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Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates are both in the Orient; the former in China, the latter in Japan. ZDNet Australia is carrying a story Ballmer reveals Microsoft's biggest threat and it's not Google or open source. Ballmer's story is that Microsoft's biggest threat is its own inability to incite customers to upgrade. Yup, computer and software technology is so solid (at least Microsoft's, I guess) that there is little or no incentive to trade up or change. That's my experience too, so maybe he's on to something. In the piece though, there is an inciteful little quotation, that ought to be tattooed on the forehead of every "customer-close" business person in the world:
"I find at our end customers expect us to show them things that they never thought about. They don’t expect us to just listen to them."On the other hand, if we don’t listen to our customers, if we’re not paying attention and being responsive to their needs, we’re also way off track," he [said] [Emphasis mine, although who knows how he actuallysaid it.