Gates chose the right time to leave Microsoft

Stan Beer
Sunday, 29 June 2008 17:46

Opinion and Analysis

Gates, a man of vision, knew that Google was destined to be the computing company for the new millennium, not Microsoft.

A man who understands the money game all too well, Gates watched as Google made money from the Internet hand over fist. Meanwhile Microsoft continued to lose money on anything to do with the Internet and could only succeed in making money from desktop and server software.

Gates also watched as Google listed with great success in 2004 and has continued to grow at astonishing pace ever since.

Gates also watched as Microsoft's last great Wintel project Vista turned into a disappointing flop, with many users and pundits believing that it offered no significant improvements over Windows XP. Similar things could said for Office 2007.

Customised Linux desktops and open source office products alone pose no real threat to Microsoft's desktop dominance. However, the emergence of cloud computing is what Gates has been worried about since 1995. Google, he recognised, is the quintessential cloud computing company. It is making Microsoft's business model obsolete and Gates knows it.

At 52, Bill Gates is still a relatively young man - certainly too young to retire. Gates is known to have a strong work ethic. However, when it comes to computing, unlike the continually self-reinventing Steve Jobs, Gates is no longer a man of his time and he knows it. That's why he has left the company he co-founded.

As for Microsoft, CEO Steve Ballmer once called Google a one-trick-pony. In fact, Ballmer, chief software architect Ray Ozzie, and the rest of the Microsoft senior crew now have the job ahead of them to prove that Microsoft is more than just Bill Gates' one-trick-pony.