On Sunday, the NYT’s Randall Stross looked at my original By the Numbers post , and noted that I had completely missed on an incredibly important piece. As Stross said: "Unfortunately, by trying to argue that Microsoft is doing well in all areas, including those dominated by Apple and Google, Mr. Shaw fails to show Microsoft at its best. Lost from view is what arguably is Microsoft’s very best story — its transformation into a powerhouse supplier of the specialized software that...

It has been a busy week for Microsoft, but quiet here on the blog – that’s because it has also been Microsoft’s annual sales and marketing meeting, MGX, in Atlanta. Nevertheless there has been plenty of interesting news. The headline is Microsoft’s earnings announcement , beating estimates and setting revenue records. The media also responded positively to the news. Microsoft also followed up the unveiling of its innovative, controller-less game system for Xbox 360, by finalizing...

Cross posted from the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog . Yesterday in Atlanta I had the great pleasure of attending the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) Digital Arts Festival. This is one of my favorite events of the year where we get to see incredible entries from kids across America who have brought their creativity to life using technology. You can see examples of the amazing entries on the Digital Arts Festival gallery website BGCA provides programs and services in communities across...

The Worldwide Partner Conference is flying by. Partners have told me they are especially excited to participate in a Worldwide Partner Conference that’s more dynamic than ever. I’ve talked with dozens of partners attending the conference and I’ve been thrilled to hear how excited they are about Microsoft’s products, the great speakers, the networking opportunities, and the chance to share what they’ve learned with customers when they return home. Watching the connections...

This morning at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC, we had the privilege of welcoming former President Bill Clinton, who spoke about the need for sustainable systems and how IT can be a key catalyst in building a virtuous cycle of sustained social and economic development. He pointed out how the IT revolution has led the dramatic improvements in productivity, access to information, and prosperity for those at the top of the pyramid, but noted that for more than 5 billion...

Today I will speak to Microsoft’s global partner community for the first time in my new job as corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group (click here if you want to watch my keynote online). This is my 13th day in this role, and while each of those days have given me a new chance to see the capability and power of Microsoft’s partners, nowhere is that more clear than at the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington D.C. this week. I’m amazed by the energy here...

It’s already been a busy week for Microsoft and we aren’t even done with Monday yet. About the only people who didn’t catch that Steve Ballmer talked about Windows 7 Tablets coming in the future were the Martians. More about them (the Martians) later. You can see video of Steve's presentation at our Worldwide Partners Conference here and a transcript of the speech is available here . A full roster of all todays video and transcripts are also available. But the biggest news of the...

Bob Muglia outlined our vision for the cloud today, at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC. You can read our press release and watch the keynote here , but I wanted to give some additional context on our strategy to help businesses embrace cloud computing. We’re committed to providing a platform that lets customers take full advantage of cloud computing. For those who want a standardized service platform - we’ll run the cloud for them, whether in our data center or theirs...

It’s been a busy week full of fireworks, drama, recrimination and tears. And that’s just the media circus around LeBron James. Back in the real world we had just as much drama in a competitive but totally positive way at the Imagine Cup 2010 . Highlights include the winners , a message from the First Lady, Michelle Obama and more. It was also a short week in the US because of the July 4th holiday but some of the groups around Microsoft still had time to let off a few firecrackers. Take...

At the Imagine Cup in Warsaw today, Microsoft International President Jean-Philippe Courtois said that all 400 participants of this year’s 2010 World Final will be invited – along with their teams – to enroll in Microsoft’s BizSpark program. Courtois said that the BizSpark initiative was one way Microsoft could help the Imagine Cup participants achieve their goals of solving big problems through technology. “That’s why, tonight, we want to offer each and every...

It's a big weekend - and not just because most of us in Redmond have a long weekend for the 4 th of July holiday. In Warsaw, students from around the world are converging for this year's Imagine Cup , our annual technology competition. This year some 325,000 students took on the challenge of solving big global problems as outlined by the United Nations Millenium Development goals. Some student projects already are making progress in meeting those goals. Look for stories on the finals this Thursday...

Earlier today I spoke about “openness” at the USI Conference in Paris. The conference was organized around four themes: innovation, sustainability, openness and value. I was a little surprised when the conference organizers asked me to speak on the “open” topic. After all, there has been a lot of debate over the years about whether Microsoft is open enough, and whether we are supportive of open source and open standards. These debates have gotten heated at times, and have...

Computer gaming is perhaps the most powerful and influential communications media of our time. More money is spent and made in the video game industry than all other media combined. The recent E3 convention in Los Angeles supports this notion. The conference, where the world’s heavyweights in the game industry came together to demonstrate “what’s next,” showed that without a doubt, gaming and game hardware serve an integral part of the media and society. As Captain of the...

