Microsoft's CEO Explains It's 'Post-Post PC' Vision. Sort Of.

Ok people, let's try being positive, shall we? 

The primary rule of self-help is that in order to solve a problem you have to first acknowledge that you have problem.

Microsoft's new CEO, Satya Nadella, has passed that test. That might seem elementary to all you geniuses out there but to MSFT's employees  andshareholders, this is kind of a big deal.

Finally, someone willing to admit that there is a post-post pc world. Microsoft kinda missed that first post because its then CEO was so busy denying its existence. But hey, if you miss the first wave, there's usually another one, assuming you have the cash to wait for it.

Which brings us to the second issue, where, admittedly we lose a bit of our optimism. To say nothing of focus. Because Nadella started nattering on about information driving innovation and how cool that was going to be. Like this hasnt already occurred to Google and Apple and Amazon and Facebook?

But as we remind ourselves, we're being positive and the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step and rain brings flowers and well, let's check back in with him a little later. JL

Douglas MacMillan reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Nadella made a case that a key force driving future innovation is all the data being generated as people use mobile devices, websites and computers
Satya Nadella said Microsoft’s future depends on its ability to build–not buy–at least one major new product for what he called the “post-post PC” era.
Microsoft’s new chief executive, speaking at the Code Conference, said he hopes the software giant can develop a new technology on par with the three largest businesses it has built internally: Windows for personal computers, Windows Server, and its Office suite of applications.
“It’s time for us to build the next big thing,” Nadella said. “If along the way we have to buy things that’s fine, but we have to build something big.”
He didn’t disclose precisely what that big thing might be. But he described a wide-ranging array of new programs and services in development at Microsoft during the hour-long interview, from new search technologies to a live translation service for Skype calls demonstrated onstage at the event.
As computing moves beyond desktop computers, he said, Microsoft will work on technology that encompasses more than mobile devices–the products that caused people like Steve Jobs to talk about a “post-PC  era.” New offerings will increasingly have to tie that hardware together better with online services and computers, too.
“We are at the beginning of a post-post PC era,” Nadella said. “It’s this multiple device world where you build software platforms and software applications that span devices.”
Nadella, only the third CEO in Microsoft’s history, confronts a reality where nearly all of company profits stem from software dependent on its historic dominance of PCs and the computer servers that power them. In newer computing areas, including smartphones and tablets, Nadella has to show Microsoft can be more than a bit player.
In nearly four months as CEO, Mr. Nadella has gotten high marks from Microsoft workers and many others in the technology industry for his willingness to break from some company orthodoxy. For example, in March Microsoft began offering a version of its Office software for Apple Inc.’s iPad, deviating from the company’s practice of making Office an exclusive for tablets powered by Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
During the conversation, in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Nadella was most specific when he was discussing things Microsoft would not do. For example, he said Microsoft has no plans to spin off the Xbox business. “I have no intent to do anything different on Xbox than we are doing today,” Nadella said.
He also said the company has no plans to sell its Bing search technology to partner Yahoo, despite having only about 18% of the market (or 30% when counting the Yahoo searches it powers).
Nadella said Microsoft is developing a smarter form of search that could predict what tasks users would like to perform, from watching movies to listening to music. It relies on recommendation technology similar to what Netflix and Pandora have developed for movies and music, but applied to a broader range of activities and interests.
“Instead of you having to find information, information finds you,” he said.
Nadella made a case that a key force driving future innovation is all the data being generated as people use mobile devices, websites and computers. Speech recognition, for example, gets better as more data is gathered about how people speak.
The technology based on Skype, the free voice and video calling service purchased by Microsoft, translated a live call between a company employee on stage speaking English and another Microsoft employee who spoke German.
Nadella said Microsoft’s technology can currently translate 40 languages. Live translation will be available free to Skype users by the end of this year.
Among other challenges facing Nadella is the integration of its purchase of Nokia’s smartphone business and managing products like Surface, a tablet device that the company updated last week.
He acknowledged friction with hardware companies that use its software, arguing that Microsoft has to push ahead with its own devices at times to push new technology and create new business models.
“We will always be this company that spans enterprise and consumer markets,” he said.