What if Microsoft could innovate?

This quote from SeattlePi.com really got me thinking today:

"I work for Microsoft. I own plenty of Microsoft stock. I want Microsoft to succeed. But right now Google is kicking our butt. We're so far behind everyone else on these things, and Google is so far ahead of everyone else..."

Where would the world be if Microsoft were an innovative company? When was the last time Microsoft innovated? Is Microsoft capable of anticipating a trend? What if they were?

So here is my list of big Microsoft products:
Windows -- Not innovated. Concept stolen from Apple:) Certainly business genius to push it out inspite of industry pressure that console apps were "good enough."
The Internet -- Surprised Bill.
Office -- Microsoft certainly didn't invent the spreadsheet or the word processor.
.NET -- J2EE, improved. Shoot, C surprised MS!
Internet Explorer -- Not invented there.
VB1.0: Yep. That was innovative. But it came from outside.
XBOX - Fun. Maybe XBOX live is a bit innovative.
Security - This "innovation" sure seems to be catching Redmond off guard.
Foxpro, SQL server, CRM, SourceSafe, all the other crap -- No, no, no.
MSDOS - The biggest of all. The technology was bought from another company.

So what does it mean? Well, Microsoft isn't going to win many contests for thinking ahead on technology. MS is master of acquisitoin, marketing, sales, and continuous improvement (V2 better than V1, etc).

But what if? What if Apple had gotten the MSDOS deal? What if Google had released the first version of Windows. Where would the world be today? My theory:

By chance Bill Gates wins the IBM PC deal. The world technolology improvement slope was greatly flattened by that sales win. What a shame!


-- Jorge