Programming Windows: The Wow Stops Now (Premium)

There is an incredible moment in the September 2005 Microsoft reorg that bears scrutiny given the events that unfolded afterward. In the post-announcement Q & A session, many of the questions for the group on stage---Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, Kevin Johnson, Jim Allchin, Jeff Raikes, and Robbie Bach---regarded surging new competitors like Apple and Google, and what Microsoft was going to do to counter their success and all the bad PR that Microsoft was getting, mostly because of Vista’s never-ending delays.

After the last question, Steve Ballmer delivered a lengthy and impassioned defense of Microsoft and its abilities, as always, and though he had invited the others on stage to chime in, there seemed to be little point: Ballmer had said it all.

Except that he hadn’t.

Arching backward in his chair to enjoy a long, slow, cat-like stretch, Bill Gated delivered a chestnut for the ages that was constantly interrupted by laughter and applause.

“Just to add to that,” he said, stretching, “I always kind of get a kick out of the periods where people underestimate us. And I would definitely say that this is one of those periods. Partly because they haven’t seen the pipeline, and partly because other companies [Apple, Google] are in what I call the ‘honeymoon period’ where their me-too products are considered more innovative. And that’s OK. We’re going to have lots of people who are viewed as being perfect [Steve Jobs?], and we just have to simply come up with something that is better. Maybe I’m jaded. The tough PR, that was 1999, 2000. [This is] nothing. I’ve got thick skin. It will be interesting to see what they write over these next 18 months as they see what comes out of the work we’re doing.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvvS5PS3jZg&t=7

In case it wasn’t patently obvious what Gates was referring to, Ballmer quickly summarized the mid-1990s, when Netscape and the Internet were going to “completely wipe out” Microsoft and Windows and usher in a new era in personal computing. “Two years later, we had a lawsuit because we were so successful on the Internet,” he bragged, completely missing the point of the U.S. antitrust case. “Stop and think about that. These next 12 months are going to be fantastic.”

The next 12 months would not be fantastic.

Not for Bach’s Entertainment & Devices Division, which would lose over $1 billion fixing the Xbox 360’s “red ring of death” and launch the doomed Zune music player, never once gaining even an inch on the Apple iPod. And not for Microsoft’s Platform Products & Services Division, which would finally release the disastrous Windows Vista in late 2006 (for businesses) and early 2007 (for consumers).

Yes, there were two launch events, both quite subdued. The business launch, called “A New Day for Business,” was held at NASDAQ in New York City on November 30, 2006, and included the awkwardly-named 2007 Microso...