Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Jo Foley
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 86710
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0470191384
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.76100530973
EAN: 9780470191385
Publication Date: May 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Does Bill Gatess retirement consign Microsoft to the corporate retirement home as well? Mary Jo Foley doesnt 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 giants post-Gates future. Dont be surprised to be surprised.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Thought Provoking Insights June 2, 2008
Stephen Forte (New York, NY USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Do you work at Microsoft, at one of their partners, or competitors? Own their stock? Then this book is for you. Most people count Microsoft out in the age of Google and the Web, but not Mary Jo Foley. She writes an honest, fair, and balanced book on where Microsoft is headed based on their current trajectory and her knowledge from covering the company for 20 years. Mary Jo takes you on a tour of who the new players are in the post Bill era (and there are some surprises) as well as gives detail on the current product line and what they mean in the "Web 2.0" era. Then she focuses her attention on products and services under development and how they fit into the new era. She has done a great job peering into the future with her predictions on future directions and business models for Microsoft.
This is a great read and an important book for anyone who deals with Microsoft, friend of foe. (Tip, read the footnotes, there are great nuggets of information in them!)
A must-read for any Microsoft Watcher worth their salt June 27, 2008
Robert McLaws (Tallahassee, FL, USA)
Few people have covered Microsoft longer and more consistently than Mary Jo Foley (besides maybe Ed Bott). A couple of weeks ago, MJ sent me a copy of her new book Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era (PS, thanks for the mention in the Acknowledgements, MJ), and I thought it would be appropriate to get my review online this week, before BillG finishes cleaning out his desk.
Microsoft 2.0 is a look deep inside the bowels of the Beast, from a perspective that only Mary Jo can provide. But don't expect a sweeping fictional narrative of Microsoft's future, this is a fact-based, thorough (though at times a tad dry) walkthrough of virtually every aspect of Microsoft's business. Foley leaves no stone unturned, and no business model unexplored.
Aside from some brief parts about the on again-off again-on again-off again-on again Microhoo nonsense saga (which she later explained in a blog post), MJ does very little prognostication. Most of that is because Microsoft made the extremely unwise decision to instruct MS employees not to cooperate with her interview requests. Its really too bad, because they could have had the opportunity to inject a lot of insight to a book that is getting a lot of coverage in the wake of Gates' departure this week. But I guess if Microsoft was able to clearly define their strategy to the public, there would be less of a need for this book to fill in the gaps, so I guess it is a Catch-22.
But, this is the real reason for her approach, in her own words:
[Some of my colleagues] wanted e to make the case that Microsoft has lost its Evil Empire crown and soon will become nothing more than a footnote in the tech industry. And they wanted me to go to the trite "narrative nonfiction" route, putting "likely" dialog in 'Softies mouths, to do so.
I can't do it. I find that style of writing affected and offensive, for one. But more importantly,that's not how I see things evolving. Yes, Microsoft is at a crossroads. But to me, crossroads isn't synonymous with dead. I know not everyone agrees.
Just when you think its over, MJ pulls out some cards she must have kept in the vest for a very long time: never-before-published memos outlining among other things, Windows Live "Wave 3" planning, Steven Sinofsky's reasons for not involving customers earlier in the development process, and Kevin Johnson's Reorg memo.
Where most tech reporters have a cursory understanding of the practices and technologies that make up Microsoft's business, she shows that even standing from the front gates, she can still dig into the truth. Just think what she could have done with Microsoft's backing... she could have done a better job articulating Microsoft's strategy than Microsoft has been able to do for the past 2 years.
The bottom line is, you can pay fifteen hundred bucks for a subscription to Directions on Microsoft, or you can spend fifteen bucks and buy Microsoft 2.0. IMO, the latter will get you the best value. MJ can hold her own better than any so-called "analyst", and this book provides the breadth and depth of business information that one would expect to find only in the Harvard Business Review. This is a must-read for anyone that considers themselves a "Microsoft Watcher".
