微软CEO成败系Win 8

    再现传奇并非易事，尤其是当传奇还扔下了一堆烂摊子的时候。问问史蒂夫•鲍尔默就知道了。自从1980年加入微软（Microsoft ）以来，他一直都在比尔•盖茨的阴影下埋头苦干。盖茨就是人们心目中的传奇人物。在位时，他将微软变成了强盛的软件巨头；退休后，他用积累的财富让世界变得更加美好。盖茨退休后，鲍尔默继任管理者。此时的微软一度在软件上的垄断地位已经风光不再，与监管者多年来斗争不止，对互联网的认识也不够成熟，甚至不时被误导。这一切，都留给了鲍尔默来处理。

    我们来看看一组有趣的数据。苹果公司（Apple）在市值上可能已经超越了微软，但是在过去25年中，股市表现最好的依然还是微软。自1987年以来，苹果的股票上涨了4300%，而微软则令人惊讶地上涨了5700%。当然，微软大多数的增长都是在盖茨任期内实现的。2000年鲍尔默担任CEO以来，苹果的股票涨幅达到了2500%。微软呢？鲍尔默继任至今，微软的股价增幅仅有之前的一半。

    对此，鲍尔默要负很大的责任，但也不能全怪他。鲍尔默上任两个月后，互联网泡沫破裂，那时候许多股票的估值都虚高得出乎寻常。鲍尔默当年接手经营这个操作系统软件巨头不得不面对比尔的垄断统治遗留下来的这堆混乱不堪的烂摊子。如今回过头来看，这些问题似乎都是不可避免的。网络的兴起导致PC机在科技产业的地位不再那么至关重要。而因为微软的重心都放在PC机的操作系统软件上，因此无法再控制网络行业。微软所有想将网络产业收入囊中的尝试都遭到了监管者的回绝。而经营MSN搜索和Hotmail这类的网络服务又连年亏损。

    与此同时，在沿着海岸线往南几百英里的硅谷，谷歌（Google）等一些新的公司开始迅速崛起。他们似乎形成了某种联合，试图削弱微软的统治地位。自从云计算横空出世，PC机在个人和商务应用程序中的地位就注定将被边缘化。

    鲍尔默推动了微软在其他领域的发展，比如服务器软件和Xbox游戏机。它们弥补了Windows系统和Office软件业务缓慢增长的遗憾。2009年，微软更加大胆地开始研发Windows 8系统。除去常规的Windows升级之外，Windows 8不仅可以兼容PC机和使用ARM芯片的平板电脑，还能同Windows Phone 8共享许多组件。

    Windows 8并不仅仅是一次系统的重制，以体现出与盖茨创立的Windows系统截然不同——实际上，它彻底跳出了盖茨创立的微软模式。鲍尔默甚至出人意料地推出了Surface，带领微软进入了一个全新的领域。Surface是平板电脑和PC机的结合体，向世人展示了Windows 8所具有的功能。这意味着微软完全可以在云计算领域大显身手。

    更重要的是，它意味着比尔•盖茨创立的微软公司现在已经真正属于史蒂夫•鲍尔默了。

    可以更清楚地说明这一点的是，鲍尔默上月在写给微软股东的信中提到，公司正在进行“根本性的转变”。微软目前把自身定位为“提供设备和服务业务的公司”。这份声明被普遍视为微软承认自己越来越向苹果靠拢，不仅设计运用于设备上的OS系统，还提供与系统相配套的设施和服务。此外，微软正在开设零售店和应用商店这一事实也证明了这一点。

    Legends are tough acts to follow, especially when they leave a mess behind. Just ask Steve Ballmer. Ever since joining Microsoft in 1980, Ballmer has toiled in the shadow of Bill Gates. Gates is the one remembered as the legend who turned Microsoft into a formidable software colossus and who retired to spend his fortune on making the world a better place. When he retired, it was Ballmer who was left to manage Microsoft, its aging software monopoly, its years of battles with regulators and its early, sometimes misguided responses to the Internet.

    Here's an interesting statistic. Apple (AAPL) may exceed Microsoft (MSFT) in market value, but the better performing stock over the past quarter century is still Microsoft. Since 1987, Apple's stock has risen 4,300% while Microsoft's has risen a staggering 5,700%. Most of Microsoft's gains, of course, came during Gates' tenure. Since 2000, after Ballmer took over as CEO, Apple's stock has risen 2,500%. Microsoft's? It's still half of what it was after Ballmer took over.

    Much of that is Ballmer's fault. But not all. Ballmer became Microsoft's CEO two months before the dot-com bubble burst, when many stocks had irrationally high valuations. And Ballmer was left facing the messy fallout of the monopolistic reign of King Bill. Ballmer was left to manage an operating-software colossus whose demise, in retrospect, seemed all but assured. The rise of the web made PCs less central to the tech industry, and Microsoft couldn't control the web as it had PC operating software. Any attempt to extend its iron grip to the Internet was met with regulatory pushback. And web initiatives like MSN Search and Hotmail showed operating losses year after year.

    Meanwhile, several hundred miles down the coast in Silicon Valley, a new crowd of fast-growing startups like Google (GOOG) seemed united in trying to weaken Microsoft. And as cloud computing took off, PC's were destined to become less central to computer programs used by consumers and businesses.

    Ballmer pushed into other areas of growth, such as server software and the Xbox, offsetting the slower growth rate of Windows and Office software. More boldly, in 2009, Microsoft began developing Windows 8, but instead of the usual Windows upgrade, Windows 8 would work with PCs, tablets using ARM chips and share many components with Windows Phone 8.

    Windows 8 isn't a reboot as much as a clear break from the Windows that Gates created -- which is to say, a break from the Microsoft that Gates built. Ballmer even steered Microsoft into new waters by unexpectedly stepping into the device business with the Surface. A tablet-PC hybrid, the Surface showed what Windows 8 was capable of. It showed that Microsoft could be a player in the era of cloud computing.

    Above all, it showed that the company founded by Bill Gates now belongs to Steve Ballmer.

    To drive the point home, Ballmer said in a letter to Microsoft shareholders last month that the company is making a "fundamental shift:" It now sees itself as a "devices and services company." That declaration was widely seen as an admission that Microsoft is becoming more like Apple, making not just the OS that powers devices, but the devices and services that go on them. That is also evident in the retail stores Microsoft is setting up and the app stores it's creating as well.