I like to periodically follow-up on Microsoft.  Its 18 months since the disruption memo‘ in Oct 2005, written by Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect.  This is a lengthy interview of Ray, by Wharton, is a good review of current state, and its not a good one (imho).

The first thing that struck me is about ‘focus’.  Focus is mentioned 18 times.  More importantly, Wharton did the “lets come back to focus” no less than four times, including this last (fourth) one, with little success.

Knowledge@Wharton: This gets us back to the issue of focus. If some threats require deep, sustained competition, doesn’t that become difficult if you’re looking at such a broad spectrum of competitors?

Ozzie: I’ll state something, but it’s kind of at a very high level. Size and momentum can be a disadvantage in some cases. And in some cases the breadth that is associated with size can be an advantage. It’s my job to make sure that we are tactically executing quickly enough to be highly relevant where we need to be, and to use the breadth where we can to continue to be successful.

Source: The Man Who Would Change Microsoft: Ray Ozzie’s Vision for Connected Software – Knowledge@Wharton

Ray hinted at a future that is not desktop, not browser, but rather a confluence of hardware, software, online, offline.  I think we get the concept, but sheesh …. we have zoho, Google, Adobe and a host of others deep in this space, working on beta’s and iterative development of those concepts. 

In fairness, Ray did indicate, he is not prepared to talk about Microsoft strategy, yet, hinting that their is something in the works. He also mentioned the importance of Windows, and Office to Microsoft financials, and perhaps that is clouding the creation of new strategy.  What was noticeable by its absence was mention of Windows Live.

I have to say, I am no wiser about Microsoft’s vision after this interview.