3 Surprise Scenarios for Microsoft’s Future

http://gigaom.com/2010/02/04/3-surprise-scenarios-for-microsofts-future/

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Even after Microsoft reported record earnings a few days ago, one of its former executives has effectively written the company’s obituary in a New York Times op-ed piece.  Is Microsoft not savable? Here are three surprise scenarios that could have a lot of upside for the company.

It Branches Out As An Investment Holding Company. People familiar with the way Warren Buffett has run Berkshire Hathaway over the years know it’s seen enormous contributions to its earnings come from ownership of stocks, bonds and various types of fixed-income investments. Sure, it owns businesses ranging from GEICO to See’s Candy, but Buffett has driven billions of dollars of profit through simply owning shares in companies such as The Washington Post and Coca-Cola. Over the long run, Microsoft may well move toward this kind of future as an investment holding company, too. It has nearly $35 billion in cash and equivalents, which is more than 10 percent of its entire $246 billion market capitalization.

In today’s New York Times op-ed piece, Dick Brass takes his former employer to task for desperately struggling to come up with new product innovations, but failing miserably. “It is failing, even as it reports record earnings,” he writes. Indeed, Microsoft just reported a record $6.66 billion in quarterly earnings, but that’s primarily due to operating system and Office application suite sales, not new product innovation. It won’t happen overnight, but over time, if Microsoft invests its cash wisely, investment returns could start to approach the returns it gets from its software business. If the idea seems far-fetched, consider the fact that Red Hat gets nearly half of its earnings from investment activities.

It Finally Gets the Web Right. Microsoft has a long history of downright boneheaded moves on the web. Indeed, ranging from its multiyear efforts to turn MSN into a meaningful web brand to its current efforts with Bing, it has primarily generated billions of dollars of losses with its web efforts. This could change, though, especially as the web and the cloud become more central to how people use applications. Microsoft employs some of the smartest software engineers on the planet and is showing signs of commitment to the cloud with its Azure rollout.

I’m definitely in agreement with Matt Asay that more Microsoft leadership on the web would be good from a competitive standpoint, and Google’s founders have made the point more than once that their company’s brand is only “one click away” from competitors. Additionally, it’s worth remembering that the commercial web just isn’t that old. If Microsoft can find a way to combine success online with success in its traditional software business, the combination could be powerful.

The Ray Ozzie Era. Ray Ozzie holds the title of Chief Software Architect at Microsoft, which Bill Gates held as well. This is not an accident. Going back to his days behind Lotus Notes, I remember Ozzie as a product guy and a smart guy. Under Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s stock has dropped significantly over the last 10 years, and Newsweeek, among others, has predicted that he won’t continue to run the company much longer. If anyone at Microsoft can introduce new products and innovation, it’s probably Ozzie. If he takes the CEO spot, as some predict he will soon, Microsoft could head in new directions.

In general, it’s hard to argue with Brass that the software company he used to work for has crafted its own “creative destruction,” but the cash registers continue to ring in Redmond, and there are smart people there. Over the next decade, Microsoft could easily pull a few rabbits out of its hat, and become a very different kind of company.

Synergy

It’s Time for change in the Middle East

The Middle East is changing, the internet and individual freedom and prevailing….but in what direction.On the face of it the direction is positive towards freedom and Democrocy but dark forces exist that could prevail instead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12482678

Watch closely and history unfolds, and understanding history and context is key!

Synergy

Nokia and Microsoft form partnership

“So Stephen Elop has pushed Nokia off that now infamous burning platform he described to staff some days ago and into the unknown.

His chosen lifebelt is Windows Phone 7, a new smartphone operating system that has won critical praise but, so far at least, only a tiny share of the market.

So Nokia is moving from an ailing system Symbian – which still has a large chunk of the market – to a fledgeling which has yet to prove itself, made by a firm with a poor track record in mobile.

Why then, did Mr Elop not opt to go with Google’s Android, the operating system with momentum behind it? Perhaps he feels more comfortable with the culture of Microsoft, where he worked until joining Nokia.

The cruel verdict from some is that two turkeys don’t make an eagle – but you can’t fault Mr Elop for his audacity. This is a huge moment which could shape the future of an industry.”

South Adrican Boycott of Israeli goods – babylon that!

Very good response from Jill Butterworth and Warren Miller on the 5FM support of Israeli Boycott..

We were disappointed to hear 5fm is supporting an advert to boycott Israel culturally because South Africans should not support a country that supports ‘Apartheid’.

