Microsoft on a Post-Bill Gates Era (MSFT)

Craig Mundie of Microsoft (MSFT-NASDAQ) gave an interview discussing the software and products giant’s future on a post-Gates basis this week at the Windows Hardware and Engineering Conference in Los Angeles.  CNET news has a great article on their interview, and it is definitely worth a full read.

Essentially the company is trying to figure the best way of getting some form of PC’s to the next billion users, and goes into issues such as tablet PC’s and web devices.  There is some obvious frustration on the part of company in how long things take to come from the fruition of an idea and the full fledged roll-out; in some cases 14 years or so.  It also discusses the swings from the server to the client.  Interestingly enough, they are admitting that many people’s phones will essentially be their first computers and that many will be using shared access to the web.  Would you believe an admission that software is having a hard time keeping up with computing power in more and more processor cores?  It’s also no surprise that that Mundie (and Ray Ozzie) expect Bill Gates to be somewhat available to the company, but it will be harder and harder for him to deal with the day-to-day issues.

These are some good questions and some good answers, but the truth is that the goals and directions of this post-Gates Microsoft will be an enormous task.  Actually, it will be an enorous set of tasks.  The company will undoubetdly continue printing money, but this is such a large series of moving parts that there are so many battles to be fought that the actual goal of the war will be hard to see.  The company is first and foremost an operating system designer, it is next a web services and ancillary software beast, and then a physical hard technology designer, a video game systems and games designer, and even a quiet techology and internet mutual fund with several billions of dollars worth of stock in public and private technology and communications companies. 

Whatever happens in the onslaught of the post-Gates Microsoft, this one is going to be one of the more interesting stories to follow.

Jon C. Ogg
May 17, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.