"We empower people and businesses to realize their potential"

Craig Bailey
20 de febrero de 2013

    "We empower people and businesses to realize their potential"
    The most interesting part of this interview with Steve Ballmer is his answers to the following two questions from Jason Pontin:
    “ I understand Google’s vision for the future of computing....

"We empower people and businesses to realize their potential"

The most interesting part of this interview with Steve Ballmer is his answers to the following two questions from Jason Pontin:

    I understand Google’s vision for the future of computing. I know what Apple stands for. I used to understand what Microsoft stood for. I no longer know. What’s your vision for the company?

    This question quintessentially is a question of altitude. So, in this context tell me what Google and Apple stand for, and I’ll give you the equivalent.

    Google stands for indexing the world’s information in a useful fashion. That’s their claim to planetary utility. Steve Jobs said Apple made insanely great devices for consumers. That altitude.

    At that level of altitude, I’ll give you the slogan, and then I’ll sort of put just a little meat on it. We empower people and businesses to realize their potential. And to expand, I would simply say we’re about defining the future of productivity, entertainment, and communication. In the new world, software is going to have to come in kind of an integrated form—or at least a well-designed form that includes cloud services and devices.

Ballmer says “we’re about defining the future of productivity, entertainment, and communication”. I think that’s a good goal, but I don’t think Microsoft are really understanding the needs of the user. Windows 8 for example, has been a productivity killer for me and many others.