It might go up with these new advancements. I've watched Google's stock skyrocket over the past few years (well until the economic crisis).
The thing with Microsoft though is that a lot of that growth is already speculated and hence already accounted for in stock price- that is why it is traditionally such a stable stock, but not the best for big rises. Unless they can completely blow us away with something (and you bought the stock before it happened, I am not sure it would be the biggest gain
)Google's hike in recent years is largely in part to the fact that they just recently became public as well as their huge growth. Microsoft is not going to be growing at that rate as it is already a behemoth (I mean now Google is too, so it won't either)
Microsoft made a mistake with Vista and Windows 7. Many companies stayed with XP and did not upgrade to Vista for 2 reasons:
- Vista was never fully approved for classified processing so many companies that do government/military work are still on XP
- a lot of in-house and OEM software is not VIsta compatible, Vista was a nightmare in terms of compatibility with XP. Rewriting and upgrading to Vista would have been horribly time consumming and expensive.
Its not an easy choice for some.
Going to W7 presents a problem since there is not a clear and easy transition from XP to W7. That means buying new software (such as Office, CAD programs, software compilers, etc.) and that can be very expensive. Its probably as expensive as going to the Mac, although some programs (such as some CAD programs) will not be available in the Mac.
There is also the concern that MSFT will pull another Vista. Switching to the Mac is a little more expensive than going to W7, but you only have to switch to Apple once. Go to W7, and MSFT may screw up again and you will have to pay again to switch to Windows XX in the future.
This is really interesting as from the grapevine I heard Windows 7 was taking off like a house of fire, but not a whisper at work about implementing it. Your explanation has therefore got to be on the mark. For large organizations to change to Windows 7 it would have to be a major transition and also a very costly one. Perhaps they will do as they did with Vista with a "wait and see" attitude, and eventually Vista proved itself so inadequate that people decided to stay with Windows XP. It could happen again with Windows 7?
Corporate people are very skeptical about Windows 7 and MSFT. MSFT showed a real lack of understanding of their corporate customers. For such a large global company and the theoretical leader in operating systems, it is a real surprise that they would make such a mistake.
My personal opinion is that MSFT has lost touch with the rest of the industry and the customers, which is typical for a monopoly. They have had a detrimental effect on innovation in the industry, and I wouldn't mind seeing them taken down a bit and get some competition going.
MSFT did do one very positive thing which cannot be ignored, and that is they provided (really imposed) a standard for operating systems and office software at a time when it was desperately needed. The MSFT way may not be the best, but it allowed all the software and peripherals to be compatible with each other. It helped drive down the cost, and made PC's almost like an appliance. I think that is one reason for the incredible growth in PC's.
Windows is so much entrenched in large organizations, I just can't see them moving to Apple. But yes, looks as though they will be forced to move up in Windows operating software. Windows 7 would probably be the best bet.
In your own personal opinion (I have no experience with Windows 7), how would you rate Windows 7 against Windows XP?
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