As promised, here is the follow-up to our previous coverage on the All Things Digital conference which took place last month in California and has featured such high profile tech industry voices as man-of-the-moment Steve Jobs, and also, later on, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer opened the last day of the conference, accompanied by his chief software architect, Ray Ozzie. For those who weren't able to attend, there is now some very interesting video highlights available online over at Guardian technology. What's most interesting for me here is the difficulty Ballmer has in keeping the discussion focused on Microsoft, and not simply discussing the innovations of successful rivals like Google and Apple.
There's some interesting points from both Ozzie and Ballmer - as well as the odd, slightly confusing, ramble, but all in all, it's hard not to be left feeling that Microsoft is a company that is currently struggling to convince on its prospects for innovation and creativity. While there can be no doubt about Ballmer's experience and insight into market trends, question marks remain over his charisma in situations such as this one - though indeed it's always easier to appear charismatic and camera-friendly when you have some sure-fire hit products to discuss (i.e. Steve Jobs).
Anyway, while certain products such as Microsoft's xBox console have been enjoying massive success, it's hard not to get the impression watching Ballmer, that Microsoft could really do with some fresh, original ideas - and the positive press that comes with it sooner rather than later. After all, for a company of such size and impressive massive market share almost in every field they're involved in, it's hard to say that they have the number of market leading and original products that one might expect. While it would be foolish to imagine that Microsoft has any sort of short-term difficulties as a result of this, it does not bode well in the long game...
Dejan Levi
