Microsoft has long been the big grizzly of the software industry, lacerating any competitors who dared to cross its path. But now it has become ensnared in a trap of its own making. And in its efforts to escape, it may end up gnawing off its own foot. That could create the first real opportunity in 15 years for Apple to take share in the corporate market. Microsoft's trap was to let itself get hooked on mediocrity. Rather than invent exciting new products, the company focused on selling incremental improvements of its flagship Office suite every two or three years. But users have wised up. Increasingly, they're not willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a package of small changes (see BW Online, 8/7/02, "Smile When You Say That, Microsoft"). Recent industry surveys show that users now only upgrade software such as Office when they buy a new computer, sales of which have slowed sharply in the past two years.
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