hussien-11
Senior Content Specialist
مقال ممتاز من جيز كوردن ويستحق النقاش
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has turned the company away from declining relevance to the most prestigious investment in the world. Still, the sacrifices required to achieve this goal are becoming increasingly problematic.
ساتيا نادلا نجح في تصحيح مسار مايكروسوفت لكن التضحيات التي يقوم بها لتحقيق أهدافه بدأت تخلق المشاكل.
Despite the hype surrounding Microsoft's lead in this category, what's often less talked about is how much further ahead Microsoft would be if Satya Nadella and the team at Microsoft hadn't made a range of baffling, short-sighted decisions in previous years. Whether it's Windows Phone's death and handing Apple and Google a mobile duopoly, short-changing Xbox investment for years until it was too late, or announcing awesome-looking Surface products only to cancel them — Microsoft's biggest consistency is that it's inconsistent. The lack of investment in winning over customers with raw quality is returning to haunt Microsoft in various ways, yet the company doesn't seem to learn from these mistakes.
رغم كل نجاحات الشركة تبقى الأحاديث موجودة إلى أي مدى كان يمكنها أن تتقدم لو لم ترتكب عددًا من القرارات ضيقة الأفق:
- قتل جوالات الويندوز ومنح آبل و غوغل القدرة على احتكار السوق
- الاستثمارات المتقلبة في الإكس بوكس حتى فات الأوان
- إعلان منتجات Surface رائعة ثم الإلغاء
الشركة تفتقد إلى الثبات/الاستمرارية.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella previously said that he "has no love" for the world of console-exclusive games. Fast-forward a few months, and Nadella is now celebrating with investors his strategy to move Xbox's exclusive games to PlayStation, a strategy that has been met with widespread alarm from Xbox users and confusion from pundits.
There's some console war tribalism in certain corners, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons to be concerned about this if you're a current Xbox customer. It stands to reason that moving your exclusive games like Halo, Gears, or Forza to PlayStation eliminates a reason to buy an Xbox console. If you eliminate reasons to buy an Xbox console, you're once again handing the keys to your future to other platforms, a problem Microsoft has right now with Google and Apple. Furthermore, you're removing an endpoint to acquire users via Xbox Game Pass. Cloud is prohibitively expensive right now and is gatekept by Apple and Google, once again blocking in-app purchases or, in some cases, blocking it entirely. You're also decreasing your footprint for game developers, who will increasingly see Xbox versions as wasting time. You set yourself up for a tailspin nosedive of exclusion, to the point where Xbox becomes another game publisher without a say in the overall direction of the industry — but maybe that's the idea.
هناك أسباب حقيقية للشعور بالقلق من سياسة ناديلا بإصدار ألعاب الإكس بوكس على البلايستيشن.
- إصدار ألعاب مثل Halo و Gears و Forza على البلايستيشن تعني أنه لم يعد هناك سبب لشراء جهاز إكس بوكس
- هذا يعني تسليم مفتاح مستقبلك للمنافسين، تماما كما حصل عندما قتلت مايكروسوفت نوكيا و سلمت مستقبلها في الجوالات لكل من آبل و جوجل، وهي تدفع ثمن ذلك الآن
The plan to move Xbox games to other platforms is codenamed "Latitude" internally, and I know there's debate and unease at Microsoft about whether or not this is a good idea. More upcoming Microsoft-owned games slated for PlayStation are already being developed. At least for now, they're potentially obvious games you'd most likely expect. And yes, while it's true Microsoft is a prolific publisher on PlayStation already, it has typically revolved around specific franchises like Minecraft. From what I've heard, Microsoft is pushing for no "red line" for what games could come to PlayStation, and it all revolves around Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood's mandate to increase every department's margins.
Obviously, putting Halo Infinite on PlayStation will increase profit margins. Sea of Thieves enjoyed the top spot on the PlayStation Store this past week. And in a perfect world, it's great that more people get to play these games. But we don't live in a perfect world where platform holders willingly collaborate for customers' betterment while competing on pure value. Like many of Microsoft's other recent strategies, pursuing this strategy is a short-term margin booster with long-term consequences. Yes, the industry is struggling, and Microsoft isn't the only hardware manufacturer that has seen declines. But destroying the foundational reason to buy an Xbox isn't the answer you give if you do care about the long-term.
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هنا مرة أخرى Jez يحذر من عواقب سياسة فك الحصريات، نعم ستجلب الأرباح على المدى القصير ولكنها ستضر مايكروسوفت على المدى الطويل لأنها ستدمر السبب الجوهري لشراء Xbox
Microsoft's net income last quarter was over $20 billion. Plenty of that is attributable to cloud, and I'm not suggesting Azure has to prop up its other businesses, but there's something to be said about playing the long term game. Microsoft co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates once offered a variation of a quote attributed to dozens of others, which follows something like this: "People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten." Microsoft doesn't seem to be learning from these lessons.
مايكروسوفت تحتاج أن تكون صبورة أكثر، وأن تفكر أكثر في استراتيجياتها على المدى الطويل.