Soon we have a Microsoft more power full then ever but less controlled and constrained by anti monopoly regulation then ever.
- after google search degraded for a while bing is competive
- MS has much influence and stack in (not really open) OpenAI
- MS has with LinkedLn a relevant social network, sure it's work focused but increasingly used for non work usecases
- MS controls 2 of the 6 relevant gaming platforms (XBox, PC -- the others are Switch, Playstation, iOS and Android), they happen to also be 2 of the 3 AAA gaming platforms (XBox, PC -- the other is Playstation)
- MS owns a lot of game production
- MS has the go to email solution for companies Outlook as part of Office365
- MS has what some call the best Calendar/schedule Meeting app, also part of Office365
- MS has the go to online meeting platform for companies (teams as part of Office365, through it succks)
- MS has a competitive company chatting platform
- MS competes with Google and Apple in the Cloud
- MS has a not so competitive ad platform
- MS has a semi competitive voice assistant which if integrated with ChatGPT tech could very well become very competitive very fast
- MS doesn't have a phone OS, but a lot control over phone through MDM features integrated into teams/outlook etc.
- MS has one of the main browsers (edge) with a lot of people happily explicitly opting for it or being coerced or tricked into using it (they lost that in the past but regained it). While it pains me its likely more relevant then Firefox by now.
- MS sells PC/Laptop like hardware successfully, but not that competitive
- one of the best standard consumer ergonomic keyboards is from MS
- they still have one of the most widely used presentation and note taking applications
- their database system is still around and sells, not sure why
- they control both of the some of the most widely used IDEs (VS and VSCode)
- they have some experience with AR/VR through I'm not sure about the competitiveness of current products from them
- they made some of the main reasons why people tried out Linux go away by having WSL
- .... I most likely forgot a lot
I.e. all in all: MS is EVERYWHERE with constant faster growing power and control all through the tech space. If it keeps up that way MS will soon be both more powerful then Google and then it ever have been. If they had managed to properly land their phone OS things would be really scary now.
Microsoft's effort to corner the developer productivity software market has surprised me with how successful it's been. Github has solid vscode integration, WSL works well enough, copilot is seeing use. They've really solidified themselves as the enterprise productivity software company for all stacks other than creative which adobe still dominates. Wonder if they plan to expand there next?
Some would consider the fact that Microsoft "competes with Google and Apple in the Cloud" and "has a not so competitive ad platform" and "has a semi competitive voice assistant" and so on is evidence they don't have a monopoly, rather than evidence they do.
they don't have a monopoloy but they are not far away from having more power then when they had a quasi monopoly
the mono in monopoly is in the end irrelevant, what matters is the power and ways you can abuse it. In the past you mainly got that with being a monopoly or duopoly but by now you can archive it by being "just" competitive with the best in a sector, and doing so in docent of areas and slowly integrating all of that into each other
- MS complies with Chinese laws so they operate in China. That's a huge population Google is missing out on. If other countries start to enact similar laws, MS would eagerly comply to get into that market.
- after google search degraded for a while bing is competive
- MS has much influence and stack in (not really open) OpenAI
- MS has with LinkedLn a relevant social network, sure it's work focused but increasingly used for non work usecases
- MS controls 2 of the 6 relevant gaming platforms (XBox, PC -- the others are Switch, Playstation, iOS and Android), they happen to also be 2 of the 3 AAA gaming platforms (XBox, PC -- the other is Playstation)
- MS owns a lot of game production
- MS has the go to email solution for companies Outlook as part of Office365
- MS has what some call the best Calendar/schedule Meeting app, also part of Office365
- MS has the go to online meeting platform for companies (teams as part of Office365, through it succks)
- MS has a competitive company chatting platform
- MS competes with Google and Apple in the Cloud
- MS has a not so competitive ad platform
- MS has a semi competitive voice assistant which if integrated with ChatGPT tech could very well become very competitive very fast
- MS doesn't have a phone OS, but a lot control over phone through MDM features integrated into teams/outlook etc.
- MS has one of the main browsers (edge) with a lot of people happily explicitly opting for it or being coerced or tricked into using it (they lost that in the past but regained it). While it pains me its likely more relevant then Firefox by now.
- MS sells PC/Laptop like hardware successfully, but not that competitive
- one of the best standard consumer ergonomic keyboards is from MS
- they still have one of the most widely used presentation and note taking applications
- their database system is still around and sells, not sure why
- they control both of the some of the most widely used IDEs (VS and VSCode)
- they have some experience with AR/VR through I'm not sure about the competitiveness of current products from them
- they made some of the main reasons why people tried out Linux go away by having WSL
- .... I most likely forgot a lot
I.e. all in all: MS is EVERYWHERE with constant faster growing power and control all through the tech space. If it keeps up that way MS will soon be both more powerful then Google and then it ever have been. If they had managed to properly land their phone OS things would be really scary now.