Microsoft obsolete by 2017

[Boz]

Is Microsoft obsolete? According to a new report, announced The Epoch Times this Thursday, April 4, that may be the case by the time 2017 comes around.

While Microsoft was in control of nearly 90% of the OS market during its prime, a just-released report has said that with Microsoft falling in popularity in the past few years, it could quite literally be "out-of-date" by 2017.

The Microsoft obsolete talk was first fueled as technology from smartphones and tablets to laptops and handhelds began to replace consumer use of PCs.

A technology firm called Gartner reported that with the rise of mobile devices, Microsoft will soon fade out of the spotlight. In estimations, Microsoft products will fall far behind Android sales ? by almost an incredible 900 million units, guesses the report ? but may still hold a small rise over Apple products, added Computer World.

In the current national standings, Android accounts for 497 million, Apple for 213 million operating systems, and Windows for just under 347 million devices total.

?The traditional PC market of notebooks and desk-based units is expected to decline 7.6 percent this 2013,? noted a press release from Gartner. ?This is not a temporary trend induced by a more austere economic environment; it is a reflection of a long-term change in user behavior. Beginning in 2013, ultramobiles will help offset this decline, so that sales of traditional PCs and ultramobiles combined show a 3.5 percent decline in 2013.?

Ultimately, the firm concluded that consumers? wide use of apps, lower prices, and new features will make tablets in fact at the top of the technology market, possibly leaving Microsoft if not obsolete, at least in the dust.

http://www.examiner....-be-out-of-date

[guru]

Google has Microsoft beat in Email, Browser, Mobile and Tablet OS, Search, Maps all of which are primary applications consumer use.

I haven't seen anything that Microsoft does that is way better than Google.

not to mention, Software has become commoditized, that certainly does have a negative effect on largest software maker.

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Google has Microsoft beat in Email, Browser, Mobile and Tablet OS, Search, Maps all of which are primary applications consumer use.

I haven't seen anything that Microsoft does that is way better than Google.

not to mention, Software has become commoditized, that certainly does have a negative effect on largest software maker.

So when can I start gaming on ChromeOS?

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Microsoft should be getting increasingly concerned with the shift to gaming on mobile platforms, no doubt about it.. and the lack of reliance on Windows generally. But I just can't see one of the worlds largest software companies, whose Windows OS powers the majority of home PC's, and whose gaming console is in millions of homes suddenly becoming obsolete within 4 years.

What about enterprise users, for example? What about Office? There is no real replacement for Windows at work, nor is there any *real* competition for Office still. Or Exchange.

[guru]

Those are all pretty much your own personal opinions. Millions of people still use microsoft services and love them. Also don't forget how popular the Xbox is.

Google has many more less successful services and products than Microsoft does by the way. I seriously doubt you or anyone you know has went out and purchased a ChromeBook, and if by chance you magically did, i doubt you or they use it.

For example, Xbox as a media service vs google tv :|

This is not a personal opinion. just facts

more people use google than bing

more phones use Android than WP8

more people use gmail actively than Hotmail

more people use google maps than bing maps.. even in US

while Xbox is probably the only exception, more people buy smartphones/Tablets than Xboxes . Gaming on Android is picking up not just Android based consoles and on tablets and Phones.

right now, it seems , its not a matter of If but When MS will be irrelevant in consumer space outside of niche gaming area.

[Mr. Gibs]

more people use Tablets and Android Tablets and Smartphones than Xbox.

And more people use Windows than all those combined.

Not to mention you're completely ignoring corporations and enterprises.

[JonnyLH]

This is not a personal opinion. just facts

more people use google than bing

more phones use Android than WP8

more people use gmail actively than Hotmail

more people use google maps than bing maps.. even in US

while Xbox is probably the only exception, more people buy smartphones/Tablets than Xboxes . Gaming on Android is picking up not just Android based consoles and on tablets and Phones.

right now, it seems , its not a matter of If but When MS will be irrelevant in consumer space outside of niche gaming area.

More = Better does it?

I'm sorry but everyone under estimates what the term "shared kernal" between mobile/PC means and how much of a technological advancement that is. The next Xbox will also run on that shared kernal due to it being x86 and well, its just where things will be going. So look at it from MS's point of view, 3 operating systems which all use the same kernal. That means central updates across the board, ridicously easy porting software between any device. That alone makes MS still the king of software.

