The article appeared on the last release of Vanity Fair. The fierce and explanatory title. The lost decade of Microsoft. Ferocious indictment signed by Kurt Eichenwald, writer and reporter for The New York Times weight, which fires to zero against Steve Ballmer and the last ten years of reckless management of the software giant.

Beneath the surface, through the testimonies of some insiders, Eichenwald sketches the outlines of a company unable to look ahead and victim of its own internal bureaucracy. The competitive advantage gained with the Windows CE smartphones, literally pulverized the competition. The disinterest shown towards the mobile device market over the years has accumulated a delay embarrassing to Microsoft, hard to fill. Windows 8, today, will not make the hoped for a miracle.

Someone revealed that Microsoft had a prototype ready for revolutionary e-reader in 1998. At the time, Bill Gates filed the project with the most trivial reasons. The interface was not to his liking because it did not resemble that of Windows. The development team pointed out to him that this sort of device needed user interaction different from the classic point and click desktop. There was no way. The project died buried in that place. Would otherwise be ahead of the times if they only had a little 'more courage.

When Gates left Microsoft, Ballmer's arrival did not help things. Was introduced a system of "stack ranking" interior which requires each unit to classify their employees according to a scale that goes from top to poor performers. With devastating effect, stressed several times by some executives that employees are busy competing with each other than to find brilliant solutions to compete with external market.

And not just the popularity of Windows, Office and Xbox success to soften the indictment to Ballmer. Why, Eichenwald noted, "Today, Apple has a product, the iPhone, which generates more revenue for all Microsoft products and services put together." The decade is now lost. Who knows after.