Gates, Ballmer optimistic about tech recovery
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer are optimistic about the power of tech to recover from the current recession and bring business along with it, according to speeches they made at Microsoft's 13th annual CEO Summit earlier this week.
Although the event was private, Microsoft released four clips of the keynote speeches made Tuesday by Gates and Ballmer, which strike a positive tone about the future.
Bill Gates
(Credit: Microsoft)In his keynote speech at the summit, Gates said that overall he was very optimistic about the economy with the opportunities for innovation stronger today than ever. "The drug companies will get back in high productivity mode," he said. "The software, IT revolution--we're just at the start of that. What we can do for education, communication, and what that looks like for the efficiencies of world markets, we are just at the beginning of that."
In his speech, CEO Ballmer also hit an upbeat note, saying "As we think about the future of information, and how it embraces the PC, the phone, the TV...I have nothing but optimism about where things are going."
Steve Ballmer
(Credit: Microsoft)Ballmer expressed faith in the power of the Internet to drive business, saying, "Some people probably think the Internet revolution is in the second half of the game. But I tell you, we are coming into halftime. The degree of change that'll continue to come as essentially businesses and IT departments embrace the Internet, it's unbelievable."
Ballmer also believes a continued focus on research spending is vital, adding, "The innovation's going to proceed as rapidly. And people say, no, it can't be. Capital's going to be taken away. I don't know anyone in our industry who's cutting their R&D budget."
The 2009 CEO Summit was attended by more than 100 top business leaders, including News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett. This year's summit offered discussion topics related to the stormy economy, including "Managing Through the Recession" and "Speed, Scale and Smarts: Strategies for Multinationals in Turbulent Times."
Like most tech firms, Microsoft has been buffeted by the global recession. Last month, it reported a drop in sales and earnings for its fiscal third quarter. To cut costs, the company has already laid off employees as part of its move to trim 5,000 jobs worldwide. Microsoft is hoping for a brighter future with an arsenal of new products hitting the market over the next year, including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Office 2010, and Microsoft Exchange 2010.
Lance Whitney wears a few different technology hats--journalist, Web developer, and software trainer. He's a contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine and writes for other computer publications and Web sites. You can follow Lance on Twitter at @lancewhit. Lance is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and he is not an employee of CNET. 
Bill Gates is the Einstein of my generation. History will look back at this man as one of the greatest minds of all time. He is also the Nostradamus of the IT universe except Bill does not just fortell the future of IT, he invisions it and makes it come true. This is truely the best time to be alive!
Despite his reputation as being the quintessential computer nerd, Bill Gates was never a great computer scientist. In our generation, he is probably one of the most ruthless businessmen to walk the planet.
I will point out that Microsoft still hasn't figured out the Internet after all these years and they trail both Google and Yahoo! in practically all sectors of online technology.
While I share their optimism about tech's recovery, I do not have much optimism about Microsoft's return as a high-performing stock. (Note: I am a shareholder of MSFT, ORCL, IBM, YHOO, GOOG, AAPL amongst others.)
LOL. You really have drunk the Kool-Aid.
Gates didn't have much vision. Windows? Designed to imitate the Mac, which imitated Xerox. MS-DOS? A rip-off of CP/M. The Internet? a later-comer, only able to get IE marketshare because of bundling IE with Windows. And then stopping development on IE and only restarting it when Firefox started to eat them for lunch...
MS modus operandi has always been to see where the market is going and then use their near monopoly power to take over.
They obviously didn't have the vision to see the importance of the search/ad market, and are now desperately trying to catch up to Google... But this time, it may be too late for them...
cvaldes1831 is coming from the other direction. Bill gates is a great business man. I don't know about "ruthless" but he is cunning. He might not be a great scientist as to, say, develop the algorithm for the google search... but he understands software and it's power better than anybody else in the industry in his generation and maybe even in this generation.
Yeah Oracle is thriving... good for them... but they are still not within par of Microsoft's revenue.
As most analysts believe, Microsoft's stock is grossly undervalued. I believe it will come around... but definitely to the same level as they were in the late 90s.
but definitely **NOT at** the same level as they were in the late 90s.
JoeF2 -- you have to give Microsoft some credit. They were once a small company too... Becoming as big as it is now is simply phenomenal... Can you imagine that being built by a person without vision? Also, note that they didn't the the Internet and VC's to build this "empire".
Well, ripping off CP/M and selling the ripoff to IBM may be ruthless business, but it sure isn't vision.
IBM wanted an OS, IBM had the vision.
It is known that Gates saw a demo of the Mac and only THEN wanted to have something like it. With the third version being usable (I tried Windows 1 and 2, and they sucked big time), Gates used his market power he had with MS-DOS to push it, even popping up a warning message if Windows detected the DR-DOS competition instead of MS-DOS as the underlying OS. Again, ruthless business, yes. Vision, no.
