ORLANDO, Fla. -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage at
Gartner Inc.'s annual Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, the industry's
largest conference, to tell thousands of IT professionals that
Microsoft will prevail. Duh!
On the subject of search engines, for example, Ballmer
acknowledged that Microsoft was not the first and might not yet be
the best, but it will not be counted out. "We just keep coming, and
coming and coming and coming and coming and coming and coming; we
are irrepressible on this," Ballmer said. "The bone doesn't fall
out of our mouth easily."
 | | | | | The bone doesn't fall out of our
mouth easily.
Steve Ballmer
CEOMicrosoft |
| | | | | |
| |
|
Interviewed by Gartner analysts David Smith and Yvonne Genovese,
Ballmer answered mostly softball questions with the bravura, party
line optimism and penchant for loud and alliterative speechmaking
that passes for entertainment at IT conferences.
Is this the end of software as we know it?
Certainly not, Ballmer said. Software is in a transition "from
software as we have known it, to forms in which it will be better
than ever," he said. Software is not dead but at the dawn of an era
when it delivers the same "click-to-run" capability provided by Web
sites, he asserted. And of course, Microsoft is at the frontlines
with Live, a set of Internet software and services that includes
Live.com, a platform intended to battle Google, Yahoo and others in
the age of Web 2.0.
"At the end of the day -- and obviously I am very biased on this
topic -- I think a huge percentage of the value that gets delivered
through information technology comes from the software."
Nor is this the end of the mammoth software projects (think
Vista) that have caused many vendors, not just Microsoft, so many
problems. Instead, what the industry requires, Ballmer said,
employing a favorite metaphor , is fast-twitch, medium-twitch and
slow-twitch muscles.
"We need to have fast-twitch muscles that can ship things every
few months. We need to have medium-twitch muscles that can ship
things every year, and we need to have slow-twitch muscles that
might ship every two or three years. So, I don't think we are at
the end of large-scale, long cycle innovation, but the expectation
is that there will be enough output from these other muscles,"
Ballmer said.
As for how Microsoft can possibly compete with "free," as one
attendee asked, referring to open source, the indomitable Ballmer
hooted that the world's largest software company has been competing
with free, whether it is Linux or OpenOffice, for several
years.
"And the truth of the matter is, we're going to be competing
against open-something for a long time, and that's not going to go
away. And that means we're going to have to push and push and push
and push and push… AND WE HAVE TO PUSH SOME MORE!" Ballmer
screamed. Microsoft's customers ultimately care about value --
total benefit minus cost, he said.
As for the future of Microsoft, Ballmer said in schoolboy
French, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Microsoft will continue to adhere to basic core principles that
have been its legacy, investing in multiple separate core
businesses. Software is an innovative business, he said: "You
innovate or go away." He promised to be the champion of innovation
at Microsoft.
Ballmer also does not anticipate breaking the company up, but
sticking to its multi-core, large footprint approach. "Most of the
people that we compete with are disaggregated. But I think part of
the way we create value is by taking the unique approach in our
industry of being multi-core," Ballmer said.
Looking ahead
What are the top three areas of growth for Microsoft for the
next five years? On an absolute dollar business, he said, the
company's desktop and server enterprise business will generate the
most growth. On a percentage bias, the most growth will come from
the online and entertainment world.
When asked how Microsoft could expect to compete on the
entertainment front with Google, which just bought YouTube last
week, Ballmer shook that off, asserting that a large portion of
YouTube is copyrighted material, and people are happy to distribute
their content anywhere. Microsoft's tenacity will come in handy
here, too.
Ballmer got his usual laughs, but attendees collared after the
show said the ground he covered was pretty familiar terrain.
"He's always an entertaining speaker, but I didn't hear anything
new. It was the same old, same old," said Bill Sciannella, the
department head of a large IT and research department of the
federal government.
Sciannella did think it was significant that Microsoft is coming
off a good recruiting year, agreeing with Ballmer that talent will
determine whether Microsoft will keep a place at the cutting edge
of technology. He added that he doesn't particularly like Microsoft
as a company, but "at the end of the day, my department doesn't
have a lot of choice, and they get my money. Because? As Ballmer
says, 'look at the value it delivers.'"
Let us know what you think about the story; email:
Linda Tucci, Senior News
Writer