[HawkMan]

This is not a personal opinion. just facts

more people use google than bing

more phones use Android than WP8

more people use gmail actively than Hotmail

more people use google maps than bing maps.. even in US

while Xbox is probably the only exception, more people buy smartphones/Tablets than Xboxes . Gaming on Android is picking up not just Android based consoles and on tablets and Phones.

right now, it seems , its not a matter of If but When MS will be irrelevant in consumer space outside of niche gaming area.

where do you get the idea that more people use gmail than hotmail/live mail/outlook ? among geeks that may be true. but in the real world not so much.

As for the rest, now you're suddenly using numbers, whereas before your argument was that you hadn't seen MS do anything better than Google

I'd say that MS does, Mail better than google, Browser about the same, mobile, better than google, Search, can go either way, most people wouldn't notice if they switched except the logo. google maps... eh sure, depends on where you are. both are only good for viewing satelite maps anyway in which case however has high res cloud free of the area wins, for navigation, they both fail, except for very limited city walk usage.

[drminime]

More people use Andorid because you can get lots of *cheap* Andorid phones out there...

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

More people use Andorid because you can get lots of *cheap* Andorid phones out there...

While not entirely true they do count for a lot of market. Now that Nokia is coming out with dirty cheap WP's I'm guessing things change a little but not by much since WP and Android are too different for people to change over since they are mostly afraid they'll get in trouble with the OS or won't like it in the end etc.

[cork1958]

where do you get the idea that more people use gmail than hotmail/live mail/outlook ? among geeks that may be true. but in the real world not so much.

As for the rest, now you're suddenly using numbers, whereas before your argument was that you hadn't seen MS do anything better than Google

I'd say that MS does, Mail better than google, Browser about the same, mobile, better than google, Search, can go either way, most people wouldn't notice if they switched except the logo. google maps... eh sure, depends on where you are. both are only good for viewing satelite maps anyway in which case however has high res cloud free of the area wins, for navigation, they both fail, except for very limited city walk usage.

Personally,

I'd say MS does EVERYTHING better than Google! Google sucks big green donkey d**k, IMO!

Eventually people will realize this and quit being such fanboys of their products/services! ;)

It will be a VERY COLD day in hell before MS is obsolete!

[singularity87]

It doesn't really matter whether or not a product is better for its actual relevance, if it's defeating it's competitor in the marketplace.

Betamax was supposedly better than VHS - didn't stop VHS winning.

I've worked at a company that develops financial trading software and pretty much everything they have is built on Microsoft technology. They are one of the most important companies in their particular sector. There is simply no way in 4 years time they will have either magically migrated from Microsoft, or been overtaken by a non-Microsoft competitor.

Cases like that are reasons to be confident Microsoft will be fairly relevant in 4 years time. Whether they will have the same hold on the industry along with Google and Apple is another matter entirely (indeed I'd say the other two might be as vulnerable as Microsoft is if things stop going right for them).

[HawkMan]

oh that's not true.

Google makes way better useless overpriced lapbrowser :p

[guru]

And more people use Windows than all those combined.

Not to mention you're completely ignoring corporations and enterprises.

the point here is that Microsoft ie.Windows will be less relevant to consumers as most tasks consumers are interested in (Internet,Email,Maps,Facebook,Skype, games, Music,Movies,books, lite photo and movie editing. ) can be done now via Tablets or Web.

Gamers and Developers will still need a PC but those are niche in the larger scheme of things. and even hen windows is used., They are probably using Chrome and Gmail :/

[liquidguru]

Smart phones have only been around (in a usable and popular fashion) for the last five years. In five years time they will be much more powerful than today's present standard PCs. It is easy to imagine that you have your phone, oodles of storage available either built in or in the clouds, you come home (or go into the office), your phone connects wirelessly to your monitor automatically when you put it on you desk, connects to your keyboard and mouse (if you still need one and we're not controlling everything by voice/thoughts). Why do you need a 'traditional' desktop.

It just depends what OS your phone is running. Will it be from MS, Apple or Google...time will tell.....

[simonlang]

sounds hardly possible by today, but then who would have thought that facebook would fall back and lose users just a year ago? and honestly, with steve ballmer, i mean he is not the most innovative person in the world. i think they are in danger. maybe bill gates should step in again, he still has it imho...