Before even in engaging in an argument we would like to highlight that relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. Furthermore, Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

As a country that is supposedly supporting an ‘Apartheid’ mentality and structure, Israel is renowned for helping others. In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel. When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times. When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day – and saved three victims from the rubble. Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship – and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 – in the world. Thus they are not Ageist or Sexist. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.”

This is supposed to be a country that supports segregation. Further points to bear in mind are:

• · Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Muslim women have the right to vote.
• · Arabs and Jews are equal in the court of law.
• · There is no group areas act, no pass laws, or separate marriages act, etc.
• · There are Arab high court judges, ministers of parliament, political parties, etc.
• · Israel does not hide weapons or launch attacks in public areas e.g. schools and mosques.
• · Israeli soldiers don’t bring children into war or use them as shields.
• · Hamas, the Palestinian government has no intention of peace with Israel, and openly declares that it intends to destroy Israel.

If the SABC wishes to culturally boycott Israel, then we suggest that they boycott all Israeli products. Please request the South African population and definitely the SABC as they air this advert, to stop using:

• · Computer parts and software developed in Israel, e.g. the Intel Pentium chip, instant messaging based on ICQ, mobile telephony, developed in Israel by Motorola, the camera telephone chip and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) as used in Skype and similar applications.
• · Security Software, Network Firewalls, Anti-virus programs, System Software, Microsoft Operating Systems (XP and Vista), Google,  Disk on Key and Wi-Fi,.
• · Medical products that have saved the lives of many, e.g. the “camera pill” used to investigate the intestines painlessly by swallowing a pill containing a mini camera and transmitter, a cardiac stent, Copaxone to reduce the physical breakdown caused by MS and other MS medicines such as Betaseron and Avonex.
• · Also Israeli developments in computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance systems (MRI), ultrasound scanners, nuclear medical cameras and laser surgery.
• · And Resperate, an interactive breathing device, for lowering blood pressure as well as treatments for cancer, diabetes, AIDS, auto immune diseases, Alzheimer, cardiovascular diseases and aging as well as the ReWalk, a robot suit that enables wheelchair users to walk, sit and stand again.                                                                           (Maurice Ostroff)

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Further interesting facts are:

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world. It produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin – 109 per 10,000 people – as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of start-up companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of start-up companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbours combined.

Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce holds university degrees – ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland – and 12 percent hold advanced degrees.

Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops.

All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth.

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Besides the boycott, the way Israel is represented needs to be looked at. We are inclined to agree with Pilar Rahola, a Spanish politician, journalist and activist who asks the following questions:

“Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona?

Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship?

Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection?

Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs?

Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan?

Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel?

Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism?

Why don’t they defend Israel’s right to exist?

Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defence of Palestinian terrorism?

And finally, the million dollar question:  Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the  planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism and the left doesn’t care.

The press is being manipulated or is manipulating. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria, or Yemen, or Iran, or Sudan, or other such nations.  And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.

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We have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.

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Please see attached letter from Rabbi Warren Goldstein to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

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Lastly, we do not wish to denigrate Palestine, but we would like to remind 5fm and the public about human rights violations and common atrocities reported (and which no one responds to):

Several thousand women a year are victims of honour killings. Numerous murders are ruled an accident, suicide, or family dispute, if they’re reported at all. Police and government officials are often bribed to ignore crimes and hinder investigations. A woman beaten, burned, strangled, shot, or stabbed to death is often ruled a suicide, even when there are multiple wounds. Many women are killed and buried in unmarked graves; their very existence is removed from community and clan records. The fact that so many murders go unreported is indicative of the status of women and the role of culture in fundamentalist Islamic countries. In the Palestinian communities of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel, and Jordan, women are executed in their homes, in open fields, and occasionally in public, sometimes before crowds of cheering onlookers. Honour killings account for virtually all of the murders of Palestinian women in these areas. Honour killings occur for a variety of offenses, including allegations of premarital or extramarital sex, refusing an arranged marriage, attempting to obtain a divorce, or simply talking with a man. If a woman brings shame to the family, her male relatives are bound by duty and culture to kill her. “A woman shamed is like rotting flesh. If it is not cut away, it will consume the body. What I mean is the whole family will be tainted if she is not killed.” These are the words of a Palestinian.

Then within the jails of Palestine, reports have been that 88 % of all those in jail were being held without trial, a hearing or any sentencing.

The question is who is committing atrocities and violations against human rights?

We are now requesting that this advert be removed from 5FM as well as any SABC stations and that 5FM as a station that is listened to by many Jewish people be more reflective in your advertising. We would also like to highlight that this is not only the plight of Jewish people but of all people who are sensitive to discrimination and false reporting.

In South Africa we are trying to follow the essence of Ubuntu and adverts like this lead to hatred!