days straight. I mean, did he do Christmas at all? Get out of the house and go for a walk? I don’t think 100 hours crammed into a relatively short period is all that sane given who he is and where he is in life. Just my 2 cents. That’s if you believe the guy and it wasn’t just PR babble, of course.
It was probably hyperbole.
Sorry to day this babe, but thats the IT world for you, filled with either weird little creeps bubbling around hyped on the next flow from their local deity – be it Microsoft, Google or something else, or weird middle aged guys with beards, beer belly’s and thick rimmed glasses, and their most exciting thing for them is the sitting around and crapping on about how they’re going to ‘rage against the man!’ – who that man is, its anyones guess, probably the same guy off ‘Undercover Brother’.
The problem with IT is this, you have either two people, the extreme bright which can fall into the extreme bright who realise that they’re no businessmen, so they have the smarts to leave that to those in the know – Wozniak let Steve to the business magic and he did the behind the scenes stuff, the second are those geeks who think because they think something works for them, its going to be a success, but in reality, they know jack about business.
The other extreme are management who have absolutely no idea on product lead times, and thus, have no idea on the scale and the possibilities of acheiving a give goal within a certain amount of time – just take Windows Vista; Bill Gates was screaming ‘add features, add features, add features” with old school programmers like Achlin and Cutler pulling out there hair seeing this out of control ad-hoc addition of crap to Windows with no structure or long term thinking.
As for those who strike the middle ground between IT know how and business savviness, they seem to be few and far between; you might pick up the occasional person, but by enlarge, unfortunately, they seemed to be locked at one extreme or the other.
Ballmer: “…unlike Xbox 1, my wife thinks [the Xbox 360] is a good addition to the house.”
Edited 2006-01-06 17:49
lol… i really like how they always badmouth their own products after a new one comes out.. Remember how good WinME seemed to be when they first released it? Remember how MS themselvs admitted that WinME was a desaster afterwards?
If only they save us the trouble and mention this before or right when the product is out.
Yea. Those are different people though.
When a product is released you tell the engineers to shut up about it and you let the marketing people loose. And you tell the engineers to bash the old product if they wish, and they do because they’ve been waiting so long to tell about what they didn’t get done and what they did wrong!
Wierd, MS’s rhetoric is always about “war”, destroying their competition.
I mean it’s just business, it should be putting out a good product that competes on its merit, not about trying to destroy the other guys and rule the world.
But that does explain a lot about MS’s tactics…backstabbing business partners, under the table deals, etc…
I comment this pure on business view (out of topic):
The ultimate rule in business world is:
Business is war.
Either you are destroyed by competitors or you destroy them or in case of same power than live parallely.
Because it is like a double side thing. You take a market share than it means someone else lose their share.
And business and war is the oldest human instinct to survive.
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http://www.wnb.fh-furtwangen.de WirtschaftsNetze WNB – IT Course for Women – Faculty of BIT – Furtwangen Univ. – Germany
This was nothing but propoganda. Nothing new was brought to the table. It was just bragging and posturing. One other thing… I know from earlier interviews that Gates has no interest in gaming and never has. Back in the mid 90s I read interviews where he expressed disdain for gaming. Now he says that he spent 100 hours on the 360 Live over the weekend….right.
I think Gates’ comments are getting at something bigger that most of you aren’t seeing. From his quotes in the article it’s clear he’s about to open-source Win XP.
When pigs fly. Even if he did, what would Linus do with all that spaghetti code? It would be carbo-loading to the nth degree.
Oh, we’ve got to get music in cars, music on phones, music throughout the house.
All these companies touting a digital home are just making patterns in the snow. The only way you can get content like music on to lots of different devices in a person’s life (and get them to spend money on them) is if it is free, or at least available at a very low cost, and DRM doesn’t exist.
It’s the only way. Unless that happens, consumers will never see the need to spend money on lots of devices, as well as Microsoft’s software added to the overhead and re-buying all their content. Consumers have a limited amount of money, they have food, clothes and other consumer goods to buy. It’s one of the reasons why people are buying less music. I think all these companies are really delusional about how much money is actually out there.
Yeah, with about 50billion sitting around collecting dust. i would also be in ‘fighting shape’
And this may surface as more of a, ‘user confidence,’ issue.
Many casual & home users that know are quite upset with security issues, hot-fixes & patches and downloads. Most updates via Windows-Update require system reboots; people get cranky with the amount.
Many of those that I know are not in any hurry to see Windows Vista. Their initial feelings seems to be, whether it’s on the mark or not, that Vista will have just as many problems, if not more, than XP.
With those thoughts, I see a potential problem for Microsoft with any Vista upgrade retail box sales.
Still, it’s far too early to tell.
Bah whatever happened to services orientated architecture? I still think people should keep digital garbage out of their family room and leave time for talk and non-digital acitvites. Put the computer in a side room and get outside.