Famous last words?

Famous last words?.

I almost fell off my chair when I read this:

I don't really feel personally as though Microsoft is behind
in any way, shape or form related to services, except for the size of
revenues from the new economic model

– Ray Ozzie, CTO Services, Microsoft

Not behind in any, way, shape or form related to services? Let's see:

  • Google still gives me much better search results than MSN.
  • Google Maps is infinitely snappier and more fun to use than anything Microsoft offers today.
  • Google has been selling millions of ads on its own sites and other
    website, while Microsoft is still working on rolling out its own ad
    service.
  • QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, and Intacct are mature online
    accounting applications that have been serving thousands of business of
    all sizes for years.
  • Salesforce.com beats Microsoft CRM every day, in everything from tiny accounts to large-scale Fortune 500 deployments.
  • Blackberry's java devices are the world's most popular PDA phones,
    and their services are offered through all the major carriers, both in
    the US and abroad.
  • iTunes dwarfs MSN Music in revenues and market share.
  • Thousands of applications use web services to achieve deep
    integration with Amazon.com, Ebay, Salesforce.com, FedEx, and others,
    while a few MapPoint demos remain the poster child of Microsoft's
    meager offering.

As for the “size of revenues from the new economic model”,
it's customers buying services that give them what they want. Microsoft
needs Louis Gerstner much more than they need Ozzie.  [Live @ Sax.net]

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