Again, it all comes down to focus. As good a salesman as Steve Jobs is, the most important thing he did when he took the reigns of Apple was to make tough choices, and to bring focus to the entire company. He methodically crafted an image that is now so easily recognized.

Even when Apple was struggling through the mid to late nineties, it was clear that they had a lot of creative and talented people. Look no further than the last Newton MessagePad for proof of that. However, that same device is proof of what was wrong with the company at the time, as well. Apple sunk millions of dollars that they couldn’t afford into a product that was too far ahead of it’s time, and as such, wasn’t commercially viable. While they lost millions making a revolutionary product, Palm made mobile mainstream with a device that was small, affordable, and easy to use. It was later revealed that Apple had a prototype of a smaller, cheaper Newton before the original PalmPilot hit market, but their leadership lacked the vision to see it’s worth.

Today’s Microsoft reminds me of the Apple of the 90s, just with a lot more money and resources. In a way, that makes their situation harder to get out of. Apple had their back against the wall, so the tough choices and changes necessary to become the company they are today were more easily accepted. They had to either change, or cease to exist. Microsoft isn’t there yet, but they are definitely headed in that direction. However, since they are still profitable and have undeniable success in several areas, it may be more difficult to accept change.

As the CEO, I think Steve Balmer has to bear the brunt of the responsibility for Microsoft’s current condition. Rather than bringing the focus that is so necessary to harness the incredible talent and resources at his disposal, he seems better known for wildly swinging in hopes of hitting something, anything out of the park. Microsoft’s purchase of Danger, the successful maker of the Sidekick, is a perfect example. Microsoft took a successful mobile phone development team, and used them to create the Kin, one of the biggest mobile marketing disasters in the last 10 years. The Sidekick was well designed and perfectly targeted at and priced for a particular market segment. The Kins cost more than many Android smartphones, didn’t do near as much, and required expensive data plans. Considering that they were targeted at tweens and teens, this all sounds absolutely absurd, and it was. Through a complete lack of focus, Microsoft completely wasted what should have been a valuable resource. The Kin failed miserably, the Danger team was dissolved, and to add insult to injury, the principle developers of the Sidekick are now working for Google. I don’t see how Microsoft could have possibly messed this up worse than they did.

I guess I would have to side with those that think Ballmer should be fired. Sure, he isn’t the salesman that Steve Jobs is. However, he doesn’t have to be. Most successful CEOs aren’t as magnetic as Jobs. However, effective CEOs are in touch with what’s going on in their market, have vision, and are able to harness their corporate resources to create successful products that generate profits. There is no evidence in Steve Ballmer’s performance to date that proves he is capable of this. The longer Microsoft’s board waits to move on, the more precarious a position they may eventually fins themselves in.

Second – Microsoft needs to stop putting the focus on the consumer market and social. They just aren’t good at it. They excel at business productivity devices, OSs and applications. That’s their core competency and they should stick to it. For as many bombs in the consumer market as they’ve had lately – they are still (IMHO) still killing it in the business space. Windows 7 (as a business OS), Windows Server 2008 (R2), Hyper-V, Exchange and countless other products are the best they have ever been and continue to get better and better.

Apple doesn’t try to compete in the business space because it isn’t their core competency and they know it. Yes, they’ve made inroads to the enterprise space – but not because that was their goal. People found a use for the devices in that role. Microsoft needs to take the opposite approach – Build and design for the business/enterprise space and if people find a use in the consumer space, then so be it. Take Windows Mobile (from CE to 5.x) as an example. It was never targeted at the consumer space. It was designed for business use and it was still popular as a consumer product. Microsoft helped define the smartphone category using a non-consumer targeted OS. There’s no reason they should have come out with WP7 and targeted the consumer. It should have been an enterprise class mobile OS… with a sprinkling of consumer desires (social / games). With that style of device and marketing, there’s no reason they couldn’t have kicked the snot out of RIM, Google and Apple.

Finally, I really don’t think Microsoft makes all that much in the consumer space. Their bread and butter comes from licensing through business channels. So why are they so focused on consumers? Let Apple run amuck in the consumer space. Let Google play search engine advertiser to the gods. When its all said and done, the big money comes from multi-million/billion dollar organizations that need to have standardized platforms, enterprise class mobile device security and seamless platform integration. That’s what Microsoft does.