Is Microsoft Growing Irrelevant?

With the use of Asynchronous JavaScript (AJAX) taking such a market share in web applications these days, and XML showing its inherent simplicity and unability on the web, Microsoft has only played a small role in this technology revolution. Many have speculated that the once King is quickly becoming a minor player in the ever-growing role the internet plays in all of our lives.

The speculation is becoming more of a reality that can’t be defended as each day goes by, and in internet time, days become weeks and weeks become months faster than “dog years”.
While Microsoft’s role in application development remains a stronghold, combinations such as that of AJAX and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) with web development software tools such as Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS 4, which enables developers to use the strenghts of their Spry framework (Adobe’s own implimentation of AJAX) have pushed such tools to the forefront of many a developer’s toolbox, leaving Microsoft in their wake.

So far, Microsoft has turned a blind eye to such innovative techologies, and has only recently decided to join the AJAX revolution. With recent reports that Firefox has overtaken their lead as the favorite browser of developers, Microsoft should be taking note. And with Gartner’s recent market analysis which reported that Microsoft’s smartphone market share has declined in the last year to less than 8 percent, Microsoft has surely noticed that other smartphones, such as the infamous iPhone, with its 80,000-plus available applications, are taking over their Windows Mobile platform for both developers as well as end-users.

Combine that with the lackluster adoption of its Windows 7 Operating System, which many have stated should have just been another Vista service pack instead of a new full-fledged operating system, people are starting to show a lack of trust in Microsoft, with many feeling like the King is dead, and there aren’t likely to be any sightings of Elvis in the developer arena any time soon.