Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era [Hardcover]

Mary Jo Foley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The award-winning journalist author has access to inside information and what she has to reveal will bring tremendous media attention".(The Bookseller, Friday 14th March 2008)

"If you need a Christmas gift for an insomniac geek, look no further." (ComputerWeekly.com, September 30, 2008)

Product Description

Does Bill Gates?s retirement consign Microsoft to the corporate retirement home as well? Mary Jo Foley doesn?t think so. Her 25 years of Microsoft-watching provides a unique vantage point from which to speculate on how Microsoft might write its next chapter. Identifying signposts and interpreting clues she knows well, Foley offers a thought-provoking view of the software giant?s post-Gates future. Don?t be surprised to be surprised.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (May 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470191384
• ISBN-13: 978-0470191385
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #707,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable information for an analyst, August 12, 2008

By	Maxim Masiutin (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era (Hardcover)

Mary Jo Foley has made a valuable contribution to investors and stock analysts. This books makes it easier to understand Microsoft's background, which kinds of business models does Microsoft employ to make money, and the future evolution of these models. This book is helpful if you are going to estimate future cash flows and calculate the intrinsic value of the company. Whichever tools do you have to your disposition as an analyst, this one is a worthy addition.

The author has done great job summarizing miscellaneous (and sporadic) sources of information like various speeches, blogs, and articles. She has also used Microsoft's SEC filings like annual and quarterly reports.

First, she introduces the reader to terms used by Microsoft, e.g. what is "eXperience", "S+S", "Office Live" and so on. Rather than copying vague definitions from the website, she really makes the reader to understand what lies behind these terms in a neutral manner.

Then, she focuses on key people of Microsoft, near-term products of Microsoft, and then devotes the most of the book to the business models. She is not a Microsoft insider and didn't have support from Microsoft key people while writing this book, thus she uses neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic voice: she is quite neutral. The fact that she is not an insider is also good because she doesn't have to do any promises that she have to keep.

There is a useful "annotated reading list", which list blogs which you might want to read to keep in touch with Microsoft. This section also lists some books, but they are quite old and are interesting only in historical perspective.

The only disadvantage of this book is that is somewhat small: more analyses and figures would have been useful for better understanding of the business models of Microsoft.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for Tech News Geeks, September 16, 2008

By	B. Ford - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era (Hardcover)

After reading Microsoft 2.0, here are my thoughts:

If you are a geek that reads Slashdot, Digg, and other technology news sites, it is most likely that this book is going to bore you to death. It's filled with information you most likely already know. I usually enjoy reading tech-related books, but this was the first time I was completely bored reading. I don't blame the author, she could only work with so much.

This book seems targeted at people that don't keep up with the tech industry.

Also, the author lacks the knowledge of Microsoft's gaming division and their XBox Live efforts. One could tell from reading her thoughts on XBox Live that she truly didn't understand the service. However, Microsoft is a big company, and it will be difficult for a person to be knowledgeable in all areas.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps I was expecting too much, September 10, 2009

By	JPKelly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era (Hardcover)

First, if any analyst used this book as a reference I'd be afraid, very afraid. The statement about Microsoft buying Yahoo in the first chapter was very annoying since it didn't happen.

I read a lot of tech specific content and, as one reviewer mentioned, perhaps that is why I did not like the book. Personally, I was hoping for a true look at Microsoft within the context of current technological and cultural shifts. This book reads more like the diary of a girl with a crush on the high school quarterback. Microsoft has before it one of the most difficult challenges any firm can face. History has shown for a firm to move from dominating one paradigm (client/server in this case) to another (cloud - IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) is incredibly difficult. Microsoft actually has a real chance of pulling it off rather successfully, but that would actually require a PLAN or at least some vain attempt to offer suggestions for the future of the lumbering giant rather than biting on lame marketing attempts to milk their current products with terms like S+S.

Microsoft needs to re-architect their entire enterprise - both what and how they sell. How about leveraging Android and putting a MSFT face on it - the firm has always been better at marketing than technology anyway. Windows Mobile is horribly irrelevant. They should have bought Sun before Oracle did - that would have been a cool MSFT 2.0 - they desperately need to embrace open source, a play out of IBM's book.

For a Microsoft 2.0 to be successful MSFT needs to look out - perhaps that's my biggest problem with this book, all it does is look in.

"The Microsoft Culture of Today and Tomorrow" or something like that would have been legit. "Microsoft 2.0" not so much.