Microsoft, the world leader in the information technology field, has until recently been loosing its legal battles worldwide. Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates however, is again proclaimed the world's richest man by Fortune magazine. Yet, we ask ourselves why Microsoft is lagging behind Apple and Google in innovation these days.

Let us go back twenty-two years ago. The talk in the industry was that a major falling out occurred a couple years earlier between Steve Jobs and Gates causing the split which formed Apple and Microsoft. There was talk about software proprietary rights, original Xerox software system and other juicy gossips. The Windows format took off to a commercial success as Jobs focused on "user friendly" operating systems, which could not match the Microsoft commercial success but created a fiercely loyal following. Less than five years later the Apple shareholders, disappointed with the shares performance of their company in the market as compared to Microsoft, stage managed the ouster of its founder and principal shareholder Jobs from Apple and replaced him with the former CEO of Pepsi-Cola. The romantic Steve Jobs quietly accepted his fate. Apple will attempt a consumer and retail catch-up to industry standard Microsoft, creating the garbage of planned obsolescence along the way. However, Job's mind just kept on going like a duracell battery, focused still on sustaining his loyal followers and satisfied customers.

Fast forward to present time. With its commercial lead intact and shareholder value secured, over-confident Microsoft falls behind the innovation field as its hired imagination and innovation sources dry up. Google meantime partners with the best and the brightest outside of Microsoft and with its successes challenges the Microsoft protocols and wins. Meantime, Steve Jobs gets back his company and injects into Apple the fruits of his many years of technological applications fuelled by imagination and continuing innovation. He is now way ahead of the pack. The chemistry of events catches Microsoft asleep at the wheel. And this same chemistry sustained Steve Jobs to his dedicated search for "user friendly" systems that is now recognized as ahead of its time. He is still not in the top fifty richest men in the world but easily one of its brightest.

Even in high technology, the dramas and dreams of men remain the same.

Learn more about this author, Ricardo Penson.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Why Microsoft is lagging behind Apple and Google in innovation?
We want to hear your view. Write now!