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In the second half of a two-part interview with CNET News.com, Microsoft's chairman talks about what's on his to-do list, including having a say in the next versions of Office and Windows and helping shape the company's strategy in search and online commerce.
"No shortage of important work," Gates said, speaking in Manhattan, where he took part in Monday's Vista launch festivities before heading back to Europe for more Vista events as well as a Government Leaders Forum in Scotland.
In part one of the interview, Gates gave his pitch for Windows Vista, the latest version of Microsoft's dominant operating system. In part two, Gates addresses some of the areas where Microsoft is trying to come from behind, including Xbox and Windows Live.
Q: One of the things Microsoft is introducing for the first time is if you want, you can go online and download either Office or Vista and buy it directly from Microsoft. Is that the future?
Gates: If you look at the beta period, where we had over 5 million users, those were online downloads, so obviously people are very willing to have that as a way to upgrade. It certainly beats standing in line. I don't know what the mix will look like over these next several years. We're going to give people the choice. Maybe next time it will be the main way they decide to upgrade.
News.com Poll
One of things Microsoft said on the earnings call last week is that you are not going to ship quite as many Xboxes, at least in the near term, as you had forecast. What's behind that?
Gates: The Xbox had a great Christmas, but we actually provided enough inventory to go even beyond that. People in the first half will be working off that somewhat. We're always quite conservative in terms of how we do forecasts. We feel our competitive position with Xbox 360 could not be better. We got out a year ahead of our competitor, got the volume up there so that software people see it as the platform they really want to build on. Even with the conservatism, I've never felt better about Xbox 360 and where it is.
I'm sure you guys assumed the Windows Live effort would be a challenge. It seems to have been a bigger challenge than you expected. Is it time to rethink the strategy there? Is it just a matter of time?
Gates: Windows Live is fairly new for us. Ray Ozzie came and took charge of that. With Vista shipping now, we'll get a higher percentage of R&D on that Live-type capability. Over the next year you're going to see some neat things coming out. No one has done the platform on the Internet the way we think it needs to be done. We've got a lot of breakthroughs that we're going to be rolling out.
You just got back from Davos, the big conference of business executives and political types. Were there some things you came away with?
Gates: That's a conference that hits on every topic imaginable, from global health to global warming to various political things. The biggest change agent in the world has been the Internet. Now it's a question of getting that out, not just in the rich countries, but for all of the different countries. How can we make that happen?
See more CNET content tagged:
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I see what's happening here, MS sees limiting the equipments functions based on license of the OEM. (only 2 times can a user brand their Vista License.)
So if more computers are more released with limitations put apon them, they will make it like the MAC culture: Once your done with it, upgrade by throwing away the old ones, and buy a new one with Vista, making another sale. I can see this. Many of my computers over the years have been mainly sold to the average computer user. The one who doesn't care about upgrading later, they will buy a new one if they want something new.
With Ubuntu this year, I plan on subverting that price gap in price with larger companies. Drawing computer enthuiests and Game heads to buy my systems, instead of buying limited equiptment which is promoted now by Dell. I have been able to compete with the XPS lines every time, but that doesn't make many sales at my store, I going to get with that affordable market by pushing Ubuntu systems and giving customers broader choices who can upgrade and save cost. The Generic Vendors will encourage this, because they rely on small business and computer hobbiest to keep them operational. They use the same chip sets from VIA, phoenix, ETC... They will fight back by promoting this, while still making Windows cert Hardware for a little while. Because unless they make main boards for Gateway, Dell, or HP.. they would likely be pushed out this year.
Vista is here bla-bla-bla/etc. But what interests me most - is it possible to set Vista to display week day along with time in tray clocks? Or all users would have to - again - resort to 2nd party solutions/patches we are all so used to in a decade Windows exists?
Why we customers need a thousands little applications for what M$ needs about 1 man/day to accomplish?
Does M$ intend to start actually listening to what its Windows/Office users actually need? Or it would be going on pushing "big politics" on shoulder of its multi-million user base? - while completely disregarding all the small issues which waste our time every day.
To me M$' politics in regards of Windows & Office products really reminds saying "death by thousand cuts."
