Microsoft Build 2019 – Nice to have

Plenty of nice. No must-have

• In a company that is now so dominated by the enterprise, its gaming business increasingly sticks out like a sore thumb begging the question as to whether Microsoft will eventually divest it.
• Microsoft’s annual developer conference was a business-as-usual event, with incremental improvements here and there that was somewhat spoilt by a Hololens 2 demo that failed to launch.
• This failure was not a big deal in my opinion as the dry-run worked perfectly and the participants where very upfront about the problem and lost little, if any, credibility as a result.
• Elsewhere developments included:
  • First, voice transcripts: this is a feature that allows a meeting to be transcribed in real time using just the users’ devices and no fancy microphone arrays.
  • The system can differentiate different speakers via their devices and can be adapted to be able to deal with industry-specific jargon and terminology.
  • This is a new Azure voice service and is a nice add on.
  • Second, virtual meetings: Based on Hololens 2 this allows virtual meetings to be more interactive with participants being able to participate and interact from other devices such as smartphones, tablets, and PCs.
  • Hololens 2 includes the recognition of complex hand movements allowing more intuitive interaction with virtual objects and avatars of other participants.
  • This another piece of nice additional functionality but does not in any way make Hololens a must have or virtual meetings a must do.
• During the entire conference what really sticks out is how much of a black sheep Microsoft’s gaming offering has become.
• The company is now entirely focused around the enterprise except for gaming which is consumer.
• This why I continue to believe that there is no real rational reason why Microsoft should hold on to it.
• Furthermore, Microsoft’s inability to make anything of Xbox Live gaming on mobile means that a lot of value is being left on the table.
• This why I continue to believe that someone who can make more of Xbox than just a console offering would be willing to pay more the business than it is worth to Microsoft.
• Logically at that point, Microsoft would sell it.
• It is just a question of who and how much.
• Amazon is a possibility as its own gaming efforts are seemingly going nowhere and could really use a boost.
• Tencent is another.