The Buzz: Winds of Change at Microsoft
The big news Wednesday involved two memos from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and chief technical officer Ray Ozzie. The missives detail what Gates calls "a sea change" and why Microsoft risks being left behind in the Web 2.0 movement. Read on to see what analysts and bloggers had to say about the news, and tell us what you think.
"This is a more disrupted Microsoft. And believe me (and many of them heard this from me) they needed to be disrupted. I hope Ray still has the chance to have one foot planted outside the company, as he roots the other inside, otherwise he isn't going to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. But I'm glad he's fighting for platform-building. It's true that Google is not doing what we need them to do, and while Yahoo is trying, he's right they do approach things as a media company (which is good!) but that doesn't mean we don't need tech companies here."
-- Dave Winer, Scripting News
"They are important memos. I’m still reeling from their significance. I don’t want to be the first one to break wind in public about them, but they are long memos. The longest I’ve received since becoming a Microsoft employee. They show clear understanding of how the world has changed. They answer a lot of the points I’ve been talking about here on my blog (and, in fact, have been influencing my thinking a lot). Yes, the guys at top are now yelling “turn, turn, turn.” Like I said: this disruption game is fun!"
-- Robert Scoble, Scobleizer
"I've said for a long, long time that Microsoft's competition with Google isn't about search. The Bill and Ray memos confirm that contention. The undercurrent of all these vendors' strategies is the same: Information and services delivered over the Web, and with no Windows required. Sure people will use Windows, because of the operating systems' widespread use. But vendors wouldn't have to, nor would the people accessing the content or services. Worse, for Microsoft, vendors like Intuit and Salesforce.com have exposed potential Web threats to Office, too."
-- Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Monitor
" Gates more than anyone understands the importance of being proactive and not reactive. He understands that while these new service offerings aren't a direct threat today, they well could be over time. The key is to leverage the strength of the core Windows and Office platforms and use that as base to extend into these new areas. Microsoft has proven that it can withstand a sea change as great as the original Internet tidal wave."
-- Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research
"Its like deja vu all over again! Will history repeat itself! The way I see them - tactical admission that Microsoft is not a technology leader, despite its delusions of grandeur....Anyway, after reading the memos, here is what I realize: its Bill and Ozzie going for what is clearly USWeb2.0. The regressive thinking that puts PC at the center of technology is in full display. No mention of the fact that most of the “computers” in the world are mobile phones, and rest of the planet doesn’t look at the world through a LCD screen."
-- Om Malik, GigaOm
"These are powerful documents containing big, bold, and unsettling statements. More than a few cages and empires-under-construction will be rattled by these memos."
-- Marc Orchant, The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog
"If you want to know where Microsoft is heading strategically, Ozzie's e-mail is as fascinating as it comes because it provides big-time insight into where Microsoft and the high-tech industry has been, where it is and, more importantly, where it's going."
-- Mark Evans