Gates: Windows Live is fairly new for us. Ray Ozzie came and took charge of that. With Vista shipping now, we'll get a higher percentage of R& D on that Live-type capability. Over the next year you're going to see some neat things coming out. No one has done the platform on the Internet the way we think it needs to be done. We've got a lot of breakthroughs that we're going to be rolling out..."; sit down with the international analysts, banker et cetera, et cetera... from around the world who will advise on "Live-type capability"/(capabilities) they need and not what Microsoft thinks they need! This is also what is needed to be added to "Bill Gates' to-do list"!
True. The only people who would listen to what Gates has to say are: (1) M$ fanboys who try evangelize his and (2) jealous businessmen who want to earn same fortune Gate have earned.
None of them are target audience of Linux: system made by people for people - to get job done.
on when you do step away from full-time work?
Gates: It's too soon to really decide what those things will be. I'd
be surprised if some things related to search or tablet PCs aren't
in there. It's up to Steve to think, in that new role, how can I be
most effective."
Listen - doesn't it scare anyone that what is being said here is
that the future of computing (according to MS) is going to be
decided by Steve Ballmer. I would be very afraid.
Oh sure, that's possible. But in practice it's not going to happen. If you can get straight to the content you're interested in, the content provider won't be able to cram as much advertising down your throat as he wants to. That's why news programs now deliberately don't tell you when the segment you're interested in will be on.
"The ads can be very targeted to you, so they won't be as bothersome."
Suuuuuure they will. I'm an 80-year-old woman named Jerry Sproinger, and my interests include arthritis medicine and falsifying information on my user profile. I doubt I'll be seeing a lot of Ducati ads.
"The content that is not very popular, like your kids' sports game or some lecture, will just be right there in your guide. The use of the Internet means it doesn't matter how many people are watching it. We can bring it down to you."
Big deal. We have local programming now that nobody watches. Hand out copies of your camcorder cassettes to the six people who will watch it and save yourself the time and effort of capturing, editing and uploading it.
"We get rid of these limitations, the time limitations and the number of channel limitations that the old broadcast approach forced us all into."
Oh yeah, like there aren't enough channels to broadcast the wealth of quality programming now. The real problem is that as the audience base gets more and more diluted, the production funding is going to disappear. Then nobody will produce anything worth watching. Oh wait, that's already happened.
"Once upon a time a typeset document was a clear sign that a big company was behind it and had put some real money into it. Today, anyone with a copy of Office and a laser printer is making documents that look as good as a big company."
That's partially true (although it was the Macintosh that started the desktop publishing revolution). But you can't produce typeset-quality work with Word. You need Quark or FrameMaker. And even if you have the layout tools, you still need to be able to write and edit the content, develop the graphics, and lay the document out in an effective and appealing manner. Most people are still not capable of doing that well.
"There is still a gap there in terms of movie editing. But now with this high-definition movie editor that's in Windows Vista, that barrier has really been changed."
Oh yeah, that's going to make a difference. After all, producing video has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the writing, acting, lighting, camera work, makeup, etc. Give an amateur video producer access to the entire resources of Universal Pictures and he's still going to produce crap. Hell, even Universal pictures can't produce anything worth watching these days.
PS. Enjoy your copies of Vista
We all know that Microsoft is basically a software company. If I
wanted to KILL APPLE (and alt OS), all I had to do would be to start
being a software and hardware company, like Amiga. Then all the
Macs and PC's running Linux/alt OS in the world would fall on their
knees and bow to me. Hah hah hah hah (evil laughter).
Screw Business Partners- Done
Screw PC Vendors- Done
Screw Hardware Vendors- Done
Screw 3rd Party Software Vendors- Done
Lie about OpenSource Software (emphasis on Linux)- Done
Lie about Mac system- Done
Spend 5 years designing eye candy for XP and renaming it Vista- Done
Yup all Done. Time to retire.
DONT SIT UP THERE BY YOURSELF!
I AM COMING TO JOIN YOU
DR NOH
SF,CA94116
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- Number Two: Retire
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by Xenu7
February 5, 2007 8:30 AM PST
- When you are the richest man on the planet, why, oh why are you wasting your time with this stupid computer company? Think of the things you could be doing instead? Fly the space shuttle! Clean up the ocean! Take over a small country and create a model civilization for others to emulate! Devote your life to spiritual development and benefiting sentient beings! Etc. I guess money doesn't cure nerdism.
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