Friday, November 30, 2012
Is Microsoft the new Digital Equipment?
The parallels are eerie: Digital Equipment Corp. missed the
PC revolution; Microsoft misses the digital mobile revolution. Digital tried to
regroup with some genuinely good products; Microsoft has tried to regroup with
some genuinely good products. But it was too little too late for Digital. Is it
too little too late for Microsoft? You have to wonder.
Fyi: The embedded video is from a late ‘90s commercial for
DEC’s notebook product, either shortly before or after the firm was purchased by Compaq. DEC also came
out with a damn good search engine for its time and a chip that was also ahead
of its time. But it was all about catching up to the competition. And it never
truly caught up.
