Week In Review: Steven Sinofksy follows Ray Ozzie, Stephen Elop, and Robbie Bach out the door in Microsoft’s “Brain Drain.”
Vanity Fair treatise be damned, last week, Microsoft Windows’ Chief, Stephen Sinofsky announced he was stepping aside and Microsoft immediately lost 10% of its market cap, or over $10 billion dollars in transient market value.
What of Ray Ozzie, Steven Elop, or Robbie Bach? It appears there is nary a semblance of a succession plan for visionary tech leaders at Microsoft to be found where Steve Ballmer as CEO is concerned.
So let’s review the “Instant Replay” in the official “video booth” for flags on the play!
Noting how Sinofsky singularly managed to rescue the Windows franchise from the transitional Vista debacle, and that it was Sinofsky, not Ballmer, who led both Microsoft Office and Microsoft Vista out of the wilderness to Windows 7 exaltations, credit is owed to the champion who ushered in Windows 8, the Windows 8 Tablet and the Tablet OS.
That, too, was Sinofsky, not the Microsoft CEO, who was in the steering position that counts. Final Question (and you can “Phone a Friend”): Who is the tech visionary at Microsoft today who will lead the company into the new era?
Can you ID any one? If not, we would assert Ballmer has to move his implacable asset out of the top seat! Why? Because he keeps dismissing the visionary contenders who appear to challenge his authority.
Of course, nothing could be less valid. Tech vision needs to augment CEO prominence, not usurp executive authority.
A tech pitchman like Ballmer needs visionary product to sell, or his role, and his company, are in serious peril. [24×7]
Wii U Debuts
Nintendo popularized stylus-powered gaming, microphone-powered gaming and motion-based gaming. Now it is pushing game control inputs forward into the new paradigm known as “GamePad.”
The Wii U console itself, for instance, looks almost exactly like the original Wii. It’s longer (10.6 inches vs. 8.5 inches for the Wii), a bit rounder on the edges, and there’s an HDMI port out back, but overall it’s quite similar to its squatter predecessor. It’s enough that you’d get the two confused if they were sitting in the same entertainment center.
Naturally, the beefed-up internals and Wii backwards compatibility mean you’ll likely be replacing the ol’ virtual tennis machine should you choose to pick one up. Now, users can create a new “Nintendo Network ID,” which the company says will replace friend codes, by inputting your email, birthday, gender, and location to get your ID set up.
The Network ID will be used for video chatting, or to purchase items from the Nintendo eShop. All purchased games and content will then be linked to the account. It wasn’t explicitly detailed, but it sounds like purchases that are tied to your account can be restored on other pieces of hardware, in the event of your console being lost, broken, or otherwise inaccessible.
That’s a major improvement over Nintendo’s previous restrictive policy regarding purchased virtual content — restoring past purchases has long been a sticky process for Nintendo. [24×7]
Xbox Live Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary Xbox Live is celebrating its 10th birthday and to help mark the special occasion, Microsoft is slashing prices on such titles as Battlefield 1943, Castle Crashers, Fruit Ninja Kinect, Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2, Bastion, Peggle and Full House Poke.
All of these titles are now half off in Microsoft’s online store. Xbox Live was launched on Nov. 15, 2002 as “the first comprehensive, online game arena fully dedicated to fast-action broadband gaming experiences,” Microsoft said commemorating a decade of supporting the service.
Initially available only in the United States and Canada, Xbox Live is now enjoyed in 41 countries and territories around the world, the blog noted.
The service kicked off as an online network connecting users of the first-generation Xbox but really hit its stride with the growth of Microsoft’s current, wildly successful Xbox 360 platform. Microsoft is also offering US users the option to download a 10-year gamerpic, allowing them to be entered in a competition to win a custom Xbox Live Anniversary Xbox 360 console along with additional prizes. [24×7]
Microsoft-Yahoo Deal A Fragile Formation, On the Brink
Yahoo is earning so little under its search deal with Microsoft that Microsoft is having to make up the difference due to a revenue guarantee. If the performance doesn’t improve, Yahoo might go looking for a new partner, which could include Google. But remember, the US Department Of Justice warned that if Yahoo and Google went ahead with the search deal they wanted in 2008, it would take anti-trust action.
You know, because that might make things like cause advertising rates to increase (as if Google has some type of set rate card). Still, as SearchEngineLand reports, Microsoft’s online operations lose hundreds of millions per quarter. They’ve even had a report that some Microsoft execs suggested selling Bing to Facebook. But turn again to the “Termination Provisions” of the Yahoo-Microsoftsearch deal:
Yahoo! may terminate if Microsoft attempts to exit the business of algorithmic search or search monetization, either by ceasing to offer the services or by selling or attempting to sell all or substantially all of either its algorithmic search services business or paid search services business to an unaffiliated third party.
Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan portends: “My bet is that there’s going to be some seriously hard renegotiating between Yahoo and Microsoft, with Google used as a cattle prod for Yahoo to shock Microsoft with. The guess is that Microsoft will double-down on the spending all around. We’ll have to wait and see.” [24×7]