Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Microsoft-Watchers See A Company In Decline

http://brightbridge-wealthmanagement.com/

Today at BYTE it wasn’t all Google+, Apple OS X Lion and Ubuntu talk. Rather, we’ve been debating a question that–in all my years covering tech, beginning as a beat reporter on Microsoft–was one I thought I’d never hear.

Is Windows dying? And then, riffing off of that, the discussion moved to the Windows Phone 7 update code-named Mango, due this fall.

And then it migrated to the fate of Microsoft in general, given the steady erosion of Redmond’s influence in a now tablet- and mobile-focused world.

Predictions on all fronts were dour. I spoke to some of our staffers, many of whom are high-level IT folks. I also contacted some Microsoft experts (known as Microsoft MVPs) close to the company. No one had high hopes for Microsoft gaining ground in any of these areas.

It’s strange. Back in 1989, I covered the posh launch event in NYC where Microsoft unveiled its buggy Windows 3.0. Then CEO Bill Gates was exultant at the announcement, grinning as he unveiled the new graphical user interface at the Windows of the World Restaurant.

I spoke to Gates’ mother that night, who told me, I’ll never forget, “this is the happiest day of Bill’s life.”