[HawkMan]

Except FB isn't losing users. The news are written very skewed as usual.

It doesn't sound as interesting when the headlines reads "some young people are leaving FB, a lot of young people don't post as much on FB and no just checks it a few times a week while millions are still signing up and FB is still growing"

Also it's not Ballmers job to be innovative, it's his job to hire innovative people. and MS has never been as innovative or sold as much as under him.

[majortom1981]

Microsoft will not be obsolete. I love my windows phone and will continue to buy them as long as they are made. I am one of the few who do like windows 8.

[simonlang]

Except FB isn't losing users. The news are written very skewed as usual.

It doesn't sound as interesting when the headlines reads "some young people are leaving FB, a lot of young people don't post as much on FB and no just checks it a few times a week while millions are still signing up and FB is still growing"

Also it's not Ballmers job to be innovative, it's his job to hire innovative people. and MS has never been as innovative or sold as much as under him.

occ. they are losing people. losing younger people means they are losing people. period. only a fool (and steve ballmer) would believe facebook would need to be still innovative with a relative gain in old users. old users are conservative and no company will start being innovative for them.

lots of innovative people have left microsoft for google, and others. ballmers leadership has only seen windows becoming less relevant, vista and maybe win 8 are considered flops, google and facebook and android are the stars in the digital world, etc. etc.

[HawkMan]

So 100 Million users -2 million tween users +4 Million teen and up users = less than 100 Million now ?

How did you do at math ?

Also I wish I could flop like MS. a few hundred millions in my back account wouldn't hurt. Vista at the time was the fastest sellign windows OS. it just hada lot shorter time to sell before the next OS than XP. 7 was also the fastest selling and so is Wn8 now.

[Skiver Veteran]

I would love to know the context for this - are talking in everything they do or the consumer market?

I don't really have an opinion on the consumer side of things but from an enterprise perspective I really don't see this happening. I'm sure they are out there but I haven't worked with a single company who don't use some sort of MS product. Be it the users OS, Mail Server, Virtual environments etc etc.

Out of sheer ignorance - Do Google or Apple even compete in this sort of market? I know there is more to the IT world than Google and Apple but the original article seems to suggest that these are the two main competitors.

My personal laptop pretty much bit the bullet recently and I did look at a Chrome book as a cheap replacement however the main user wouldn't be me and given that the other half has an Iphone and an Ipad and my daughter has an Ipod this wouldn't really work for me for to my knowledge you can't install things like Itunes on a Chrome Book. Yes i could go MAC but given that none of us have ever used a MAC and I am not interested in learning the differences and lastly the sheer price of them - MS is really the only choice.

[dvb2000]

http://www.examiner....-be-out-of-date

I saw an article today which was telling us that desktops are obsolete, and fewer people are buying them these days.

Unfortunately there wasn't any option to reply to that article, explaining that people aren't buying computers at the moment, because of Windows 8.

If Microsoft doesn't get its act together ASAP they likely WILL be obsolete by 2017!

[Mr. Gibs]

If Microsoft doesn't get its act together ASAP they likely WILL be obsolete by 2017!

Yup in less than 4 years Microsoft will no longer exist and it'll FINALLY BE THE YEAR OF THE LINUX!!!!1111!!!1!!!!!!!1ONE!!!

YEAH, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THAT DAY SINCE THE EARLY 90s!*

*No seriously, I really have.

[HawkMan]

I saw an article today which was telling us that desktops are obsolete, and fewer people are buying them these days.

Unfortunately there wasn't any option to reply to that article, explaining that people aren't buying computers at the moment, because of Windows 8.

If Microsoft doesn't get its act together ASAP they likely WILL be obsolete by 2017!

Except people are buying laptops instead of desktops. Since desktops only make sense for gamers, and a desktop without a monitor, costs more than a similarly specced laptop, simply due to low production volume due to low demand, it's been like this for years.

The lower sales in general right now is due to the economy, or are you going to blame low sales of white and brown goods on MS as well ?

[neufuse Veteran]

until you kill off the enterprise, MS is going no where, Apple doesn't make enterprise software and servers....

even in the Linux world, there isn't what you'd expect there to be by now