The first comment sums it up quite nicely:

Are you serious?

Great article by MG Siegler over at TechCrunch…

It’s just not clear where Microsoft’s second inception is going to come from. Where that big idea that will steer the company for the next 25 years is going to pop up. The only thing that is certain is that Microsoft needs that second inception.

Do yourself a favor and give the whole thing a read.

parislemon:

Oh wow 8,800 units? Call off the dogs. Un-cancel the product. And get the Kin team back together. We’ve got a hit on our hands!

Angus McIntyre has a nice summation of where Microsoft is at, with a few choice lines, including this one in relation to HP going with Palm for tablets:

It’s the business equivalent of having your date get up in the middle of dinner and go home with the homeless person you passed on your way to the restaurant.

He also poses an interesting thought (at least to me):

Microsoft is by no means down and out. They have vast resources and a small army of brilliant people working for them. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to come up with something compelling. But they better do it soon, because the current sequence of missteps and blind alleys must make people wonder if Redmond still knows how to do anything new. 

What I find intriguing is that, as he states, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to come up with something compelling. And I guess that’s true. I’ve been assuming for the last couple of years that Microsoft is in its waning phase, and that there’s nothing to stop the slow, ugly demise of such a powerful and once great company. The problem — and solution — in my view is so obvious that it’s painful, because the likelihood of any sort of resurrection is so slim that it may as well be discounted.

The culture of the entire corporation breeds the mediocrity that bleeds it, slowly killing it. Yes, a large scale shift of this culture could correct its hemorrhaging — successful products might even slow it. But at this point, will improving Microsoft through leadership, taste, conviction, or even true success even matter? Or has the world’s first software company headed town a tunnel which has no end (and certainly no light source)?

Who will cancel Microsoft?

sardonicme:

Jesus. Crystal Pepsi was a better marketing brand than Kin.

parislemon:

Ha ha — seriously, did they do this with MS Paint?