But shouldn't you do both? Milk the current technology as you say, but continue to innovate and plan for the future? McNerney seems to be backing away from any long term plan or roadmap. His strategy seems quite similar to Ballmer's strategy at Microsoft. That can be quite profitable in the short run, but the long term consequences are damaging to the firm's business.
Posts by Lazslo Anton Zapotec
13 publicly visible posts • joined 8 May 2013
Boeing CEO says no more 'moonshots' after 787 Dreamliner ordeal
And in ten years, McNerney and the other members in the executive suite will be long gone, nicely retired and still collecting fat checks. Not their problem anymore if other companies have driven Boeing out of business.
It pretty much the same business strategy the McDonnell-Douglas executives followed, and they made out like proverbial bandits.
XBOX ONE owners rage as HDMI SNAFU 'judders' Brit and Euro tellies
BALLMER TO RETIRE FROM MICROSOFT
"Microsoft shares are already up nearly 9 per cent "
Completely understandable it would initially go up. But I suspect the smart money is shorting the stock, or at least holding back their money, on the expectation that a wee glitch has been found in the manufacture of a major product about to be released.
Ballmer's emotional farewell to Redmond: I LOVE THIS COMPANY
NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies
Over at the Guardian, the main head is: "NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies"
Interesting that this was revealed about the same time that Mr. Ballmer announced he would be resigning as CEO of Microsoft. I wonder if, or how, they are connected?
Perhaps the NSA people had trouble finding the Start button?
YES, Xbox One DOES need internet, DOES restrict game trading
Re: @Piro
"This is the future."
Not necessarily. Both Sony and Microsoft have invested considerable money into the two new consoles and neither can afford heavy losses if their product does not sell well.
If the PS4 does not contain similar restrictions and sells moderately well at launch, while the XBone stumbles out the gate, then I think it is possible that Mr. Ballmer will sacrifice a few scapegoats (Inevitable anyways actually) and change their policy to something rather less restrictive.
If both consoles have these restrictions, I suspect their sales will falter soon after launch, and one company or the other will have to change their policies.
Time will tell and, as always, it largely depends on people's willingness to hand over the money. Assuming we have any money to hand over going forward.
Think you're ready to make a big career bet? Read this first...
Coke? Windows 8 is Microsoft's 'Vista moment'. Again
Its BLUTH not BLUE
If Bill Gates was still at the day-to-day helm of Microsoft I doubt TIFKAM would have made it to market in its present form. (Same too for the Office ribbon interface.) But the penny-wise, pound foolish Wal-Mart crowd led by Steve Ballmer rarely, if ever, actually touch new products or use them on a daily basis. Oh sure they saw the new interface in numerous meetings, demonstrations, and powerpoint decks. But use it? That's for someone else.
Sinofsky was the perfect fit for the Win8 job. MS execs love to cut corners, do things forever more cheaply and they love numbers. Lots of numbers, mountains of numbers, numbers 24/7. Sinofsky leveraged the automated testing techniques prevalent throughout the industry and applied them to design. His telemetry generated massive amounts of irrefutable data, quickly and efficiently. Best of all, the automation reduced or practically eliminated those profit corroding human labor costs. Huzza for the shareholders! Executive bonuses all around! Sinofsky was a genius and heir to the throne. Until of course he wasn't and someone had to take the fall.
Oh, and the revamp is not called BLUE - its BLUTH. At a meeting, soon after Win8 for the desktop was released and hordes of numbers rolled in - Ballmer: "I've made a terrible mistake". Followed soon after by: "Sinofsky - You're fired". Surprised it wasn't called Trump.