Mary-Jo Foley

An interesting format: not only are there two morning keynotes this year, they are in an interview format. This morning, Matthew Ellison is interviewing Mary-Jo Foley, who wrote the book "Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era.

Foley is being really blunt in her assessments. She tells some good stories too, like the time she fisrt met Bill Gates. She had arranged to interview him at a trade show, and she was interrupted. Worried that her time was limited, she interrupted, whereupon Gates asked her if she knew who that was. When she replied no, Gates told her it was Steve Jobs.

She talks about Bill vs. Steve (Ballmer). The Bill guys were the engineers, where the Steve guys were all about marketing and sales. With Bill backing out, the Bill guys are leaving, adn there's a shift in power.

Now moving to consumer products, Microsoft believes that if someone buys an XBox 360, then they will see that Sharepoint is a Microsoft product. Foley said that she's not sure she believes that, but the theory is, she says, "win them at home and you can win them at work."