| 
Bill Gates retirement
Does
it really change anything for Microsoft?
 Bill
Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. Their first product was a BASIC
interpreter for Altair 8800. By that time, Gates had the goal of putting a computer
in every desk and every home. Indeed, as pointed in the blog Ars Technica, "In
the West, at least, we have a computer on every desktop (and in every home, and
I suspect before too long in every bedroom), and that wouldn't have happened without
Bill Gates and Microsoft."
By GABRIELA ZAGO
from Pelotas, BRAZIL
As announced for the first time in 2006, Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder
and owner, retired from his full time activity at the company on June 27. His
early retirement (Gates is only 52 year old) is due to the fact that he wants
do dedicate his efforts for charity. He intends to use most of his free time at
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It's a noble reason, but one that ended up leading to a mix of reactions all over
the Internet: from a series of speculations and jokes to timid tributes to his
role and personality.
Gates announced two years in advance that he would
be retiring from his full-time job at Microsoft by 2008 - that led media to have
at least two years to prepare something to say when the day finally arrived. And
that's why some say that there was too much media coverage on his retirement -
Robert Cringely, from the PBS
blog I, Cringely, for instance, puts out two questions: "How relevant
is Microsoft today?" and "Does the departure of Bill Gates really matter?"
As
he points out, Gates, as well as Microsoft, had an important role in the development
of personal computer as a whole. But now it might be time to let him go. It has
arrived a time in which the person of Bill Gates might not be longer necessary
for Microsoft to grow. "To survive in the long term the way that General
Electric has survived, Microsoft will have to keep reinventing itself, which necessarily
requires a change of leadership and yet another reason for Gates to go",
the author suggests.
 According
to his text, the two most crucial decisions from Microsoft were investing in web
browser (which ended up killing Netscape, but today sees in Firefox a menace from
its monopoly) and Office (Microsoft Office is today still the dominant office
application, and not only in the Windows platform). Microsft had other hits (as
well as misses) throughout its long journey. Engadget has a list of the
top 10 good and worst products from Microsoft.
Bill Gates and Paul
Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. Their first product was a BASIC interpreter for
Altair 8800. By that time, Gates had the goal of putting a computer in every desk
and every home. Indeed, as pointed in the blog
Ars Technica, "In the West, at least, we have a computer on every
desktop (and in every home, and I suspect before too long in every bedroom), and
that wouldn't have happened without Bill Gates and Microsoft."
His
idea was that computers were not only for scientists and nerds. Computer were
made for everyone. Windows came in 1985. Office is out there since 1989. Explorer
was launched in 1996. In October 1992, Gates was declared the richest man in America
by Forbes. Three years later, he was declared the richest man in the world - a
position he held until 2008.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was
launched in 2000 by the Gates family. It is a charitable organization that aims
to "reduce inequalities in the United States and around the world".
Today, it is considered the world's richest philanthropic organization.
Gates'
departure was not abrupt. Since 2000, when he was replaced by Steve Ballmer as
chief executive of the company, his role at Microsoft had been increasingly reducing.
For the last eight years, Steve Ballmer is in the CEO position. Even after the
replacement, Gates continued to have an advisory role. But he was little by little
reducing his involvement with the company, until the announcement of the retirement
was made in June 15, 2006, and then he finally left in June  27,
2008. However, he's not leaving Microsoft entirely - he will continue to participate
on meetings, and advice Steve Ballmer whenever needed.
Two
of the reasons of the not so good situation Microsoft is facing right now are
the failed acquisition of Yahoo! and the Windows Vista launch delay. In February
2008, Microsoft made a bid of 44,6 billion dollars for Yahoo!, but the search
engine company declined the offer. They even tried again, but the new attempt
was unsuccessful. The idea of Microsoft in buying Yahoo! was to have a way to
compete with the web giant Google.
As the blog Ars Technica points out,
"The whole Google problem is not something that Microsoft has any answer
to, and the misguided Yahoo! bid seemed to be an act more of desperation than
part of a coherent strategy. There has also seemed to be a lack of focus; Windows
Vista has failed to set the market alight, having failed to deliver all that was
promised and lacking attention to detail in many areas. The same lack of focus
and lack of strategy is endemic; the Windows Live branding is completely lacking
in vision".
Even though the company may be facing some problems lately,
it's undeniable how much Microsoft has influenced the way people use computers
nowadays, and it will continue to influence still for a long time.
TechCrunch
puts out another question: "Who will carry on his legacy and define the current
Web era of computing?" They suggest that the platform of choice today is
the Web. More and more applications and operation systems are moving to a web
related device - think Google Docs, Facebook or Open Social.
With that
in mind, they suggest 9 entrepreneurs to watch (maybe one of them can become the
next "Bill Gates" in the Web 2.0 era) - Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google),
Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Max
Levchin (Slide), Kevin Rose (Digg), Evan Williams (Twitter), Stewart Butterfield
and Caterina Fake (Flickr), and Bret Taylor and Paul Buchheit (FriendFeed). Let's
see what happens.
Related links:
Timeline:
Bill Gates and Microsoft
The
Bill Gates Engadgethology
How
to Be the Next Bill Gates
Techmeme
search results for "Bill Gates retirement"
(Published: 10.07.2008.)
| |
