Microsoft checks out the iPod way

If someone is trying to understand where Microsoft is headed with its services push, they might want to start by checking out the iPod.

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s newly appointed services guru, pointed to Apple’s iconic music player as a “perfect example” of a product that marries hardware, software and services. He also points to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, which brings together an e-mail device, server-based software and wireless data service.

In both cases, people don’t think about the individual pieces of the package, he said. They just think about the tasks they want to do, such as listening to their music or getting e-mail on the go.

“You just want to think about what you want to accomplish,” Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief technical officer, said on Tuesday during a noontime session at the VortexSF 2005 tech conference in San Francisco.

The comments were the first detailed indications of where Ozzie and Microsoft are headed following a company reorganisation last month. The reshuffle was seen by some as an attempt to better compete against services-based rivals such as Google.

Full article: ZDNet Australia