Supporting Documentation
There are various blog posts, e-mail missives, executive memos and white papers that provide more information on where Microsoft is going in the future. Some of these are available via other Web sites. But a few important and relevant documents are not. I am publishing some of those here.
I also am including a few links that could be useful to those attempting to decipher Microsoft’s future. Some of these documents are highlighted in Appendix A of Microsoft 2.0.
Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s Internet Services Disruption Memo (October 2005). If you want to understand Microsoft’s gameplan for the future, this is THE document to read. Since Ozzie penned it back in 2005, Microsoft has been following it to the letter. Ozzie foreshadowed Microsoft’s Software+Services strategy, its move to make more of its online services ad-funded, and even the company’s recently introduced Live Mesh collaboration/synchronization service and framework in this memo.
CEO Steve Ballmer’s Investment Priority List (February 2007 Financial Analyst Briefing). If you want to see where Microsoft is planning to make its investments over the next few years, this transcript is for you. Ballmer spells out how and why Microsoft is diversifying its businesses. Ballmer told Wall Street analysts that he is looking at these new products/strategies as being long-term (read, up to ten-year) investments. And, tellingly, online services/Yahoo isn’t No. 1 — Windows is.
The 2008 version of Ballmer’s Microsoft Growth Picks (February 2008 Strategic Update for Wall Street). Ballmer’s message to Wall Street regarding how/where the Redmond company plans to make its money in the near term didn’t waver much this year. Even though Microsoft had made its $44 billion acquisition bid for Yahoo just days before Ballmer gave this speech, online services, again, weren’t one of Ballmer’s top growth picks for Microsoft.
Platforms & Services Chief Kevin Johnson’s Internal Reorg Memo emphasizing Microsoft’s growing consumer focus (February 2008). In the past year-plus, Microsoft execs have made no bones about the fact that they are focusing more of their investment, marketing and sales resource on the consumer market. The company line: The most important technological advances are happening first in the consumer space and later in the enterprise market. I don’t buy that — nor do I buy Microsoft’s claim that consumer satisfaction translates directly into stronger business sales. But that’s the party line these days….
Chairman Bill Gates’ Think Week Paper: Edge Computing Network (December 2006). To better understand the scale of the datacenters and other services infrastructure Microsoft is building, check out this internal white paper.
Windows Engineering Chief Steven Sinofsky’s Translucency vs. Transparency Blog Post (July 2007). One of the main policies in the new, post-Gatesian Microsoft is “translucency” regarding how and when Microsoft plans to disclose information about its products and strategies to customers, partners and the press. This internal Microsoft blog post by Windows/Windows Live Engineering Chief Steven Sinofsky explains the new thinking in a nutshell.
Internal Microsoft Windows Live Wave 3 Planning Memo (August 2007) Part 1. Part 2. Amidst all the hooplah about Live Mesh (due in 2010? 2011? Who knows…) — not to mention the distractions around Microsoft’s bid to acquire Yahoo — the Windows Live team is toiling on. The Wave 3 release of the Windows Live services is in the making. And high on the planning agenda is Windows 7, Office 14 and Internet Explorer 8 integration.
