Gates Warns of 'Sea Change' in Memo - Yahoo! News:
"Gates Warns of 'Sea Change' in Memo By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer \ Wed Nov 9, 8:53 AM ET
SEATTLE - The technology industry shift's to Internet-based software and services represents a massive and disruptive 'sea change,' Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates wrote to top-level executives in a memo aimed at rallying his troops against the new competitive threats the company faces.
In an e-mail to top executives, dated Oct. 30 and obtained late Tuesday by The Associated Press, Gates urged company leaders to 'act quickly and decisively' to move further into the field of offering such services, in order to best formidable competitors. But he also warned that the company must be thoughtful in building the right technology to serve the right audience.
'This coming 'services wave' will be very disruptive,' Gates wrote. 'We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us � still, the opportunity to lead is very clear.
Gates compares the push toward such services — which range from online business software offerings to free Web-based e-mail — to the changes he saw nearly a decade ago. Then, he wrote a now-famous memo, called "The Internet Tidal Wave," the prompted a massive shift at Microsoft toward Internet-based technology.
[...] Microsoft Corp. has recently faced criticism that its model, which still relies mostly on delivering software in traditional packaging, could grow antiquated. The concern is that, as more companies offer online services for everything from word processing to storing photos, there will be less of a need for Microsoft's lucrative Windows operating system and Office business software.
Microsoft's nascent Windows Live and Office Live efforts aim to complement its valuable software franchises with online products that build on what people find on their desktop computers.'"
