2012: The Year of Microsoft?

When I got my first computer in May, 1995, it ran Microsoft Windows 3.1. It was an incredible experience using a mouse and a keyboard on a computer with a GUI. Microsoft to me represented everything cool about technology. I had never heard of Apple.In 2000, I started my graduate program at Virginia Tech and entered a library filled with colorful iMacs. They were so much cooler than the Windows 2000 I was using at that time. Apple was introduced in my life.Over the years, many of the gadgets I use have steadily become non-Microsoft. And I am not alone. The world is going through a gadget renaissance and while Google (via Android) and Apple (via the ubiquitous iOS) have and are enjoying a surge in users, Microsoft has been at the wrong end of the stick for the first time in a few decades. While PCs and the enterprise are still Microsoft's bastions of strength and sales, Apple is starting to make significant headway in the enterprise. And from being a leader in the fledgling smartphone business, Microsoft had lost its way completely.Until now.I believe that Microsoft has finally found its bearings and 2012 is shaping to be one of the company's most important years. While the company is cash-rich and raking in the revenue, it would not be amiss to liken Microsoft's 2012 to IBM's 1993. And for once, Microsoft is putting its best players, front, right and center. This post features four key elements to Microsoft's strategy of regaining its glory.Let's Bing.Bing has and continues to be viewed as the David to Google's Goliath. It has been a loss making proposition for Microsoft which has continued to invest significantly in the business- so much so to reward customers for using Bing and buying stuff from search results. In addition, there was the agreement with Yahoo that allowed Bing to power Yahoo! search and thus improve their results. All this has not helped Bing gain a significant share against Google but its chipping away. But this year could be different. Google's new Search Plus has brought in detractors out of the woodwork and this could benefit Bing. Bing also recently surpassed Yahoo! as the second most used search engine. And Microsoft has a cozy relationship with Facebook that it will use to give you its version of "personalized search". And as Facebook grows and allows Bing to mine more of its data, Bing's personalized results will only get better. I dont expect Bing to trump Google anytime soon, but I expect it to gain more traction in the coming years, starting in 2012.Microsoft and Nokia: "Lets be friends".The first products of the Microsoft-Nokia marriage launched last Fall with the Nokia Lumia 710 and 800. The two giants formally announced to good press, their own superphone, the Lumia 900. Of the three, the 800 has launched in Europe and Asia to good reviews. The 710 is available on T-Mobile in the US and the Lumia 900 was quite the talk of CES last week. I believe Windows Phone 7.5 Mango coupled with the hardware sensibilities of Nokia will sell well in Europe and Asia and maybe even in the US. Time will tell how this relationship pans out but it looks to have gotten off to a good start. 2012 will be a year when the two majors establish a good working partnership as evidenced by good products like the 900.Let's Kinect.Kinect for Xbox360 is one of the coolest, if not the coolest invention to come out of Microsoft stables. Although the tech itself is not from Microsoft, the way it has been integrated into the Xbox360 gaming console is praise worthy. Kinect by any yardstick has been a huge success for Microsoft. It has also spawned a cottage industry for DIYers looking to introduce gesture based motion control into everything. And Microsoft is looking to move this revolution forward with its recently announced Kinect for Windows. This will only further Microsoft's dominance in a nascent but rapidly growing eco-system.Windows 8: "The one OS to rule them all". While Microsoft's different teams work on enhancing their profile in the Search, mobile and gaming business, the most important event for Microsoft in 2012 is the launch of Windows 8. While every major OS launch from MS is a big event, Windows 8 is bigger than any other because of its scope. Until now, each release of Windows has been a Wintel or a Wintel+WinAMD one that impacts the PC and the server business. With Windows 8, Microsoft is aiming to capture the interest and wallets of not just its PC and server folks but also the smartphone and tablet users. With its first simultaneous release on an ARM platform, Windows 8 is shaping to be the most critical release for the company in a long time. Windows 8 is being looked upon by tablet manufacturers as the third big tablet OS and the second one (after Android) to go up against the might of the iPad. Windows 8 will also grace smartphones and PCs and offer its radical new Metro UI to PC users that resembles its smartphone look and feel. Early previews indicate that Microsoft may have a compelling OS in its hands with Windows 8. 2012 will reveal the full Windows 8 story and how it plays out for Microsoft.It is hard to minimize the importance of any of the aforementioned entities to the long term success of Microsoft in this post-PC era dominated by Google and Apple. 2012 is shaping to be a critical year for Microsoft, one the giant seems to be well poised to embrace and succeed in.