Ray Ozzie's Christmas Message: 2006 will be Year of Build for Microsoft
In the tech world's equivalent of the Queen's Message, Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie reflects on the year past and offers his thoughts on what lies ahead for Microsoft in 2006:
As he reviews the 'leaked' memo, Ozzie notes that 2006 will be a year of execution for Microsoft:
"The response to the ‘disruption’ memo has been frankly overwhelming, in a very positive way. Having worked with Kevin, Jim, Jeff and Robbie this month to finalize ownership of the key services scenarios, I now look forward to engaging these individuals and their teams who will lead this user-focused transformation to service-enhanced software. As a certain core group of people are well aware, we’re now in execution mode; it’s going to be a fascinating year indeed!"
(emphasis mine)
He also talks about a "concept development" group that will be created, with new concepts and "fun hacks" released via a website.
Ozzie notes the excitement building around Office 12, set for release next year:
"I look forward to the Office ‘12’ and Vista introductions! It’s going to be great to see peoples’ reactions to the user experience innovations in 12, and it’ll be really exciting for the teams that have poured so much of themselves into these efforts."
He then mentions Windows Mobile devices and talks more about "the ‘services transformation’ of enterprise systems", noting that 2006 will be a year of "Build" for Microsoft.
Personally I'm really looking forward to what Microsoft produces next year, because I have a special interest in 'software as a service' and all the Microsoft media devices that connect to the Internet - mobile, Media Center, Xbox 360, Live.com, Web-based Office products.
It'll also be interesting to see how (or if?) Google counters all these Internet-connected products that Microsoft will deliver in 2006. There's been talk for years about Google's fabled Web Office, but as yet nothing has materialized. However Google is beginning to move into the media market, with things like Google Video (now with official Google Video Blog) and a video upload program (ZDNet coverage here).
Now that Microsoft has Web Tech royalty in-house in the form of Ray Ozzie, I'm expecting big competition for Google next year in the Web software arena.