Microsoft and the recession
Why I think Microsoft is going to come out of the recession even stronger.
Microsoft as of late been thrilling me. With projects like Silverlight, Photosynth, Live Services, Azure Platform (think MobileMe on steroids and compatible with mobile devices outside the Microsoft World). Things like Azure show me how much Microsoft realizes they have to play nicely with competing devices and services. By doing so, people will realize they still have something to offer. Hyper-V, Microsoft’s virtualization server can play nice with VMware which is something a few years ago I would never have thought possible!
As we hear everyday we are in a recession. Computer sales are drastically slowing down due to people spending less. How does this help Microsoft? People seeing the prices of a PC and prices of a Mac, they are going to start buying more PC’s again. The Recession has really taken the jump out of apple. With Job’s health being what it is, I can’t see Apple getting very much funding over the next little while. Add to that, when Windows 7 is set to debut Dec 2009 I really think we are going to see Microsoft take the wind out of the sails of Mac OS X and Linux. People that are Mac heads that have tried Windows 7 have said things like I might switch back over.
Another area that I think Microsoft has really started doing much better in is search. When was the last time you tried Microsoft Live Search? I’ve actually found it to be more accurate then Google for some searches.
Other cool news from Microsoft is that they have put together an all-in-one webstore solution. It is in RC right now but it would really help small businesses with the hardest part of creating an online presence.
Microsoft has also made some head way with their Silverlight platform. It easily integrates with Visual Studio (The number one IDE). Silverlight for being such a new product, has already seen some pretty big uses online. It was used to stream all of the 2008 Summer Olympics and Barak’s anogeration.
2009 will be an interesting year.
Jared
