Microsoft Uses Numbers to Prove Dominance
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Shaw also takes it to the Linux server folks, another crowd Microsoft has
routinely waged war with-guerrilla and otherwise. He calls out the numbers for
Linux servers and gives the numbers as he sees them. Shaw says Linux commanded
24 percent of the server market in 2004, and the predicted server market share
for Linux in 2007 (made in 2005) was to be 33 percent. Yet, as of the fourth
quarter of 2009, Linux only held 21.2 percent of the server market. Of course,
these numbers-perhaps more than some of the others-need to be vetted. But that
does not diminish Shaw's effort.
It's the sheer directness of his approach that makes it stand out. And the
fact that he names names. Shaw also took Salesforce.com on-Microsoft's latest
legal combatant, as the two companies have sued one another. Salesforce.com has
hired superlawyer David Boies to handle its case. Boies is said to have "beat"
Microsoft in the past as the lead government attorney in Microsoft's landmark
antitrust trial. And while Boies did show all kinds of legal sleight of hand in
the courtroom, his only "victory" was to air some Microsoft dirty
laundry and make Bill Gates look bad in a deposition. Although a trial judge wrote
a scathing ruling calling for Microsoft to be broken into three, Microsoft won
on appeal. Much the same outcome is anticipated here-a lot of sound and fury
vindicating nothing and no one. Particularly not Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com.
Said Shaw: "100 percent chance that Salesforce.com CEO will mention Microsoft in a speech, panel,
interview or blog post."
Meanwhile, Shaw talks hosted e-mail, the cloud, search and other stuff,
citing Microsoft's dominance or growth in the areas.
But because there was not much he could say about Microsoft's bungling of
its handling of the company's mobile story, he tried to play it safe. He talks
about the number of iPhone sales versus sales of Nokia phones and smartphones
overall. But what about versus Microsoft-supported phones? What about versus
Windows Mobile or Windows Phone? Where are those numbers? Who ya gonna call,
Frank?
Meanwhile, closing his post (and being a bit
ominous about the future), Shaw simply gave Microsoft's revenue figures in 2000
versus 2009. He shows that Microsoft's revenue more than doubled from $23
billion in 2000 to $58.4 billion in 2009. Will it double again in another 10
years?
