Is microsoft actually innovating?

You know, Apple has usually been the innovator and Microsoft has just been the feature updater. To give an example, when Microsoft thought we should have computer power in our phone, Microsoft made a computer in our phone: no real thought, they just shrunk it down. Apple came out with the iPhone. It shares an engine and design with Macs but runs and acts as an entirely different device.

But this is almost always how it has been. Apple looks at their products as solutions to problems. Microsoft looks at their products as ways to add features. For example, no one wants an iPod. They never have. What people want is to hear the right song at any given moment in time anywhere they are at without any device whatsoever. With today's tech, it can't be done.

So what does Apple do? They realize the need (the customer's music anywhere without hassle) and find the best way to make that happen from start to finish including iTunes making people want a "thing" to fill their need. Then they add the style because they know that people will associate their need and this device.

It's like Steve Jobs said at the WDC in 1997: "You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology - not the other way around." He realizes that it's not a product - it's a solution. Carmine Gallo said it very well in The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs (p. 67):

Nobody really cares about your product or Apple's products or Microsoft's or any other company's, for that matter. What people care about is solving problems and making their lives a little better.

But what does Microsoft do? They say "People want iPods" so they try to make a better iPod by adding a larger screen and WiFi. The just didn't get it. They rarely do.

Now there have been exceptions. Microsoft made .NET which, although it is somewhat of Microsoft's "enhancement" on Java, it is a major enhancement. C# is a language the way it should be: correct garbage collection, easy syntax, cross-language compatibility, true object orientation, and on the list goes.

But typically, Microsoft doesn't innovate: they copy; they enhance. But lately they have had a couple items come up that make me think there might be a few people at Microsoft that have seen the light.



The first is their take on SideShow. Now Engadget seems to think this is just warmed over PR, but I think it's the future. Sure, availability and economy of devices is always the issue on these types of projects and that may kill this one, but I still think dedicating a screen to it's true purpose and pulling controls where they belong is the way things will work in the future. Maybe Microsoft is just ahead of the curve, but, none-the-less, it's the way it should be and if it's the way it should be, sooner or later it's the way it will be.



The second is Project Natal for XBox (which some say they actually advanced acquired tech from 3DV Systems although Microsoft denies this). It is awesome. I had first covered it on another blog wondering how good the tech is on it. According to Engadget it was accurate at tracking movements and impressive to the point it was "a little eerie".

This is the future. It goes back to my previous point about finding the tech for the ultimate solution instead of just trying to improve on existing ones the way Sony did with it's new motion controller. Yawn! I liked it the first time I saw it... when it was called a Wiimote.

So, Microsoft: keep up the good work. These ideas are actually restoring my faith in you. Remember: don't build a better mousetrap; design a way to eliminate mice.