Robert McLaws
Chief Blogger, Windows-Now dot com
An insightful look at where Microsoft goes once Bill Gates moves on... May 15, 2008
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States)
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a book I've been looking forward to for some time... Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era by Mary Jo Foley. Given her long track record in covering Microsoft in tech media, I was interested to know how she perceived the behemoth as they come to a critical juncture in their leadership. I personally think she did a very good job in touching on and analyzing all the different facets that make up Microsoft's efforts to stay relevant. Only a minor deduction for an assumption she had to make late in the game that didn't play out as many expected... :)
Contents:
Forward - The Microsoft 2.0 World (According to Mini-Microsoft)
Acknowledgments
Introduction - Microsoft 2.0 - Welcome to the New (Post-Gatesian) Microsoft
Microsoft 1.0 - It Was All about Bill
Microsoft 2.0 - The Buzzwords
Microsoft 2.0 - The People
Microsoft 2.0 - Products on the Near-Term Radar Screen
Microsoft 2.0 - Big-Bet Products
Microsoft 2.0 - Tried and True Business Models
Microsoft 2.0 - Untried but Unavoidable Business Models
Conclusion - On to Microsoft 3.0
Memos, Letters, and E-mails
Annotated Reading List
Index
When you're trying to analyze a company as large as Microsoft *as it is still moving*, it's a difficult chore to commit words to page without having those same words become irrelevant (or even wrong) before the book sees the light of day. Many of the previous books on Microsoft try to tell the story of some past event, and at least have the ability to know that the story isn't going to change much. Foley had to look at the not-so-distant past, mix in the ever-changing present, and try to figure out what it all means for Microsoft once Bill Gates steps away from the company on July 1st, 2008. Given that nearly impossible task in book form, I think she accomplished what she set out to do. She's realistic in where Microsoft has succeeded and failed, without portraying an overwhelming bias as a fan-boy or hater of the company. Although the company would not grant her access to officials for this book, she has plenty of other sources to reveal little-known projects, plans, and experiments designed to keep Microsoft from constant reliance on the cash cows of Windows and Office. But it's painfully clear that Microsoft still continues (and will for the foreseeable future) to rely heavily on those two products to keep the ledger sheet green and to allow them to sink/waste vast amounts of money on other projects that still haven't panned out over time (like IPTV). After reading this book, you realize that Microsoft isn't dead, isn't irrelevant, and isn't going to go away overnight. However, they are at a critical point in their existence, where leadership, technology, and market forces are all combining to make the stakes higher than they've ever been.
To Foley's credit, she doesn't come out and "predict" Microsoft's future. Far too many industry analysts attempt to do that on a daily basis, and continually fail. What she does do is lay out the challenges and offer some insight as to where they *might* go given their track record and past history. That's incredibly useful, and also allows you to go back a couple years later to see how those forces actually played out. The only nit I had about the book surrounds the Microsoft-Yahoo proposed merger. Obviously, that event happened *very* late in the writing of the manuscript. An event of that magnitude could not be ignored without the book looking dated before it was even printed. However, the outcome of that event seemed to have different treatments as the book went along. Earlier in the book, she apparently made the decision to assume the merger would transpire and wrote as if it had. Later on, it was more of an "if the proposed merger occurs" stance. I understand she had to do something with it... It just so happens that it didn't play out as most everyone expected it to. It still doesn't negate or lessen the value of all her other insights and analysis.
You can quibble over whether she's right or wrong as much as you'd like. That's life in the tech world, as we all have our own "expert" opinions on how technology will absolutely play out. What I don't think you can argue over is whether she did her homework on this book and delivered on what she set out to do. She did... Nice job.
Nailed It May 30, 2008
Mike Gilis (redmond, wa)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mary Jo Foley did a great job of explaining the depth and the breadth of challenges that face Microsoft as they plan for the future. I believe the analysis and insights were very objective and thorough. It makes you realize just how many different fronts Microsoft is involved in. I think what makes this book so fun to read is that it looks at Microsoft from so many different angles and helps you to realize just how big, important, and how multi-faceted Microsoft really is. I also really enjoyed the insight into the Microsoft culture and into the different key individuals at Microsoft.
A complete picture of Microsoft May 17, 2008
D. Fernandez (Redmond, WA USA)
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
When I heard that Mary Jo Foley was writing a book on the future of Microsoft, I of course became intersted.
Why? Because there's no doubt that Mary Jo Foley is the most connected journalist covering Microsoft today (or ever) and as a result she has a unique, holistic perspective on Microsoft as well as a common sense writing style that magically converts are all-too-often cloudy technical descriptions into plain english.
What's unique about the book is that this isn't a mud-slinger or a long narrative about the history of the company, but rather the empty canvas that is the future of Microsoft. Even as a Microsoft employee, I found myself learning about new incubation project that I had never heard of (ex: Dryad) and considering the implications of that technology on the future of Microsoft.
If you're interested in a thoughtful examination of the trends, products, and people that will shape Microsoft's future, then buy this book.
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