Steve Ballmer had a dilemma. He had two groups at Microsoft pursuing competing visions for tablet computers.
One group, led by Xbox godfather J Allard, was pushing for a sleek, two-screen tablet called the Courier that users controlled with their finger or a pen. But it had a problem: It was running a modified version of Windows.
That ran headlong into the vision of tablet computing laid out by Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows division. Sinofsky was wary of any product--let alone one from inside Microsoft's walls--that threatened the foundation of Microsoft's flagship operating system. But Sinofsky's tablet-friendly version of Windows was more than two years away.
For Ballmer, it wasn't an easy call. Allard and Sinofsky were key executives at Microsoft, both tabbed as the next-generation brain trust. So Ballmer sought advice from the one tech visionary he's trusted more than any other over the decades--Bill Gates. Ballmer arranged for Microsoft's chairman and co-founder to meet for a few hours with Allard; his boss, Entertainment and Devices division President Robbie Bach; and two other Courier team members...
I don't know about you, but the Courier looked pretty damned cool... yet another reason to dislike that innovation/productivity assassin - corporate politics.
The moral of this sad tale spells out how to NOT allow one's ego get in the way - and that applies to Gates, Ballmer and Allard. I happen to agree with Gates on this one - incorporating Outlook would have been a wise decision and ultimately torpedoed the project.
There was a pretty stiff dose of short-sightedness spread around here... Allard's crew should have capitulated and plugged in Exchange/Outlook features. Gates & Ballmer probably pulled the plug on this too soon. And Microsoft missed out by slaying the golden goose - the multi-billion-dollar tablet market that Apple now lords over.
0 comments:
Post a Comment