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COVER STORY                                                             June  2001 Issue

Information empowering people

PC in its fourth evolution stage, says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Microsoft's founding mission statement was to have a computer on every desk in every office and in every home. Twenty years down the road, that vision is still far from being realised. So the company has changed its mission statement.

"Microsoft's vision is to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the audience at a HKGCC 140th Anniversary Distinguished Speakers luncheon on May 11.

"The PC unlocked a whole new world of applications and services. The PC is empowerment. It is a tool to let you do what you want to do - empowerment through information. The key now is to remember what was good about the PC and to extend that to other devices."

Those of us who can remember doing our first spreadsheet, budget, pie chart or newsletter on the PC certainly felt empowered. But in less than a decade from now, far more advanced technologies are going to interact with us in our day-to-day lives to such an extent that we won't even give them a second thought.

"Five to ten years from now I might be watching a golf tournament on TV and I could yell at it: 'hey Bill! Did you see that putt Tiger just made?' And somewhere, wherever Bill was watching the golf match it would say: 'hey Bill! Did you see ...' That is empowerment."

In today's knowledge and information-based economy, the value of intellectual work has never been so highly valued. The biggest challenge that remains in the information age is unlocking that information.

Mr Ballmer scoffs at claims that the PC has reached the end of the road. Instead, it is embarking on its fourth evolution; what he calls the XML revolution.

Following the PC revolution, its move to a graphical interface, and then the Internet, the XML revolution will allow people, businesses and devices to better integrate.

Ten years down the road meetings will still be conducted in much the same way, except that people will most likely have wireless tablets instead of notepads which will allow them to download information between each other, and receive or send messages instantly.

In response to a question from the audience, Mr Ballmer said he feels the correction on the NASDAQ will most likely give the IT industries added vitality.

The dot-com and telecom bubble in the United States has evaporated a little, but exciting developments in technology will lead to an expanding IT market, he said.

"The market has now corrected itself and now money will be channelled into the right technologies," he said. "I can't tell you what will happen in NASDAQ but a good balance of capital and brain capital is now going into the right areas."

Mr Ballmer also rebuffed claims that Microsoft holds a monopolistic position in the software marketplace and as such influences innovation and development of the PC industry.

"If anyone thinks we have had the position we have had in some markets today all that time they are wrong. We know what it is like to have better market share. Even today in the database business, we have a great product. We are sitting strongly at 23 per cent market share, a distant number two to big Oracle out there.

"We know what it is like to fight from behind. We will launch our X-Boxes to come from behind to get a share of the playstation business. We are trying to come from behind in many businesses ... That keeps you on your toes, it keeps you nimble."