Microsoft says “what’s beef?”

Microsoft reminds me of the bully in the hood always looking for beef.  They’re spending $300 million on their “Laptop Hunters” ads so Apple will stop making ‘em look like dweebs.  They’re fighting with Nintendo and Sony for console space in our living room.  And, they’re about to mount a $100 million marketing campaign to go mano y mano with Google and to a lesser extent Yahoo for web search.  By comparison, Google spent a total of $25 million on ads in 2008.

For those that don’t know, Microsoft currently does web search under the LiveSearch moniker.  Rumor has it that they will rebrand the site service as Bing. You know, it’s kinda like shorthand for Tony Soprano’s girlie bar.  As part of the re-branding effort, expect to see ads appearing on the web, TV, radio, newspapers and magazines.

I’m not a big fan of conceding, but I think Microsoft should concede desktop web search to Google.  And by concede, I mean Microsoft should focus on web search for emerging platforms like mobile devices.

The Reason… Strategy 101 – Compete where there is no competition i.e  be a monopolist.  While consumers are increasingly spending more time (and money) on their mobile devices, there is no established search provider cornering that market.  For the most part, you’ll just be paying slotting fees to mobile phone providers so “Bing” shows up as the default search provider.  But, that’s the low-hanging fruit, and The Reason is all about reaching higher, so … let’s look for the challenge here.

The Reason... Strategy 201 - Differentiate. Microsoft should leverage its previous $800 million investment in Tellme Networks Inc., a voice-recognition technology company -- a.k.a. your differentiator.  Spend your Bing marketing budget letting consumers know how easy it is to search on their mobile devices... "Just say what you want, and 'Bing' ...get your search results texted to you instantaneously.  This, of course, relies on the sophistication of your technology to decipher accents and colloquialisms, and the robustness of your database.  But, once you step on the court, no more excuses, right?  And for Microsoft, the money part comes from advertiser supported text messages.

Comments

[Jeff Meade]

Thanks for the comment Brian.

I think it is an opportunity precisely because people haven't developed their "routine" around mobile devices. And, I think voice recognition is the disruptive innovation that you're talking about.

[Brian Miller]

I largely agree with you, Jeff.

Bing strikes me as "me too" product, in a space where most folks have already developed a "routine" around Google.

This is a situation where Microsoft's traditional "embrace and extend" approach can't work, since the web-at-large is something Microsoft cannot completely get its arms around and own.

I think the mobile device search engine market isn't necessarily an opportunity for them, either. Google has already positioned itself on the Palm Pre, iPhone and its own Android platform as either the dominant search platform or one of the web search platforms of choice. Microsoft somewhat owns Windows Mobile, but that platform has hit the ceiling judging from the latest sales numbers. And RIM and Nokia probably aren't going to cozy up to Microsoft anytime soon.

So without some sort of disruptive innovation in how MS goes to market, they'll just be "another player" in mobile search.