Gates introduces Microsoft bet on 'live software'

In opening the event today, Bill Gates said that every five years Microsoft looks at its strategy and makes big bets--1990 was Windows, the Web in 1995 and Web Services .Net in 2000. The next big bet, Gates said, is delivering a new type of software experience, called "live software."  It's about connecting users at the center, with relationships with people, data people care about, applications and all devices coming together to do things for you, Gates said. It's a way to think through the user experience, a fusion of software and services, with capabilities across the Internet, enabled by the broadband, wireless, low cost storage, a multitude of devices, the march of Moore's Law.  Sounds like a bit of Web 2.0 mixed with Microsoft's live naming theme--Live Meeting, XBox Live. Services = Software, in a broad way, from hosted services like email and CRM to MSN and mapping mash-ups.

Gates gave examples of how Microsoft has been on the live services path for years, but the examples were more incidental except for MSN. "Everything we have done on MSN fits the live software model,"  Gates said. Live software also extends to managed services for enterprises, with Microsoft running SharePoint or Exchange for customers. Small business software connecting to ADP payroll service, for example. More to come...