14 DAY TRIAL // Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s outgoing CEO, has talked about the company’s migration towards devices and services in a new interview, issuing a statement that would clearly surprise many people.
“Nobody ever buys Windows. They buy Windows PCs,” Ballmer told ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley in an interview, explaining that Microsoft clearly needs to go all-in on devices and services.
Steve Ballmer is one of the main supporters of Microsoft’s fundamental shift to hardware, as he started a major transformation plan earlier this year to give the company a chance to expand its product lineup in some yet unexplored segments.
Even though Microsoft is already doing hardware too, including Surface and Xbox consoles, Ballmer wants Microsoft to become a leader in this side of the industry, especially because it uses the popular Windows operating system as the foundation of all the other products.
“One of the things tech companies really do terribly is build new capability,” Ballmer said. “Unfortunately, when the industry changes, if you haven't built any new capability, you can become less relevant because the thing you were good at becomes less relevant and you didn't built capability in a new area.”
Ballmer has also talked about competition with Apple, explaining that Microsoft had no other choice than to release its very own tablet, and thus become a competitor with its very own partners.
“I was concerned that we had areas of vulnerability in competing with Apple and without any (first-party) capability, that we were not transacting that well just through our OEM partners,” he explained. “High end was an issue. There were just a lot of reasons to think Apple was going to be a tough competitor to deal with, just with our OEM model. It was a higher-end brand.”
Steve Ballmer, who is only the second CEO in Microsoft’s history, will leave the company when a new successor is found, with sources familiar with the matter hinting that cloud boss Satya Nadella could be the one to take over the seat.