It’s Not a Tablet, It’s a Strategy: MSFT, Surface, WinPhone8 and Disruptive Change

There’s been almost too much examination of Microsoft’s Surface tablets and Windows Phone 8 this week, and most of it has been looking at entirely the wrong stuff – the technology, compatibilities, features, functions and price of both.

The Surface and WinPhone8 unveilings really signify massive strategic changes for Microsoft, with cascading impacts for its partners and customers. I’ve just published a Strategic Perspective for Saugatuck research clients that looks at the real reasons why Microsoft is making these moves, how they change what Microsoft is, and what the market effects will be.

Microsoft has entered into direct competition with dozens of its own partners in order to develop and build presence and revenues from mobile, Cloud-enabled, free-range consumers and business users, and the developers who serve them.

This new Microsoft retains the old, traditional, approach to positioning and communication, power, influence, and other advantages and disadvantages. But business-wise, it looks to be a decidedly different and potentially more competitive company.

Previously, business risks for Microsoft tended to be the result of acquisitions, none of which ever threatened the core operating system and software presence and power. Technological risks tended to be little more than minimal, marginal tweaks or extensions to the traditional OS and apps.

Entering the computing/consumption device market and revamping/updating the attendant OS is not a tweak to either the business or the technology strategy. It’s a new strategy fraught with significant risk and little room to recover. Microsoft can’t easily go back from this, and if it does, it risks being minimalized in the IT market with the greatest potential seen for decades.

Note: Ongoing Saugatuck subscription clients can access this premium research piece (1084MKT) by clicking here, and inputting your ID and password. Non-clients can purchase and download this premium research piece by clicking here.

Most research firms can explain what happened; some can explain what is happening. Saugatuck Technology excels at understanding both in order to explain what else is likely to occur, and to guide its clients toward the actions that deliver them the greatest business value while enabling the safest business path.
To accomplish this, and to continually improve the value of Saugatuck’s work to clients in a Cloud-obscured marketplace, Saugatuck SVP and Head of Research Bruce Guptill pushes his team to continually re-examine and re-invent the company’s research programs to focus more on the costs, benefits, effects, and value of an ever-changing mix of technologies and providers in different markets.
Guptill’s own technology and business background laid a solid foundation for such a flexible, yet stable, approach to IT research value for clients. His technology research work includes mobility, collaborative IT, telecom, data networking, web commerce, and electronic marketplaces; his research work for enterprise IT and business clients includes return on IT investment, total cost of IT ownership, and business planning for IT. His research and guidance on vendor channel management, market identification and development, and buyer behavior analysis has enabled hundreds of established and startup IT providers to find, enter, and profit from new and traditional markets, while helping to guide user enterprise leaders toward optimal IT procurement and vendor management.
Guptill’s research background includes several years as a VP and research director with Gartner, senior positions with TeleChoice and Robert Frances Group, and editorial work within the IDG companies, including four years as a writer and editor with NetworkWorld. His marketing business focus was honed as VP of marketing for firms ranging from custom development providers to non-IT firms in aviation and other industries. His sales and channel experience started by traveling with a sample bag, then working for IT VARs, then advising telecom and wireless carriers on partner choices, to developing partner programs for traditional and Cloud-based software development firms and ISVs.
Guptill holds an MBA in marketing and finance, and a BA in the psychology and business of mass media communication. He is licensed to fly airplanes, drive boats, and sell houses; he is also a certified baseball coach, serves on the boards of regional civic groups, and is a serial home renovator. Married with three children, Guptill resides on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, and is a lifelong fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

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