Satya Nadella’s Ballmer moment: We need your love
“We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows. That is our bold goal with Windows.”
So spoke Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella at the outset of his brief speech at the Windows 10 coming out party on Wednesday. And while the software looks sharp and includes a bunch of useful, new features, Nadella’s emotional pitch sounded a lot more like his wrong-way predecessor, Steve Ballmer, than the savvy newcomer who took over last year.
And it wasn’t just seeking the love – Nadella also sounded like he was reviving Ballmer’s strategy to focus on improving and protecting Windows as the top priority, even as the world has moved on to more mobile and Internet cloud-based platforms.
“Simply put, Windows is the best place, it’s the home for the very best Microsoft experiences,” he declared. “There’s nothing subtle about this strategy. It’s a practical approach, which is customer first. We want to give ourselves the best opportunity to serve our customers everywhere and give ourselves the best chance of helping customers find Windows as their home. That’s what we plan to do.”
Ballmer’s big mistake was focusing too much love and attention on Windows. Microsoft was years ahead of Apple (AAPL) in the smartphone and tablet computing markets, but with poorly conceived products that relied heavily on the same old Windows interface. Software and services, even the world-dominating Office suite, were made first and foremost for Windows. Ballmer was also known for his deep, perhaps even excessive, devotion to Windows and Microsoft, whether getting worked up on stage, shouting at developers, criticizing competitors or forbidding his kids from owning iPods.
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Nadella seemed to mark a sharp break from Ballmer’s Windows obsession. Last March, at his first-ever product unveiling, Nadella started off the demonstration not with a Windows laptop or Surface tablet but with an Apple iPad. Here, finally, years late, was Office for the iPad.
He wowed the crowd with his cool demeanor, nerd-chic style and new, less Windows-y approach. And investors were impressed with the vision and the energy, sending Microsoft’s shares up 24% last year despite a lack of real, game-changing results.
Too much focus on Windows?
Now investors will have to monitor Nadella’s next steps very carefully. The risk is that he could sacrifice the success of next-generation efforts like Azure, Xbox and Office 365 in an effort to bolster Windows. The better approach is to maintain the strongest possible appeal to users of other popular mobile operating systems. Microsoft must ensure that the experience of using the company’s apps and services on an iPhone, Samsung (005930.KS) Galaxy Tab or even a Google (GOOGL) Chromebook beats the apps and services from competitors. Making the experience “best” on Windows products likely will leave a huge opening for competing products that strive to be best overall.
To be sure, Windows and Windows-dependent products still bring in the vast majority of Microsoft’s profits. No CEO can afford to ignore that bottom line truth. But Nadella’s early focus seemed to strike a better balance among competing priorities.
Aside from the CEO’s presentation, the first detailed look at Windows 10 looked promising. The software moved away from the complicated and unpopular tile interface with a return to a more familiar desktop – even the Start menu returned. Microsoft also moved to integrate its popular Xbox franchise into Windows, with direct links and a new option to stream a game from a console to a Windows PC.
And it still sounds like Nadella has a solid vision for where computing is going. “In the full arc of time, when we talk about mobility, it is not about the mobility of any single device but it is the mobility of experiences across devices,” he said.
Apple and Google are already racing to give their customers a unified experience across different devices and it’s smart for Microsoft to follow suit. Whether Nadella can pull it off remains to be seen.
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