The Marketleap Report
Volume II, Issue #2 - February 26th, 2002

Poetry, Ghosts from Microsoft, and Marketing Hot Air
or How the Giant Trips Loosely Through the Valley
by Keith Boswell

'We'll tie them all together. All of the networks, no matter how small. Into a seamless maze of digital unity. Pulsing with humanities exploits in every form. Driven by our code and a frenetic energy beyond belief,' dreamt the wispy muse.

'Ummmm...We don't have anything like that yet. A new exploit in IIS was just announced, it sounds pretty bad,' replied the realistic Oracle.

Undaunted, the flippant muse perked, 'E-mail to all sales associates. Inform content delivery to stir it up. We need a white paper in four weeks. Our developers need new dev kits within six to nine months. Call the press. Tell them we have the answer.'

Back in 1999, Microsoft introduced the concept of .NET to the world. Banking, business, travel, individual, every bit of information would trek with you or your business. Customers and friends would follow you from terminal to terminal, laptop to laptop, as you skipped across the skies of the world on your infinite travels. Business tied together for the benefit of all.

.NET would be bountiful with promise and execution.

At that time, a proposed future of computing was sketched out. In rough form, the evolution of Microsoft's business was laid out for all to see. The many holes and missing pieces, glossed over as if they were an unnecessary toiletry, were ignored. A giant lurched forward, crusty eyes closed, knowing the world would have to follow.

Four years later in January 2002, Microsoft released a new set of tools for developing .NET enabled applications. This past week, Microsoft launched a $200 million advertising campaign aimed at promoting the .NET strategy.

So my eyes froze when I read an interview at CNET.com recently. Steve Ballmer admitted the .NET initiative still doesn't have a clear business plan. And they haven't figured out how they're going to make money on .NET web services, the true holy-grail claim of .NET that will bring businesses together seamlessly online.

Microsoft hasn't figured out how to make money on it yet or what exactly it is? That seems impossible but it's been four years and counting. If this is the future and the now, how are we as businesses going to make money using .NET? Rancid meat smells better than this. Still, let's spend $200 million to stir up everyone who thinks they know what .NET is.

An empty promise built to keep us on the hook is bad business. In the end, it just pisses people off. Microsoft has to realize their arrogance shows through with the lack of products, direction and secure software. Their PR scramble to have their developers spend the month of February in security boot camp is laughable. A major shift, like what IBM saw 20 years ago, feels near.

I have a solution for Microsoft and a way for them to turn things around. Take the budget you would have spent on the next ad campaign for.NET and pay 100 of the worlds finest authors a king's salary to write epic novellas that imagine the networked world in 5 years. Maybe William Gibson will even paint an optimistic picture for them.

Dump all of them into a massive SQL database. Cross reference and data mine the hell out of it. Then chase what they tell you. Like a good puppy, go get em boy!

For the largest software maker in the world to tell us to follow them blindly into uncharted digital bliss, all while they steer through thick fog by lantern and one-armed paddling is insane. We're not in a coffee shop in Amsterdam, dreaming of tomorrow, are we?

We want to believe the promises that Microsoft makes. The technologies and ideas they espouse sound great. But we can't wait and upgrade forever until they get it right, a trial by our errors. Why did I upgrade to Windows XP? Why am I waiting on .NET if there is nothing but smoke and curtains behind it? The emerging online markets can't operate on code dreamt up by a lazy, slurring poet.

report@marketleap.com.