Where does Microsoft position itself on the industry life cycle?

What are the strategic implications? What is the Microsoft's innovation strategy?

Does it rely on incremental or radical innovations? Disruptive or architectural? What are the competitive implications of the firm's innovation strategies?

Are intellectual property rights important for your firm? Can you find what strategies the firm is implementing to protect its proprietary position? Identify a recent innovation by your firm.

What is your firm's strategy to cross the chasm(s) to achieve mass-market adoption of its innovation?

What attributes describe the current major customer segment for your firm? Are these changing? If so, is your firm prepared to meet these new customer demands? How does your firm organize for innovation?

Does it use a closed or an open innovation approach? Is its current approach working, or does it need changing? If it does need changing, in what way?

Microsoft Company positions itself in the growth stage of the industry life cycle. This is because its curve at this stage is very sharp.

The strategic implication of being in the growth stage is that Microsoft has to focus on the established revenue sources. Also, it means that the company has to minimize its risks. Microsoft involves itself in a lot of research as an innovation strategy. 

Microsoft relies on incremental and architectural innovation. The implication of relying on these innovations is that the company has to incur a lot of expenses since a lot of research is required to boost innovation. 

Intellectual rights are fundamental to Microsoft. Some of the strategies that this company is employing to protect its proprietary position include creating trademarks and also avoiding joint ownerships. The danger of joint ownership is that it increases the chances of the ideas leaking out. A few of the latest innovations by Microsoft include the following.

1)Skype translator. This innovation assists internet users in breaking language barriers

2)Hand-free keyboard. This innovation has replaced the physical keyboard and users are now able to speak instead of typing

3)Urban Air. This innovation measures and predicts the quality of air.

In terms of strategy, Microsoft implements a market penetration strategy to achieve broad market adoption of its innovations. The market penetration approach is aimed at increasing the company's sales

The current market segment of Microsoft is characterized by high demand for electronic products and low upfront investment. These characteristics appear to be changing because more technology companies are trying to compete with Microsoft. Despite the stiff aggressive competition, Microsoft is prepared to meet these customer needs. The company organizes for innovation through brainstorming on ideas.

Microsoft uses an open innovation approach that appears to be working well presently. Despite this excellent performance, however, this open innovation needs some changes. Some of the changes that this innovation needs include 

Step-by-step explanation

Incremental innovation refers to innovation that aims to improve the existing products. Architectural innovation on the other hand modifies the existing products. the modifications can be minor or even major.