I don’t talk about technology here as much as I’d like. I’m really not sure why…perhaps because so many others cover it well already. Nevertheless, on occasion I find something worth mentioning and linking to.
Today that’s Classic Disruption: Microsoft Dismisses New Google Apps as Inferior from Michael Urlocker who has one of the greatest titles of all time, “Disruption Consultant.”
Microsoft’s Antoine Leblond told Reuters recently:
“The simple argument that ‘this is good enough for 90 percent of what we do’ has fallen on its face over and over and over again…When it comes to mission critical things and key pieces of how people run their businesses, the threshold is higher.”
I love what Urlocker says next:
Microsoft is right.
But being right could take Microsoft Office to a point of future irrelevance.
Urlocker notes that disruptive technologies are typically inferior to the incumbents on mainstream features. And that disruptive technologies start by appealing to those on the edges of mainstream.
He goes on to tell Microsoft why they’re wrong for being right, and why they should be worried about Google and their various applications.
I have to believe Microsoft is worried – they’d be blind, stupid or drunk (or a combination of all three) not to be. Google has proven itself smart and innovative, and even with hiccups along the way with certain products, they still have a ton of mindshare. And they attract the uber-business executives of tomorrow; young people who will grow up on the Google mantra and Google applications.
Urlocker on Disruption is well worth reading. Check it out!