The crux of the problem is in that second paragraph: no one is asking Microsoft to design its “customer interaction” to “reflect one company.” Customers are asking Microsoft to help them solve their problems and get their jobs done, not to make them Microsoft-only customers.
The solipsism is remarkable.
The truth is that Microsoft is wrapping itself around an axle of it’s own creation. The solution to the secular collapse of the PC market is not to seek to prop up Windows and force an integrated solution that no one is asking for; rather, the goal should be the exact opposite. Maximum effort should be focused on making Office, Server, and all the other products less subservient to Windows and more in line with consumer needs and the reality of computing in 2013.
Devices are vertical, services are horizontal
[And getting services right is not easy. I see where Microsoft is making some inroads, but as Ben said, they’re stuck between worlds… the old one based on Windows, and the new one based on services. In many ways I think Apple is stuck there too, although for very different reasons.]
Source: stratēchery
turnings :: daniel berlinger 