微軟戰略重組不到位 Satya Nadella must find more pills for Microsoft’s ills
If you have a headache, it is a good idea to stop banging your head against the wall. That is what Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadelladid this week when he cut back his company’s struggling smartphone division, writing off almost all of the $7.9bn (net of cash) that Microsoft paid for Nokia’s phone business only 15 months ago.
如果頭疼，別再用頭撞牆是個好主意。上週，微軟(Microsoft)首席執行官薩蒂亞納德拉(Satya Nadella)就是這麼做的。他削減了微軟旗下正在苦苦掙扎的手機部門，近乎一筆勾銷僅僅15個月前微軟收購諾基亞(Nokia)手機部門時支付的79億美元（剔除現金後）。
However, the strategic overhaul at Microsoft looks incomplete, even counting other recent moves. While Mr Nadella has lessened the pain, there is still more to be done. The headbanging was the fault of his predecessor, Steve Ballmer.
然而，即便考慮到近期其他舉措，微軟的戰略重組看來也不到位。儘管納德拉減輕了微軟的痛苦，但需要做的還有很多。“以頭撞牆”是他的前任史蒂夫貟爾默(Steve Ballmer)的過錯。
The former chief executive’s main justification for buying the Nokia division seemed to be, without better ideas, why not give it a go? It turns out that this is not a basis for sound strategic thinking. Taking on Apple in high-end smartphones and the entire Android ecosystem in every other part of the market were non-starters.
微軟前首席執行官對於收購諾基亞手機業務的主要解釋是，既然沒有更好的主意，何不試一試呢？結果證明，這種思路不能作爲穩健戰略思維的基礎。在高端智能手機上挑戰蘋果(Apple)、在市場的其他所有領域挑戰整個安卓(Android)生態系統，根本沒有成功的機會。
It is notable that Microsoft’s two biggest acquisitions — and, now, its two biggest write-offs — have come from Mr Ballmer’s failed attempts to chase Apple and Google. In digital advertising, the $6.3bn purchase of aQuantive was followed by a $6.2bn writedown in 2012. The remnants of the display advertising business were shed to AOL last month. Seldom has a company admitted such total failure twice over.
值得注意的是，微軟的兩筆最大收購——現在成了兩筆最大的資產減記——是鮑爾默試圖追趕蘋果和谷歌(Google)失敗的結果。在數字廣告領域，微軟曾斥資63億美元收購aQuantive，然後在2012年將其減記了62億美元。上月，餘下的展示廣告業務被剝離給了美國在線(AOL)。很少有哪家公司兩次承認投資完全失敗。
The disasters are revealing. For better or worse, Apple relies on selling hardware for most of its revenues, while Google is almost entirely dependent on advertising. Microsoft has conspicuously failed at both.
這些災難很說明問題。無論好壞，蘋果主要靠銷售硬件賺取收入，谷歌則幾乎完全依靠廣告。微軟在這兩個領域遭遇慘敗。
This is where Mr Nadella’s housecleaning looks incomplete. In the Xbox gaming console he has a giant hardware business that does not do much to advance either Microsoft’s profits or its strategy. The Bing search engine, supported by advertising, has also accounted for plenty of red ink over the years, though the Microsoft boss promises it will soon break even.
這正是納德拉的改革看來不到位的地方。Xbox遊戲機是一塊龐大的硬件業務，但這塊業務對於增進微軟利潤或推進微軟戰略沒有太大幫助。多年來，廣告支持的必應(Bing)搜索引擎在微軟的虧損中佔據了很高比例，儘管這位微軟老闆承諾，必應很快將實現盈虧平衡。
By dealing with his most glaring problem — the Nokia acquisition — Mr Nadella has removed some of the distractions to focus on what is important. Microsoft’s own way of making money — selling software licences — is under long-term threat from the internet. Shoring up existing licensing revenues and supplementing them with new subscription-based services are the jobs that require full attention.
納德拉通過解決他最引人注目的問題——收購諾基亞——擺脫了分心因素，從而關注重要事項。微軟自己的賺錢方式——銷售軟件許可權——正受到互聯網的長期威脅。鞏固現有許可權收入，並輔之以新的以訂閱爲基礎的服務，是需要全力關注的任務。
A successful launch of Windows 10 later this month is essential to achieving the first of these objectives. This may be the post-PC era, but the device will still be a significant platform — particularly in the corporate world — and the foundation of Microsoft’s business for years to come.
本月晚些時候Windows 10的成功推出，對於微軟實現上述前一個目標至關重要。當今或許是“後個人電腦”(post-PC)時代，但PC仍將是一種重要的平臺（尤其是在企業界），也將是未來多年裏微軟業務的根基。
After the disastrous attempt to merge the PC and the tablet experiences in Windows 8, Microsoft looks on track to straighten things out with a software release that no longer forces uncomfortable compromises on users.
在災難性地企圖把PC和平板電腦兩種體驗融合到Windows 8之後，微軟似乎理清了思路，即將發佈一款不再讓用戶彆扭的軟件。
With almost no presence on smartphones, the new Windows will not be able to meet some of the main requirements of a modern operating system: to help users navigate a multiscreen world and give application developers a single platform that runs on multiple devices. But Mr Nadella has to play the hand he was dealt, and the best he can do is a multiplatform approach that tries to extend the reach of Microsoft’s own services (as well as those of developers who pick the Windows ecosystem) on to iOS and Android handsets, alongside devices that run Windows.
由於在智能手機市場幾乎沒有地盤，新版Windows將無法滿足現代操作系統的一部分主要要求：幫助用戶駕馭多屏世界，並給應用開發者一個可在多種設備上運行的單一平臺。但納德拉必須打好手中的牌，而他的最佳出路是推行多平臺策略，除了運行Windows操作系統的設備之外，還要嘗試延伸微軟自己服務（以及選擇了Windows生態系統的開發者的服務）的觸角，使其進入iOS和安卓系統的手機。
Exactly which services he will choose to invest in has become another test of strategic focus. By making the puzzling purchase of Minecraft his first significant acquisition, he has sent conflicting signals. Owning a game that is popular on mobile platforms gives Microsoft a way to reach into the iPhone and Android worlds — but unless it can use this foothold to sell extra services, it is unclear what the company gets from the deal. Minecraft seems distant from Microsoft’s core “productivity” services such as Office.
他具體將選擇投資於哪些服務，已成爲對微軟戰略聚焦點的又一個考驗。他的第一筆重大收購的對象是《我的世界》(Minecraft)，這筆令人困惑的交易發出了相互矛盾的信號。擁有一款在移動平臺上很受歡迎的遊戲，給微軟提供了一條進入iPhone和安卓世界的途徑。但是，除非能利用這個立足點銷售額外服務，否則看不出微軟能從這筆交易獲得什麼。《我的世界》距離Office等微軟的核心辦公軟件/服務似乎很遙遠。
