Microsoft’s “Sinofsky” mistake

It was a decision heralded by industry media types and praised by blogging heads around the Internet. Steve Sinofsky, the legendary show-runner for Microsoft Office, would take over the Windows reins from the departing Jim Allchin.

Known as a stickler for hitting ship date targets, Sinofsky’s no-nonsense, underpromise-and-overdeliver mentality was supposedly just what the Windows team needed in order to right Microsoft’s desktop OS ship –- a ship that Allchin’s regime had nearly run aground with Vista. If history was any indicator, the next version, Windows 7, would ship on time and with virtually all of its (publicly) announced features intact and fully baked (mostly).

The whole affair –- Allchin’s departure and Sinofsky’s assumption of the Windows show-runner mantle –- had the makings of a classic turnaround story. In fact, if Vista’s failure in the enterprise had truly been the result of something as mundane as a slipped ship date or dropped feature, I’d probably be blogging right now about how brilliant the Sinofsky move was and predicting a happy ending with Windows 7

Sadly, such a pleasant narrative simply doesn’t jibe with the facts on the ground. The truth is that Windows Vista didn’t fail in the enterprise because it was late or missing promised features. It failed because Microsoft forgot to sell the Vista migration story to IT decision makers.

Instead of making a case for Vista in the enterprise, Microsoft simply foisted its half-baked bastard-child-of-Windows NT onto us and assumed (incorrectly) that we’d just B.O.G.U. like we had before. And when we didn’t, the company threw a tantrum, bashing the media, insulting its customer base and threatening to abandon us on XP if we refused the “all roads lead through Vista” migration strategy for Windows 7.

Now, I’m seeing leaked images and reports from Windows 7 beta testers that seem to confirm my worst fears: Microsoft is once again focusing on consumer glitz (ribbon bars, home groups, a new calculator) while ignoring the wants and needs of IT. So while Windows 7 may indeed ship on time and with fewer missing parts than Window Vista, it will likely encounter a similarly chilly reception from IT decision makers.

That’s why I believe that Sinofsky was a poor choice to take the reins from Allchin. Microsoft would have been better served by recruiting a true technical evangelist, someone with real-world experience in the trenches who could make a compelling case for Windows 7 to the very same IT gatekeepers and decision makers who rejected Vista.

After all, underpromising and overdelivering only work if your customers actually want what you’re selling. And right now, based on the information at hand, Windows 7 looks like nothing more than lipstick on an OS pig.