Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): 2013 Is Do or Die

Old, tired, boring company with outdated products and declining stock price was BlackBerry just last year.  BlackBerry (Research In Motion at the time) saw their market share in the global cell phone decline for several years with the release of inferior phones, while getting crushed by competition.  Hint hint, cough cough, Microsoft. Shareholders must have been relieved when Jim Basille, and Mike Lazaridis were shown the door.  Replacing the co-CEOs was the former chief technology officer at Samsung, and rising executive within the company Thorstein Heins. Heins’ first order of business: ditch the subpar phones, ditch the company name and start fresh with the Blackberry Q10 and Z10 phones.  The verdict is still out if Heins has saved Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), but as the company continues to report exceptional sales figures, and digs themselves out of the ditch, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) should serve as proof that a new CEO can bring back to popularity their products, and image.

Hardware expansion

In his annual letter to shareholders, Ballmer stated that a key focus for the company was to move forward, to “develop new form factors that have increasingly natural ways to use them including touch, gestures and speech.” Perhaps an expansion of the surface platform with 2.0 hardware, offering an improved experience from battery life to a greater diversity of screen sizes, as well as adding a 7-inch screen, maybe even an ‘Xbox Surface’. If Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is able to integrate technologies from Kinect into the Windows mobile experience it sounds like a winner. Imagine giving a PowerPoint presentation running off a Windows-based tablet or smartphone while using basic hand gestures to flip through the slides in real time. Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, or perhaps this will be a reality in 2013. Ballmer is, after all, on a mission to make Microsoft ” cool.”

Conclusion

2013 could be Microsoft’s last year to prove itself worthy to its shareholders and the investment community. The past 10+ years has not been kind to Microsoft investors. It must have been tough for shareholders to be holding underperforming Microsoft shares, while sitting on the sidelines, watching Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google skyrocket during the same time period. Will 2013 be just another year added to the ” lost decade” or will it be a turning point to move forward. It remains to be seen. I believe that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) deserves one last year to show that they can produce the next ground-breaking and innovative product which can bring the company back to life and prove that they have what it takes to compete with the “big boys.”

The article 2013 Is Do or Die for Microsoft originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Jayson Derrick.

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