(Last in a series of Microsoft Blog posts about the cloud in vertical industries. Today: Healthcare.) Just about everyone I know in healthcare is asking the same question: “What can cloud computing do for me?” My answer: Plenty. Cloud computing promises enormous benefits for healthcare world. These could include improved patient care, better health for the overall populations providers serve, and new delivery models that will make healthcare more efficient and effective. And cloud computing...

I’ve found that most customers think about the services and support offerings available for a product only when they truly need it. Support is often “out of sight, out of mind” for many customers. But, as the leader of Microsoft’s customer service and support team, I know through my conversations with friends, family, and with many of our largest customers that once they do need help, they are glad that we are there. The launch of Office 2010 earlier this month reminded me...

[UPDATE: We made an error in the reported figure for Apple’s Net Income in our original post – the cited source had the correct number but we somehow got a wrong number into the body of my post. This post has been updated with the correct figure.] You probably saw the news this week that we’ve sold 150 million Windows 7 licenses in 8 months. That's more than 600,000 per day. And, perhaps fittingly for a product called Windows 7, it adds up to 7 copies every second of every day since...

(Third in a series of Microsoft blog posts about the cloud in vertical industries. Today: Retail) Retailers today are working to do more with less. And for retailers seeking to get big results with minimal resources, cloud computing is beginning to look like a miracle. In a recent Microsoft-commissioned survey of about 3,000 business decision-makers across the United States, nearly half of the respondents (48 percent) from the retail industry said that their companies have used cloud computing. One...

(Second in a series of Microsoft Blog posts about the cloud in specific industries. Today: Manufacturing.) These days, manufacturers have their heads in the cloud. Cloud computing promises to drastically improve the ability of companies and their customers to drive modern product design and development. Collaboration isn’t new to manufacturing — it has long been essential. But it’s no secret that collaborative processes have tended toward the awkward and time-consuming. That’s...

(First in a series of Microsoft Blog posts about the cloud in specific industries. Today: Financial Services.) Financial services firms have never been shy about using technology. They have long pushed the envelope for more speed and more sophisticated models for business operations. Now they’re getting ready to leap to the next generation of IT: cloud computing. We view the cloud as a fundamentally disruptive technology for financial services. While new algorithms and business models in financial...

In 2008, the financial markets changed fundamentally and completely. The causes will be debated and they of course predate the collapse. But there is no argument that the summer of 2008 is when the market certainties that had prevailed since 1945 evaporated. Patrick Brazel It was at this time that my business partner and I had been working on a plan to address what we saw as a huge gap in the financial market. We saw a need to empower individual investors with the online capabilities that were available...

Earlier this month members of my team attended Tech●Ed 2010 in New Orleans, an event where we share our training and expertise with IT professionals. It’s an event that’s not only energizing, it also reminds me of the importance of connecting with community leaders on a global scale. During the event, we had great opportunities to meet with Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). Those are exceptional members of the technical community who share their keen insights and real...

People don’t always realize the astonishing breadth of Microsoft’s technology footprint. Certainly, this past week demonstrated that big shoe. Over Sunday and Monday, for instance, we unveiled what we believe is the future of electronic gaming – Kinect , our controller-free gaming device, and a new Xbox 360 . Plus a bunch of new games that take advantage of both the Kinect and Xbox 360 . Go here for great coverage of all that news from the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los...

With each release of Office, we’re closer to achieving what we set out to do more than 20 years ago: Helping users to work better, faster and smarter. In creating Office 2010 , we’ve invested time to listen to millions of customers, to enhance existing features, and to develop new ones. Now, everyone’s favorite Office applications fit their lifestyle -- on the PC, on the phone and on the Web. ComScore recently announced that they see Office installed on 1 billion PCs worldwide....

Ever since we first demonstrated Project Natal at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) a year ago, gamers have been waiting for a chance to use the controller-free Xbox add-on. Their wait is almost over. This week at the 2010 E3, we’ve announced a pile of news around Natal. First, of course, is the official name – Kinect for Xbox 360 . We have a slew of games on the way to take advantage of Kinect’s other-worldly ability to recognize users and make them part of a game’s...

Without even standing up from my desk right now, I can see four jerseys representing four different FIFA World Cup contenders – Mexico, England, the United States, and South Africa. (OK, the South African is actually a rugby jersey…). It underscores the international nature of Microsoft, and how much fun the next month of football (which we in the U.S. of course call “soccer”) mania is going to be. Football aside, next week is going to be a huge week for Microsoft. On Sunday...