“A paradigm shifting without a clutch,” was how I once heard a technological development described. Basically, it uses just a bit of poetic license to describe a major development that is not accompanied by controls, and that sounds pretty similar to what tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) just rolled out. The news left shareholders cold as well, and shares slid over 2.5% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
Basically, the reports note, Microsoft is out to get users out from under the concept of passwords. That does not sound unwelcome; passwords can be unwieldy, and heaven help you if you forget one, because the process to recover it is as arcane and arduous a trial as any mythological hero could find. But Microsoft instead wants to go to passkeys. How this is different may not be clear, until looking closer at the concept.
Passkeys are linked directly to your hardware, and are thus secured by the same mechanisms that secure your device. Since the hardware cannot be in more than one place at a time, the end result is comparatively better protection; a hacker would have to steal the device itself to get access to the account. The problem, however, is the issue that raises with the hardware itself. When your laptop dies, as they inevitably do, how does one go about replacing all those accounts? Are used hardware sales now a lost cause, since they are tied directly to the account? These questions and more will likely plague users, and Microsoft itself, in days to come.
Up With People, Again
Those who remember Windows 8 and the People app may have mixed feelings about the rest of Microsoft’s news. It is bringing back the People app, which did not exactly make a big splash during its original release. But now, People is getting new life as part of Teams.
People was originally designed to put a handful of people—close friends or immediate coworkers—right into the taskbar, where they could get “shoulder taps” or little waves hello from emojis right in the taskbar. Very few people actually wanted this at the time, but Microsoft seems to think that, as part of Teams, it could be more useful. Only time will tell if that proves true.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 32 Buys and two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 9.75% loss in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $511.76 per share implies 34.52% upside potential.
