There does seem to be a lot of own goals going on at Microsoft at the moment. But then again, some of the "talent" that has left is still making those own-goals.
Stephen Elop went to Nokia, and instead of using the one thing that I believe could have competed in the market - Maemo and then Meego - was dropped in favour of Microsoft's operating system. That's an own goal, if ever I've seen one.
So IMO, it's not really just Balmer who is at fault here, there seems to have been quite a lot of problems with even the executives leaving the company.
> instead of using the one thing that I believe could have competed in the market - Maemo and then Meego
I owned an N900 and I liked it, because it had a full terminal and could run a Debian desktop on it if I really wanted to, but normal people don't care about any of that.
If Nokia had stuck with Maemo and Meego they would be in the same position as they are now, except their "ecosystem" would have less apps, less Microsoft-marketing dollars behind it, and Nokia wouldn't be getting $250 million cheques from Microsoft every quarter.
> Stephen Elop went to Nokia, and instead of using the one thing that I believe could have competed in the market - Maemo and then Meego - was dropped in favour of Microsoft's operating system. That's an own goal, if ever I've seen one.
SO because the new CEO adopts an OS that you don't agree with, that's automatically an "own goal"?
Remember the board and top execs at Nokia all were 100% behind the Windows phone switch, otherwise they would have brought in an exec who had a different strategy.
Stephen Elop went to Nokia, and instead of using the one thing that I believe could have competed in the market - Maemo and then Meego - was dropped in favour of Microsoft's operating system. That's an own goal, if ever I've seen one.
So IMO, it's not really just Balmer who is at fault here, there seems to have been quite a lot of problems with even the executives leaving the company.