Microsoft: A finger in every pie?

Last week, Steve Ballmer gave Microsoft's future 'road map' an airing. The company's plans include new initiatives, which it hopes will enable it to acquire additional customers.

Ballmer wants Microsoft to be at the forefront of what he calls "the XML Revolution". Microsoft believes that XML is the lingua franca of the internet and Ballmer said: "The basic nature of the way users use and developers build for the internet will change because of XML over the next few years."

The company is using XML to develop its .Net internet services platform, which will make the whole online experience more intuitive and easy for both business users and consumers. The company, he said, will announce later this month some software developer partners who would be writing applications to the .Net platform.

But Ballmer stressed the company will remain committed to the PC. He said: "In our Windows products we will continue to provide new and innovative capabilities and increase the reliability of the platform to make sure that the PC continues to be the most significant device in the information technology revolution."

This move comes despite the fact that PC users have curtailed their spending on machines and the company itself spends more and more of its $4.4bn R&D budget on prototyping new devices, such as smart phones, the XBox games console and a tablet PC.

But Ballmer argued that Microsoft is much more than a PC company. He said: "The PC today is the primary device for using and accessing the internet. We will invest to ensure that continues to be the case." However, he added: "People will want different devices at different times but they will want a common set of services across those devices."

Ballmer predicted that 2001 and will be a "a great year" for the knowledge worker. "With the introduction of Windows XP later this year and Office XP, we think we are pushing forward in the two most traditional parts of our business, in a very large step."

The company will also be increasing its commitment to make customers out of small and medium sized businesses. Ballmer aims to achieve this via the investment in the soon-to-be acquired Great Plains Software and the development of bCentral software and internet services.

Ballmer said that unlike IBM Microsoft will be successful in the SME market. "IBM had no technology. When they went after the small business market what product were they selling? I think you've got to have a product or a service or something." He said Great Plains and bCentral will be closely integrated after the acquisition closes.

But as well as moving down to cover the SMB, Microsoft intends to stretch upwards into the big enterprise. "I think we will demonstrate once and for all, clearly to the world this year that we have the abilities to scale up and handle the biggest problems of any enterprise", said Ballmer.

However, he brushed aside the suggestion that with these new initiatives Microsoft is heading to becoming more like the monopoly that the US Department of Justice has long said it is. At present, the company is appealing a US District Court decision that found that it illegally abused its Windows monopoly.

"The issue is not 'being a monopoly or not being a monopoly'. That's some sort of sideshow. The real question is can this company, Microsoft, add value? Can we improve somehow the way consumers, businesses and enterprises use computing? That's the only important question."

Ballmer argued there was a value to integration and it was not a bad thing as the DoJ argued in court over Microsoft's tying together the Windows OS and its Internet Explorer browser. He concluded: "The most important thing is to do great products that work well together in ways that benefit users. That's not problematic; that's a good thing."