[skc]

Erm, excuse me?

For one, Windows Azure is a pretty big deal. Secondly, XBox Live is a pretty big deal. Third, Bing might be struggling to gain traction but it most certainly works.

So can you point me to a Microsoft web property or service that is as wonky as iCloud at all?

[jmathai]

I'm not saying they've found zero success. XBox live is probably the biggest.

At Microsoft's size they aren't really looking for "pretty big deal" successes.

Bing is probably around 15% market share. A home run for most but not (yet) for MS.

I can't really comment on Windows Azure. I'll take your word for it but I think Amazon is eating Google and Microsoft's lunch here.

This isn't a fight for second place.....

[skc]

Apologies, I was assuming we were talking about the technical chops of the two companies when it comes to building web scale services.

[jmathai]

Apologies not needed. That raises a question though.

I was implying that Apple and Microsoft don't do as well building web services. I wouldn't argue that Azure can't scale but the overall approach seems to be a little bit "unfinished".

Let me explain, the only true cloud computing environment that really solves 90% of any companies needs is AWS. Somehow Amazon understands what the developer community needs. I'm really perplexed by Google not getting this right.

Apple doesn't and I don't believe Microsoft does either.

I don't think this is about technical chops. It's something else that I can't put my finger on.

Similar to how I don't understand how Amazon crushed Best Buy so quickly.

[MrFoof]

>For one, Windows Azure is a pretty big deal.

Windows Azure is a big enough deal, and working well enough, that Brent Simmons of Black Pixel (and well known indie Mac developer) has been recruited to do tutorials on the Mobile Data Services component for iOS.

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/ios/