As I stand in this digital soapbox I wonder if others think like I do, and see what I see. I see Microsoft, who may or may not engage in monopolistic practices, facing down competition on a lot of fronts. I see Microsoft failing. I see Microsoft changing. I see Microsoft become a non-issue.
Nothing lasts forever, not even Microsoft. It isn't that Microsoft is dying, but that it is already dead... And the corpse is beginning to smell.
And it may not die alone. Microsoft may well be killing off the personal computer as we know it. You see Microsoft gets some money for each personal computer sold, since they have controlled PC manufacturers in order to make sure that every PC has a Microsoft operating system license. But, as personal computers get cheaper and cheaper and microchips more and more ubiquitous, PC manufacturers get an ever shrinking profit. While Microsoft's cut stays the same... Or climbs. It'll be those ubiquitous chips, embedded in everything from steel I beams to paper and even grass, that will let PC manufacturers break the hold Microsoft has on them. They will be able to diversify into a whole new range on products born of the microchip but where Microsoft has no place. Their code is too bloated and too generic if all you want if control the growth of your garden's grass.
Of course Microsoft knows this, and the only market that exists now that they can try to understand is videogames and consoles. Hence, the XBOX.
Too little... Too late.
The convergence box that-could will be nothing more than a game box for those taken in by the Microsoft hype. But the people in the know will look towards Sony and Apple if they want to have a bright digital lifestyle. While Apple may well be on it's way to become the king of music retailers with iTunes, and may soon do the same for movies, Sony will pick up Apple's iPod market with it's PSP. Don't believe me? Already Apple is starting to license the iPod hardware to other third party hardware vendors, they know they can't compete hardware wise.
So it will be Apple and Sony against slow to act Microsoft entertainment branches, and they help kill off personal computers. What's left for them? Corporations.
And there, they are facing ever growing competition from Linux and Free/Open Source Software.
The information soldier smiles...
