Ray Ozzie is a big stud, part 2

Many people have been asking questions or taking a look at the quick post I wrote on Ray Ozzie’s key note at MGX.  The core ideas that I think he left me with were these:

In a world of amazing price drops in the broad PC ecosystem–storage, processing, and even bandwidth are all getting so cheap–there is a big question as to where the ‘innovation’ will live.  Some will say that all these low prices mean it will just work on the web.  A developer just builds on the web, write once, works on any device.  No brainer right?

Ray’s perspective is that with all that storage and processing and capacity available on a PC, that these are resources that are setup to be well-used in combination with great Internet services.   In other words, the opportunity around Software and Services is all around fusing the best of the Internet with the best of what the PC can do. 

I think what he was able to do in his speech specifically that made this a more compelling vision (versus just a MSFT-centric view of the world) was he was showcasing great examples of start-ups or new services that are looking to make their offerings even richer by getting software onto the PC.  Examples would be Pownce, Joost, and Skype. 

So sure, while a message of “yes the PC has an important role to play” is an inherently MS-centric message, I saw it delivered in a way that is far more customer focused than I’ve seen it.  This is good–for customers (business and consumer), for entrepreneurs, and yes, for MSFT.