Microsoft coverage should look past Vista

TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs wrote Monday in his Business Press Maven column that there has been too much coverage of Microsoft focusing on its new Vista software when there are many products and issues at the company.

Fuchs wrote, “Not that Vista sales aren’t vitally important — at least in the short run. But Forbes weighed in recently with the typical in “Resistance is Futile“: Even though many are grumpy about having to buy Vista, they will lay out money for the operating system upgrade to get the cool new features. And Forbes is probably right.

“But The New York Times cut Microsoft’s future to the quick by examining why the company’s online unit has ‘drifted dangerously off course.’

“Let’s keep wishing we had a nickel for every Vista article that has graced the bottom of a bird cage in the past couple weeks. But considering the dubious nature of the modern software business and the (forgive me ahead of time, it’s early) dandiness of future potential online, when it comes to Microsoft’s ultimate future, let’s focus our attention on why the following is happening and if anything can be done to rectify it:

Over the last year, [Microsoft’s] online properties have lost users in the United States. The billions of dollars the company has spent building its own search engine have yet to pay off. And amid a booming Internet market, Microsoft’s online unit is losing money.

“The question the Times article poses is one that this sort of article almost always does: Can one man turn things around? Given the number of times in business journalism history this question has been asked, you’d a-thunk more of these people would have succeeded.”

Read more here.