In the next year, Bill Gates will manage one of the highest-profile transitions in American business history — he’ll leave his day job as chairman at Microsoft, the $300 billion company he co-founded 32 years ago, and will move full time into philanthropy.

But before he leaves, Gates has a few more high-tech projects to finish. Until this morning, one project — almost five years in the making and code-named 'Milan,’ — was top-secret.

In a TODAY exclusive, I had a chance to talk with Gates at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus about a revolutionary new device Microsoft now calls “Surface.” (MSNBC.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.)

No. What you're actually saying is that Microsoft should stagnate.

If they kept churning out OS versions every 4 years, how will they keep on top?

if Google has 'listened to their consumers' and remained a search engine company,

how would they have emerged as a pretty serious threat to MS?

Hence Microsoft delving into new markets, with new technology.

In 2001 when Apple announced plans to release a line of mp3 players called the 'ipod', shareholders revolted

Seun:

Listening comes first. Then observation of your customer is next. Products are supposed to respond to demand.
That's how Microsoft got to where they are today, and nothing else can take them forward. It's boring, but true.
Innovation must be in line with human needs. It's a waste of time to try to make people want something they don't.
That's how they have been keeping on top since the 80s. Giving us what we want: an OS that works pretty well.

Seun:

Google is not a serious threat to MS. Why? They do not make operating systems or office applications.
Google and Apple are threats to Microsoft only in the imagination of over-excitable technology reporters!

Seun:

For a market to exist, there must be a demand. Microsoft should focus on their customers. They are the 'markets'!