Microsoft keeps pushing ahead on several fronts in the consumer area, including one of the more mysterious acquisitions in the tech field. This past week, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Skype, that ubiquitous, pioneering computer based phone service that makes it possible to talk to people worldwide for free — if they have a Skype app on their computer — or call land lines and cell phones at low cost.
via crosscut.com
I wonder if it might have made even more sense for M'soft to spend $8.5 billion by using the $$$ to make an operating system as good as Apple's? To protect its own franchise and dominance in operating systems rather than getting into a new business? Ya know, re-design the Windows OS from the ground up, as Jobs did with the Mac OS ten years ago. The core of the company is still Windows. True? Wouldn't sticking to its knitting be wise? Apple is great but it is still run by human beings down there in Cupertino and so with all its resources, why can't M'soft be competitive? I have to admit that I haven't seen a Windows OS for a year or two, so maybe there is huge progress. (I guess that is why we will have a M'soft store in U Village so people like me will eventually get curious.) And if there is a reason to care, I live here in Seattle and so I would like M'soft to do well -- employment, my neighbors, support etc etc -- and be interested in buying a Windows product. Some day. But not now. Just too clunky.
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