Microsoft has built the world's largest software empire by doing many things right (and a few things wrong). It has managed to branch out into other markets like the game console business, but ultimately, it's a business software company. Always has been. Always will be.
Zune image
It is therefore with some amusement that I read on ZDNet about Microsoft's corporate hand-wringing over whether to continue to develop and sell the Zune, and what that might look like.
Microsoft should not be in the Zune business. Period. No amount of Apple envy should have taken Microsoft into the Zune, and its best option is a quick exit.
Let's face it: Microsoft is not cool. That's reality. It's an enterprise software company and, however much one may dress up enterprise software, it's still not sexy or cool.
Billions of dollars in profit, however, is cool, and Microsoft has that in spades. Sure, it risks losing out on the digital-entertainment revolution by not having a music delivery platform, but there are other ways to get into that business without trying to beat Apple at its own game.
In the Zune, Microsoft is playing to Apple's strengths. In products like SharePoint and SQL Server, it plays to its own. Microsoft needs to find a way to get into the consumer market without drowning in Apple's wake. The Zune is not it.
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New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
The Console Business Too
I actually think the Zune's better than the iPods except for the iPod touch.