Microsoft's Strategic Vision: The Challenge of Winning on Brand

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says in a letter to shareholders that while the company continues to build "specific devices for specific purposes," they won't give up on the closed ecosystem development model that has made their brand so successful. But is this brand evangelism really the best way forward for the company, or do its fortunes lie elsewhere?

Not Far From the Tree

In part, Microsoft's desire for a brand-heavy portfolio stems from the success of Apple, which generally informs consumer trends rather than responding to them. The Redmond company's challenge is to do the same for its business niche, a niche Apple still struggles to impress. Not just iPads but iPhones and the entire iTunes Store ecosystem is customer-friendly and while the company has made leaps and bounds to capture the business IT space, it lacks Microsoft's network distribution.

Take Microsoft Dynamics ERP as an example. Dynamics NAV 2013 is now widely available, with Microsoft calling it the most significant release in the history of the product.  And looking ahead, the Dynamics NAV product team already has its eye on an entirely new Windows 8 interface that gives solution owners the option of pushing the traditional NAV interface out of the way in exchange for a clean, service-driven "business solution from Microsoft" approach in the upcoming "Sicily" / NAV 8 release.

Microsoft has also introduced its new Perpetual Licensing  approach for SMBs via Dynamics GP and NAV (a PDF of Microsoft's licensing guide ...