Microsoft fighting yesterday's battles

So Yahoo seems to have spurned Microsoft in favour of Google.

Readers will know my consistent views on the proposed Microsoft/Yahoo coupling –ie I was against it from the start. I won’t replay my reasoning –you can reread it if you wish.

Microsoft really must understand that the battle for search is over and they have lost. That actually doesn’t matter that much as the next battle is far more important and could be terminal for Microsoft.

I have often referred to the generational trend from Desktop (Microsoft won) to Webtop (Google won) to MyTop and now MobiTop. There is no obvious MobiTop winner (yet). The way Microsoft are going right now they stand a good chance of losing – mainly because they are fighting the wrong battles. They remind me of BT before Ben came along, when BT were far more concerned about preserving fixed line voice and ISDN revenues than gaining traction in mobile and broadband. Just as nobody would now dream of building a fixed line communication system in a developing country, so nobody would dream of building software which only ran/resided on an individual PC.

Microsoft could still be the MobiTop giant. But it has to start fighting the right battles. Tomorrow’s battles not yesterday’s.