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Microsoft have gone through the ringer in recent times.  They have had the relative failure of Windows Vista (which I have to say I thought was ok), the rise of the IPhone and other Windows Mobile competitors, the dominance of Google on the search arena and their own Internet Explorer being hit in the browser wars by the three main rivals, Safari, Mozilla and more recently Chrome.

A dying horse?

For a long time it seemed that MS was not putting up much of a fight, however, it seems that Microsoft are on the bounce back at the moment.  This being the case, I thought I would take a look at some of the ways Microsoft could be returning to form, some of them already here and some that are just visible on the horizon;

The big cheese…

Ok, so lets start with the obvious one, Windows 7, because lets face it, this is the biggest deal, at least for Microsoft. It was looking pretty bad after Vista failed to make the grade, but it now seems that Windows 7 is getting a lot of love from many people.  With better performance and stability, an improved UI (not to the taste of everyone I know, but I think it will become well liked) and a general feeling of “this is Vista the way it should have been”, it looks like we might be on the way back to the glory days of Windows (well, a lot better than Vista anyway).  This response seems to go beyond that of just the tech industry as well, with many of my non-geek friends very eager to get the final release of 7 and already happily using the public Release Candidate.  One of the big wins here for MS was the level of public interaction and previewing that has gone on. 

Have you Binged yet?

So, moving on to another area that Microsoft seems to never get anywhere with, web search.

First we had MSN, then came Google, so MSN sort of….well….flunked.  So, along came Windows Live Search…..not a lot better.  Now though, Live Search has become Bing…..and this just might be the one to grab back some market share.  It appears that the folks behind Bing actually thought about what was useful to the user and implemented it, rather than simply re-branding their existing engine.  With features such as web page content preview, improved search results, a streamlined user-interface and better support for video searching / playback, the initial results for Bing look good with it’s usage rates starting to increase.  Now, please do not mis-understand me, I am not saying that there is any way that Bing is a massive threat to Google at the moment, but it is a start.

Browser Wars……

MS has also suffered hits in the web browser wars for years, with release after release of sub-standard browsers when compared with the more standards complient and more secure competitors in the field.  Internet Explorer 6 came in for a huge amount of criticism, with IE7 not performing much better.  However, it seems that just like in the areas of OS and search, Microsoft finally actually listened to what people wanted from the browser.  So with the release of IE8 there appears to be a much more positive mood in the air as it is more standards compliant, which makes it much easier for us web designers / devleopers for create content for and much more secure / stable which makes the whole experience much nicer for everybody else.

IPhone…..You Phone……We all scream for Windows Mobile 7??

Last but not least, this round up would not be complete without mentioning the mammouth impact that has been felt with the arrival of the IPhone, taking the mobile computing and web from the minority to the majority.  Before Apple came along with the IPhone, Microsoft had been able to cruise along comfortably with their Windows Mobile Pocket PC software and then later Windows Mobile 5 / 6, even though all of them left a lot to be desired from an end-user perspective, not least the poor performance. But just like it the rest of it’s fighting grounds, Microsoft has been forced to stand up and listen to what people want from their mobile device.

As an interim answer, we have seen the release of Windows Mobile 6.5, which addresses many usability issues with the touch screen interfaces and significantly improves performance.  However, the release that the guys at MS are hoping will be the real IPhone competitor is due out next year in the form of Windows Mobile 7.  Not a great deal is yet known about this next incarnation of the mobile OS, but recent leaked reports suggest many of the familiar features familiar to IPhone users will be appearing such as accellerometers, mandatory built in GPS and a slick new touch enabled user-interface as you can see from some recently leaked images over at WMPowerUser.com.

Is it enough?

Whether or not the responses to the various challenges will be enough to propel Microsoft back to number 1 in all of the above areas is doubtful, but it certainly is interesting watching them try.  

What are your thoughts?

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