Microsoft’s real problem

Ten to fifteen years ago in Silicon Valley when a software developer was looking for a new they found that roughly sixty percent of the companies were looking for people fluent in Microsoft technologies like .Net, C#, VC++, or MFC.  Fast forward to today, the skills that companies are asking for in Silicon Valley are either app development or big data, all of which use open source programming languages like C++, PHP, Java, or Python.  I estimate only one to two percent of the available jobs are for people with Microsoft centric skills.

What Silicon Valley does now, IT departments do in five years.  This is a fact that has been true for a long time.  Microsoft’s bottom line still looks strong, but if virtually all the new development is in areas other than Microsoft, then Microsoft will be then next Yahoo -- A big company that once had a leadership role and is now fighting for relevance.