Submitted by In an e-mail to top executives, Gates urged company leaders to “act quickly and decisively” to move further into the field of offering such services, in order to best formidable competitors. But he also warned that the company must be thoughtful in building the right technology to serve the right audience. “This coming ‘services wave’ will be very disruptive,” Gates wrote. “We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us – still, the opportunity to lead is very clear.”
Yes, “lead” by following Google.
From: Bill Gates
To: Dave Winer
cc: Ray Ozzie
Dave,
Could you be a prince and leak these memos for us? We have a real perception problem in the industry, and folks don’t think we will have answers to their immediate problems until Windows Vista ships in late 2006 or 2007.
We don’t have the time to do a full-on world-wide PR media blitz with slide-ware like the little Kool-Aid Live presentation that we did in San Francisco, before Apple and Google start eating our lunch.
By leaking these memos we can show that we are thinking about the future, and we can count on the blogesphere to spread the word like wildfire.
Our new .Advertising model is going to be huge because it is money based rather than customer focused.
We have mentioned every possible buzzword and acronym in these memos, so they are bound to appeal to everyone is some way.
Thanks for your help,
Bill and Ray
p.s. We love the whole RSS thing, but we are going to have to change that orange logo to make it look like Microsoft invented it.
Last week, Microsoft announced plans for Windows Live and Office Live, two Web-based offerings that aim to help the company compete with Google.
This is uncomfortably close to what Mr. Steve Balmer and other have been saying for several years.
“Software is a service.”
This sounds like Microsoft testing the waters to guage the public resonse.
I see this as Microsoft’s way to try to end piracy of their OS and Office Suite products. If everything becomes web-based, they’ll charge, per seat. The apps will actually reside on their servers and be accessed via your system; which would be turned into little more than a dumb-terminal by this venture.
Sounds only like a new way to improve the revenue stream for MS. Nothing good for the end-user, except open-ended costs.
My 2 cents.
“Sounds only like a new way to improve the revenue stream for MS. Nothing good for the end-user, except open-ended costs. ”
You’re not much of a visionary, are you? Software as a service. SaaS has been gaining huge momentum the last few years (witness salesforce.com). It’s a beautiful model from both ends. For the seller, it means only one version to support (no legacy). Much easier to test and deploy (just deploy to your prod servers). From the customer end, no installs… just go to the web page and it works. Your docs are available wherever you go over the web. Your docs are backed up for you automatically. All your stuff is searchable online. The only issue is the web experience is usually not as good as the desktop experience. This is solvable, but takes some new technology (AJAX probably doesn’t cut it, maybe flash or something flash like).
I’m sure geeks here will whine about MSFT having their docs, privacy issues, etc. But as long as they make it reliable, 99% of customers will love it.
The risk for MSFT is that there is no inherent advantage to using Windows if everything is a service available over the web (unless they do something proprietary like XAML I guess).
From the customer end, no installs… just go to the web page and it works. Your docs are available wherever you go over the web. Your docs are backed up for you automatically. All your stuff is searchable online.
Wow! And all I have to do is trust MS with ALL my MOST SENSITIVE information! I mean, it’s not like they’ve ever done anything shady now, right? They’d NEVER do anything that would prompt a lawsuit. Sooo – where do I sign up?
“You’re not much of a visionary, are you?”
In terms of ‘vision,’ it doesn’t take a Gypsy with a crystal ball to see that the Microsoft Corporation doesn’t take the users and customers seriously. They never will, in my opinion, take the necessary steps to properly safeguard and protect the rights and information of the consumer and end-users.
If another company, other that Microsoft, was attempting this I’d probably be more trusting. However, over the years, Microsoft has proven to me and many others, that they are not the ‘friend’ of the consumer that they claim to be.
So if feeling this way translates to someone’s personal definition of, ‘not being much of a visionary,’ then I’ll be happy to take that as a compliment.
Thank you.
Edited 2005-11-10 01:29
How times change. A few years ago, comment like this from Bill Gates and Microsoft would have produced earnest debate, even newspaper articles. Now, if you look around the web, it just produces laughter and ribaldry. Anyway, for all his nautical metaphors, it’s hard to see Bill Gates as an old seadog, even with a parrot called Ossie on his shoulder.
In terms of ‘vision,’ it doesn’t take a Gypsy with a crystal ball to see that the Microsoft Corporation doesn’t take the users and customers seriously.
Ah yes, but Microsoft play the Gypsy role extremely well. It is, after all, only sometime after you’ve left the booth that you realize the Gypsy has cleverly emptied your wallet while distracting you with talk about tall dark strangers.
“Ah yes, but Microsoft play the Gypsy role extremely well. It is, after all, only sometime after you’ve left the booth that you realize the Gypsy has cleverly emptied your wallet while distracting you with talk about tall dark strangers.”
I’m sorry to say that you’re quite correct in your analogy.
I think MS can adjust to big changes but they have to do it fast. Google seems that they have the right people to beat MS. Right now, there is no competition for Apple, so retty much is Google vs MS.
Lets see that MS can do against the competition. I hope they don not play dirty!
– 2501
This comin’ services wave be very disruptive We be havin’ competitors who will seize on these approaches an’ challenge us still, th’ opportunity t’ lead be very clear
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AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR,,,,, MATTYYYYYY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I’m thinking more like SeaOrg.
“I’m thinking more like SeaOrg.”
Hahahahaha!
Now that’s funny. Unfortunately I dont think many got the joke. Google it people, it’s amazingly fitting
Is this the Web Services buzzword that has been blazing around the internet 5 years ago? What has changed? Absolutely nothing, Google is helping with Open Office dot org development. Microsoft gets all paranoid that “someone” is going to replace Microsoft Office, and a “leaked” memo causes news. I call this hogwash. We will still be using workstations 10 years from now. Hey man you can’t edit home movies in real time from Google. The last time I checked I couldn’t load Doom 3 levels from Google either.
Microsoft had a bad hit of acid after the DOJ trial but they are recovering. Vista will BLOW AWAY everything out there. And if they play their cards right the Singularity OS will be using some kind of “open source” license and given the historical “developer friendly” nature of Microsoft with their partners (all with fat pockets mind you) we all will be drinking Microsoft Kool-Aid for decades to come.
I have been drinking Microsoft Kool-Aid since the days of MS-DOS. And it’s damn good. You can refill my cup.
In one of the memos Microsoft repeat the Mantra that they are developer friendly and Apple are not.
I think both these companies have no qualms about launching a product that competes with and eliminates products developed by third parties.
Apple does bundle their best development tools for free with each copy of the operating system.
Apple also has a very solid environment in Cocoa.
Don’t forget that Microsoft and Google are fighting over AOL. Maybe that old chairman of Time Warner was just ahead of his time.