Whatever happened to Microsoft?

I really believe that Microsoft have dropped the baby where mobile devices are concerned. They have been extremely slow in producing an operating system that works well on mobile devices, which is incredible as their .NET development environment supported mobile devices long before the iPhone ever appeared. The mobile device market has been a tough nut to crack for the main vendors, and it took apple a few attempts at producing a polished, integrated mobile OS and hardware before they got it right. At the moment, it looks like everyone is trying to jump onto this bandwagon, but rather than just copying Apple, wouldn't some of these companies(HP for example) be best served by trying to push the envelope, and try to develop devices that follow the natural trend of becoming smaller, more intelligent, and more integrated into our daily lives. Has no one though of creating devices that are more transparent, such as screens integrated into sunglasses, or wrist watches. These have been tried in the past, but the power and screen quality was never available before to really make it work. Who knows what the next generation of mobile device will be like, but I think it's only going to get more awesome.

If microsoft want to survive as a company, they better learn to adapt to the changes in hardware a lot quicker than they have in the past. The problem may be that, because their whole company was built on the development of the PC as the main machine for use in the home, they have become entrenched in the mindset of supporting the PC. It may be impossible for them to change this mindset, and become more adaptable and flexible. Remember - Steve jobs started out with building his own hardware with the Wozz, so he has a real hands on approach to making operating sytems work on ever changing platforms, from the Apple IIe, right up to the iPad and iPhone.  Steve Jobs has been truly inspirational in the world of hardware design, and software design for that matter for 30 odd years. The technology world is going to be a poorer place now that he has decided to retire. In some ways, this same situation may be the problem with Microsoft. Does Steve Ballmer really have the vision, and conviction that Bill Gates has? Somehow I doubt it - it's a rare animal that can be so single minded and devoted to his craft.

Over the next few years, I can see problems for Microsoft. It may end up getting broken up into parts that deal with disparate technical platforms. It's not going to be easy for it, as a monolithic culture to adapt quickly and easily to changes in mobile hardware and infrastructure. Time for a new technical behemoth to emerge? We will see.