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| Microsoft wants to promote consumer apps |
Microsoft has appointed Manik Gupta, the former chief product officer of Uber, to renew their efforts in developing consumer apps.
Gupta is responsible for Consumer Microsoft Teams, Skype, and GroupMe. Gupta has been with Uber for four years and leads different teams that contribute to the Uber app. He was also responsible for product management for Google Maps for seven years.
While Gupta has extensive experience with cards, that's not why he switched to Microsoft. The software giant appears to want to use its expertise in consumer-oriented applications.
The company said, “Gupta’s experience is invaluable in helping us create a best-in-class customer experience across all areas of Microsoft.”
The statement said the company is ambitious and hopes to inspire consumers to use Microsoft Teams and other opportunities to build consumer-focused communities or apps.
The company recently tried to acquire popular communities such as TikTok, Discord, and Pinterest. While these three services are very different, they all share a common societal element that the software giant lacks outside of Xbox.
Competitors such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook acquired major major apps such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch, and Microsoft realized it needed something similar.
The company's CEO, Satya Nadella, appears to be focusing on content creators and communities. It also focuses on how best to use the cloud to have consumer-oriented communities or applications.
In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, Nadella said, "The next 10 years will be about creativity, consumption, and the society around them."
Microsoft wants to promote consumer apps
After Microsoft shut down Groove Music, ditched Mixer, quit Kinect, ditched Microsoft Band, and acknowledged the death of Windows Phone, this was a change Microsoft developed for several years.
In addition to Xbox, the company has been struggling with consumers and trying to change this situation for a number of years.
Nadella stated in an internal memo that Microsoft is focusing on consumer products again.
“I hope that we will pursue these new opportunities with ambition and clarity in our long-term vision for the product,” he said. The key to our success is to develop new skills within our organization to stimulate the spirit of the product at the consumer level.
Gupta needs to break the delicate balance between Microsoft Teams for consumers, Skype and GroupMe and determine whether the company is merging these services into a single application.
The company seems to be focusing more and more on customer-centric Microsoft teams rather than Skype. Windows 11 will launch in October, including Microsoft Teams integration.
This integration appears to be the first indication of where the company will focus most of its consumer energy in the future.