Steve Ballmer

Because if you think of yourself as just a platform company, you say we can't do that. If you can think of yourself as an app and platform company with apps that are extensible... then you can say, hey, we actually have a pretty cool user experience that can also leverage some things that we do and can leverage our software skills. And it's okay to embrace that competitor and extend.

But there's so many technologies that are hard to not just popularize, but even get good at unless you have a phone these days. Just take voice. If you want to really be good at voice, You got to get enough signal and you'll get the signal off the phone. You can't say talking to my PC is sufficient.

But there's so many technologies that are hard to not just popularize, but even get good at unless you have a phone these days. Just take voice. If you want to really be good at voice, You got to get enough signal and you'll get the signal off the phone. You can't say talking to my PC is sufficient.

And, and it's not the only, you know, if you want to get good at maps, if you, there's so many things where being on phones and there's some, some things even you can make happen by being on cars. I think Tesla gets good at certain things in software because it is a different form of mobile, so they get good at different things. But we missed. Should the company have kept after it? I don't know.

And, and it's not the only, you know, if you want to get good at maps, if you, there's so many things where being on phones and there's some, some things even you can make happen by being on cars. I think Tesla gets good at certain things in software because it is a different form of mobile, so they get good at different things. But we missed. Should the company have kept after it? I don't know.

That's not my – Satya and Amy and company, they know where they were. But to your original question, big companies deciding – Well, it's not always a mistake to build off what you got, but it can be. Try to get outside of yourself.

That's not my – Satya and Amy and company, they know where they were. But to your original question, big companies deciding – Well, it's not always a mistake to build off what you got, but it can be. Try to get outside of yourself.

That's what I did with Surface. I didn't wind up, it hasn't played out. And, you know, partly, you know, I didn't have that much, as much time with it. But, you know, there were no high-end PCs that would really compete with Mac. And I decided the only way we were going to get there, we couldn't sit there with our OEM model and have it work.

That's what I did with Surface. I didn't wind up, it hasn't played out. And, you know, partly, you know, I didn't have that much, as much time with it. But, you know, there were no high-end PCs that would really compete with Mac. And I decided the only way we were going to get there, we couldn't sit there with our OEM model and have it work.

If we're going to have high-end PCs that appealed to users, because I wanted us to be a consumer slash user company, not just an IT company. Because ThinkPad had, IBM by then, Lenovo had some higher-end computers. But you never saw them in schools. You never saw them in coffee shops. We needed a high-end PC. And the economics weren't going to let of marketing and romancing.

If we're going to have high-end PCs that appealed to users, because I wanted us to be a consumer slash user company, not just an IT company. Because ThinkPad had, IBM by then, Lenovo had some higher-end computers. But you never saw them in schools. You never saw them in coffee shops. We needed a high-end PC. And the economics weren't going to let of marketing and romancing.

That was not going to be an option for our OEMs. And I said, we got to go do Surface. Now, again, would we have tweaked things, done things a little bit better, or part of that iPad? Sure. But the model was not going to work.

That was not going to be an option for our OEMs. And I said, we got to go do Surface. Now, again, would we have tweaked things, done things a little bit better, or part of that iPad? Sure. But the model was not going to work.

Yeah. So we are in probably 2005, 2006. AWS has a little lift off. I think AWS comes to market what? Around then. Around then. And it's not like the cloud is some surprise to us. The Energizer, if you go all the way back to that Energizer thing from the mid-90s, it's all about the cloud. It's before it was called the cloud. It's before all the infrastructure that becomes the cloud.

Yeah. So we are in probably 2005, 2006. AWS has a little lift off. I think AWS comes to market what? Around then. Around then. And it's not like the cloud is some surprise to us. The Energizer, if you go all the way back to that Energizer thing from the mid-90s, it's all about the cloud. It's before it was called the cloud. It's before all the infrastructure that becomes the cloud.

So it's not like we say, oh, woke up one day, oh, there's AWS. We didn't wake up one day and say, oh, there's backends to applications too. We've been doing that with Windows Server and SQL Server. We've been in the cloud, blah, blah, blah. But at that point, I think we might have already had Exchange in the cloud as a standard product.

So it's not like we say, oh, woke up one day, oh, there's AWS. We didn't wake up one day and say, oh, there's backends to applications too. We've been doing that with Windows Server and SQL Server. We've been in the cloud, blah, blah, blah. But at that point, I think we might have already had Exchange in the cloud as a standard product.

What you have to remember is super important because I really want to give you my sense of what Microsoft's businesses are. But we didn't have a platform. And so I said, we've got to do one. Let's go get Cutler. Let's just go get Cutler. So I say, okay, we've got to get Cutler on it. And Cutler and I have a great relationship. To this day, we have a great relationship. We're personal friends.

What you have to remember is super important because I really want to give you my sense of what Microsoft's businesses are. But we didn't have a platform. And so I said, we've got to do one. Let's go get Cutler. Let's just go get Cutler. So I say, okay, we've got to get Cutler on it. And Cutler and I have a great relationship. To this day, we have a great relationship. We're personal friends.

But I mean, Cutler and I have been to basketball game together. We've played golf a number of times. We've done golf trips together. So But Cutler, he's a hard ass at work. I mean, if he doesn't want to do something, he'll tell you. If he thinks you are wrong, he'll tell you. If he thinks somebody else in your organization is bad, he'll tell you.