It's All About Development

A number of factors account for Microsoft's market success. But, one of the most overlooked is the company's relationship with software developers. Microsoft is, in fact, midway through a software developer relationship course correction that competitors would be wise not to ignore.

During 2000 and 2001 Microsoft developer relations appeared a bit off course. At the time, the government's antitrust trial posed a major distraction and Microsoft was almost obsessed with a consumer services push to compete with AOL Time Warner. By the end of 2001, Microsoft had started a major course correction, recognizing that directly delivering services simply drifted too far from the company's core competency. Microsoft also repositioned its .Net Web services strategy, putting more emphasis on providing tools that would enable other companies to develop Web services.

Certainly, Microsoft didn't make changes overnight, but capitalized on already well-along plans for the next version of its development tools. So, with the release of Visual Studio .Net in early 2002, Microsoft started a back-to-basics approach of developing software, platforms and tools. Little more than a year later, Microsoft released a new version of Visual Studio .Net and is already advancing plans for successor "Whidbey." Compare that to Windows' development schedule--XP in late 2001 and, by my estimation, Longhorn in 2006--and Visual Studio is clearly on a super-fast release schedule.

Microsoft also is on a major campaign to woo developers and increase their interest in creating products, not just for Windows, but for Office and Windows Server. Also, products from the Business Solutions division; these have not yet been branded as "Systems," like Office and Windows Server. This approach has helped return Microsoft to doing what it does best: Develop platforms and tools. The strategy also is an effective way of fending off competiting products, such as Linux. The better the development tools, the better Microsoft courts the development community, the more likely developers are to create products using, say, a Visual Studio .Net. It's no coincidence that Visual Studio is a good development tool set, that is, for creating Windows software.

The refocused development strategy also benefits Microsoft's push to drive standards for Web services that, not coincidentally, benefit the company as much as--or more than--its customers. Right now, Microsoft is on a major integration push, cross-tying features from multiple products together. Not surprisingly, Visual Studio .Net supports that push, in how the tools fit together and how they produce products that can fit well together with Windows, Windows Server and Office System. It's no coincidence that the latest version of Visual Studio .Net shipped simultaneously with Windows Server 2003.

Microsoft built its empire, in part, by providing developers with easy-to-master tools that supported Windows. The renewed development push could make Microsoft an even more formidable competitor. Linux developers and customers take note.

Posted by Joe Wilcox at August 29, 2003 09:54 AM