Ballmer's Exit and PC Market Decline: Related?
Is Microsoft CEO a victim or cause of the move away from PCs?
Friday's news that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is basically being shown the door was shocking perhaps because of the rarity of a giant company having such turmoil at the top. But other news from the past week may have served as a harbinger for Ballmer and Microsoft's struggles. The question is, did Microsoft help cause the move away from PCs, or was it a victim?
I'd go with the victim bit for right now, since I don't think Microsoft by itself made PCs less desirable. The advent of a whole bunch of more-powerful mobile devices and new, faster cellular networks and an explosion of Wi-Fi everywhere has made mobile computing something people everywhere can now rely on to get work done. You don't have to be seated at a desk, in a cubicle, with a PC in front of you. That, to me, is something bigger than the failure of Windows 8.
Speaking of bigger, is there a 6.3-inch phone in your future? We took a look last week at the news of Samsung's latest "phablet" device, a phone with a huge screen. The real question about such devices for enterprise IT is, which ones do you support?