IE killing Netscape, the same thing, although Netscape helped a bit with their lack of QA.
And so what? They all know Chairman Mao as well...
This is not a popularity contest...
Lick lick.Slurp slurp, or are you being paid by Microsoft?
Wow surely you know very little about Bill Gates if not.
Bill Gates just ripped off everyone else's ideas.
His genius is that he bundled everything and was able to pretty much get away with it.
He is no visionary either.
Read the first version of the Road Ahead. It doesn't even mention the Internet, but the Information Super Highway. The second version of the book renamed the Information Superhighway to the Internet. He originally thought the Internet was just one lane on that highway, and he was hoping to make MSN the main lane. MSN back then was a BBS. Also most of his thoughts in that book were already the common knowledge of others. Even I knew about them back then. Again, he just bundled it all and called it his own. I guess you could also say that he was a genius at deceiving people like you.
Microsoft was late to the Internet, Search, Social Networking, and just about everything else that matters or is valuable. Their only 2 victories were Windows and Office. Even then, that was mainly the result of illegal deals with OEMs. They broke the law way back in the days of DOS and then ripped off Apple for the GUI, and from there the illegal activites are too big to mention here. They even gave crappy API access to other Office Suites while there one enjoyed the luxury of APIs that were faster. Look at history. It is full of lawsuits where Microsoft had to pay out billions for their illegal behaviour. It is all documented.
Sorry, but if the truth is preserved, Bill will be remembered as a ruthless business man at best. But not a visionary or a trustworthy person.
Fortunately for the IT world, Windows lost its place as the centre of the computing universe.
We now have the Web and the Internet. Thankfully no one owns it and innovation is allowed flourish there.
And history will mainly be written about the Internet when it comes to computing. Microsoft is not even close to being the dominant player in that space.
At best Microsoft will be remembered as another IBM. But their illegal behaviour will also follow them when they are remembered.
History will remember Google much more than Microsoft.
I don't think I mentioned anything about Apple. Thanks for nothing with your comment.
Get a life, people. They were talking about the entire industry, not Microsoft.
http://www.wealthalchemist.com/Blog/2009/02/microsoft-retail-stores-collision-apple/
Looks like they are setting up stores to compete head to head with Apple stores. Is the economy really That optimistic?
Everyone knows the history of Windows. Lets take Office, another cash cow that is getting less fat these days. Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors like WordPerfect or Lotus 1-2-3, while stealing features. So that was their advantage, having their own OS with hidden stuff that no one was able to take advantage of.
That is why the Web flourishes. No one owns it, and everyone competes on a fair playing field.
Little does Microsoft know, it is their full-time employees that do no wash their hands after taking the **** or leaving the pee in their restrooms.
Not to mention several other items of interest their FTE are responsible for leaving undone, thus causing things like Vistat and Office arriving on the store shelves totally buggy.
SHEESH!
Get A Grip, Microsoft. And That does Not mean on your ******.
S H I T
P E C K E R
V I S T A
If you buy Vista or 7, you waste your money. Total failure! Please pull Windows XP back now or millions people will protest against Microsoft!!!! Clean all Vista operating system off in store shelves and stock up Windows XP then people should keep buy XP for loving reasons. People not trust Windows Vista anymore due to unstable like Windows ME. Please stay on XP forever and save your headache. That is simple to save your life and happier without need buy new operating system again, again for shameful being waste your money and also hurt your feelings!
Windows XP is powerful and enough for now! No more new OS! Please stop buy Vista or 7! One problem on Windows 7: XP Mode not worked on most Intel and AMD processors. Their are pointless and make us mad! Why games not work on XP mode under Win7? Stupid and total failure!
Stay on real Windows XP and be happier! Toss Windows Vista OUT!!!! People shouting so loud and hate Windows Vista for biggest complaint! People should stick with Windows XP forever and blame on Microsoft company then Microsoft will stop making copies of Vista then replace Windows XP to stock up in all stores! How people will like to see XP stock up in many stores? Sound great for XP to be stock up and stay forever without stress and fuss about newer OS problems again, again!!!
Windows XP rules!!!!
I really strongly agree with MadGello's comment.
success and strength is in its one on one operations in its stores...
yes people can ask questions figure out how to do things tenth of the cost of the ibm world including the high paid/or high maintainice of the support staff....
- by krosafcheg May 26, 2009 9:06 AM PDT
- I'll believe Ballmer's and Gate's optimism if and when Microsoft assigns budgets to their projects. I had been working as a consultant for Microsoft Services when the budgets dried up. Consultant positions at MS were many some months ago, now they've all dried up.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(32 Comments)If MS is optimistic about the tech sector's rebound, then they have to put their money where their mouth is.