When I left Microsoft at the end of 2011, they had just launched the developer version of Windows 8 at the BUILD conference after building anticipation for months using flashy teases and deep secrecy. And the secrecy was real; I remember getting daily reminders of the civil, criminal and economic penalties for leaking even the smallest detail of what we were building. There were even rumors of some unlucky employee who got fired for stepping a little over the line, his head on a pike to serve as a warning to others (metaphorically speaking, of course). The goal here seemed clear: take a page from the Steve Jobs consumer playbook, saving all of the thrills for the stage.
This was quite a departure from the behavior eight years earlier when I’d first joined Microsoft and the halls were decorated with signs saying “Enterprise! Enterprise! Enterprise!” to remind us who our most important customers were. At that point, Microsoft owned the consumer desktop with Windows and Office everywhere, so to continue to expand its revenues, it needed to take over as big-iron Unix boxes were losing favor.
At the time, the main competitor was a grassroots upstart: Linux and open-source software. Because of the focus and the clear competitor, Windows Server turned into a monster at the box office, winning both critical acclaim and audience approval. In the process of turning itself from a consumer company to an enterprise company, Microsoft learned how to be open, solid and trustworthy—all things that enterprises need when choosing technologies they’re betting their businesses on.
When Microsoft left the consumer PC space behind, it took comfort in the fact that it owned more than 90% of the desktop market share. And it still does. The problem is, while Microsoft was away chasing the enterprise, Apple changed the game. Now it’s about phones and tablets, where Microsoft has tried and failed to make traction for years.
The way Microsoft is currently trying to do it is by imitating Apple with secrecy, flash and thrills, all of the things that it has spent the last decade weaning out of its culture; enterprises hate those qualities. Unfortunately, while Microsoft is trying to be the next Apple to regain the traction it lost in the consumer space, Apple is busy increasing its foothold into the enterprise.
When Microsoft was fighting Linux in the server space, Linux was making inroads because it was free, capable, and IT administrators liked using it. It started in small and medium-sized businesses because of the cost savings, and grew to the Fortune 500 because of its capabilities and community support. The grassroots snuck Linux into the back room, and it stayed there. In fact, one of the ways that Windows Server became so successful was by embracing the heterogeneous nature of many enterprise environments.
That same grassroots movement that brought Linux into the enterprise is now bringing iOS in. People take their phones and tablets to work. When those people are also the people that build, maintain and deploy internal apps, they’re motivated to make the apps work on their own devices. Further, iOS devices provide form factors, capabilities and ubiquity that make them perfect for doctors doing rounds, delivery people getting signatures for packages, vendors sliding credit cards, real-estate agents posting listings, and stock clerks taking inventory. People want to run their work apps on the same devices on which they run everything else, and that’s exactly what is happening.
Did Apple do anything to make this happen? No. Apple is not an enterprise company, but they’re gaining real traction into the enterprise because Microsoft has taken too long to provide anything viable in the device space.
What this means for Microsoft is that not only does it need to be successful in the consumer device space, but it also needs to work much harder on the enterprise story for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Both of these OSes have features that make them much more capable than iOS in the enterprise, but those features need to be a much bigger part of the story. Microsoft needs to bang on the doors of big and small businesses alike, pushing hard to get them to put Windows 8 tablets and laptops and Windows Phone 8 phones in the hands of their employees. When the next generation of internal apps is built, they need to be built with Windows in mind.
The good news here is that consumers are fickle. So long as Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 have the apps people want (the right productivity and entertainment apps, as well as the long tail of whatever cool apps people see on billboards or hear about on the radio), along with a decent price and that extra something cool, then people will move when they get their next phone or tablet in 18 months.
Further, while consumers are fickle, enterprises are not. Since internal apps have been built on Windows for the last decade, there are a lot of developers that want to keep doing it instead of being forced to move to iOS development.
Apple has consistently failed to beat Microsoft on the desktop or in the server room, so Apple changed the game. Instead of imitating Apple to get back into the game, Microsoft needs to embrace its enterprise focus. Don’t be secret, be open. Don’t be flashy, be solid. Don’t be thrilling, be trustworthy.
Don’t be Apple. Be Microsoft.
Chris Sells is the VP of the Developer Tools Division at Telerik. In his free time, Chris makes a pest of himself on Microsoft forums and mailing lists. More information about Chris, and his various projects, is available at www.sellsbrothers.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @csells.
