Is IE7 your idea of innovation?
comScore has released the latest numbers on search market shares, and it will
come as no big surprise that Google has inched up again:
Google: 47.3%
Yahoo!: 28.5%
Microsoft: 10.5%
Ask: 5.4%
How can Microsoft, a company which is synonymous with computers and
technology, be losing this badly? Danny Sullivan has done some
historical analysis on the above mentioned numbers and there is no doubt
that Microsoft is slowly slipping into search oblivion.
What is the difference between Google and Microsoft? Both companies need to use
scientific notation to keep track of their net incomes, so what gives?
I don’t want to oversimplify the problem, but to me there are two main reasons
why Google is laughing and Microsoft is, well, not.
Microsoft is used to their traditional business model where they have the
monopoly on the user. Look at the world of Operating System (OS) and the Office
Productivity Tools. Of course Microsoft doesn’t like to use market share and
monopoly as synonymous, but let’s call spade a spade and say that is how things
were for Microsoft. Enter search.
In search there is no monopoly, the user is in the driver’s seat. At any given
moment the user is only 1 click away from leaving their search engine and
moving on to the competition.
Google understood this from the very start. Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO,
understands the tenuous nature of the search landscape. Eric, hence Google,
understands that their product (search engine) and the distribution channel (the
Internet) do not accommodate a monopoly.
What is Google’s secret?
In one word, the answer would have to be “innovation.” Google became an expert
at scaling its innovation. They know the key is not to produce products which
will change the world, but to produce a lot of products quickly, and notice when
something works; then collectively change the world through mass adoption.
At a glance, this approach of innovation driven market retention sounds simple,
but it has been eluding Microsoft since the day they entered the search
landscape. As simple as it may sound, Microsoft still tries to capture the user
by offering them IE 7. Tisk tisk.
In fact, Microsoft, who started their meteoric rise by being the most innovative
worker bee – whether it be through improving on Xerox or Apple, they mandated
the cutting edge. But now, they play catch up at all levels, not just search.
Zune is an attempt to capture a market that Apple defined. IE7 is an attempt to
recapture a market that Mozilla is well on its way to stealing out from under
them. I’ve tried Vista and the beta Office; honestly, there is nothing new there
that has me tremendously excited. Nothing that is going to revolutionize
business or streamline efficiencies – break down any communication barriers, or
allow me to connect with my audience any easier. Basically, I have a new
interface to become familiar with. Don’t get me wrong, some of the gadgets are
cool – but not enough for me to upgrade the entire office.
In a nutshell, Microsoft has become the overweight system, too worried about
status quo to drive innovative thinking. Thinking that they have to always
release a complete solution rather than little innovations - the only problem is
that by the time they actually release the complete solution… usually Google and
others have released enough patches and tools to make Microsoft’s marvel
obsolete before it arrives in stores. Both, because people don’t need it any
more (problem has already been solved), or it just isn’t innovative (even if
they in fact started the programming long before anyone else had).
During one of the many interviews
at the last years SES in London, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt stated that
Google is planning on releasing more products – little downloads to fix your
immediate pains – or just cool tools to make working a little more dynamic and
interesting. Just enough to keep the brand growing… give the WOM momentum.
The only option for Microsoft?
Size has its benefits, and maybe Microsoft really needs to change the way it
thinks… rather than trying to be the spry and quick one, it is about time that
they admit that they are a whale and leverage that size. Stop dividing up the
brand into neat little silos, focus on actionable tasks with long-term solutions
at the end – this may mean a complete shift in current corporate culture – by
releasing products quickly and not loosing momentum to long R&D timelines; and
buy Yahoo! and/or AOL. |
enquiro research
Tom
Abramowski