[sinhpham]

What other cool stuff can "management, strategy, and customer satisfaction cadres" even do? And if just because "management, strategy, and customer satisfaction cadres" is not doing "supercool stuff" (whatever it means), the company should focus on R&D, then the vast majority of companies should cease to exist. Like it or not, companies are here to make money.

Saying MS should reinvent itself to be a R&D company is like saying Toyota should stop making cars because their normal cars aren't running by water, auto driven, and charged by solar panels yet. Ya, what's the point? Use your money to research on energy, AI and what not. Never mind where that money comes from.

When I read these absurd statements I think the author is either trolling, has an agenda, or is living in a bubble.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Actually I'm just a typical user - albeit with some coding and product design experience, which most users don't have - but with opinions ahared by a significant percentage of other typical users.

Consider:

The Win 10 keylogger/spyware issue Win 10 forced upgrades. The nonsensical "one OS for all devices" strategy. The Nokia acquisition. Silverlight. Kin. Zune. IE6, and the disastrous effect it had on the web design industry. Win 8, and the disastrous effect it had on the PC hardware industry. (Never mind the fact that MS took a perfectly usable and popular OS - Win 7 - and broke it almost beyond all imagination.)

That list is nowhere close to being comprehensive. (How many people remember that MS tried to create a library services and publishing division?)

In what sense were these strategic successes?

Now, a lot of smart people work at MS, and every so often they produce something that could be a game changer - like the Courier project.

Somehow the game changers never ship. What does ship is - too rarely great.

Where does that disconnect come from, if not in strategic direction and management?

[PauloManrique]

"The nonsensical "one OS for all devices" strategy."

Which will probably make their mobile devices rise from nothing to something relevant

"IE6"

IS6 was a amazing browser at the time, the most advanced for years. The main problem was it didn't have a auto updater.

"Win 8, and the disastrous effect it had on the PC hardware industry. (Never mind the fact that MS took a perfectly usable and popular OS - Win 7 - and broke it almost beyond all imagination.)"

That's just your opinion.