Mr. Ballmer,
Microsoft as well as the industries it is involved in are in a period of change. Online, Google has been trouncing Microsoft. Starting with the Zune, although being a fantastic and superior device to the iPod by Apple, a limited marketing campaign has yielded little public recognition of the device. Your efforts in the Marketplace, making many songs mp3 format, is really a fantastic motive that will force other companies to reconsider their positions. The XBOX 360 is a respectable gaming platform that has a wide range of games that lead to the much publicized games per console ratio that is unparalleled in the industry. However, its price point of $449.99 for the top model compared to $399.99 for a 40GB Blu-ray equipped PS3 makes me wonder what is the advantage? Although Microsoft has spoken of its intent to create an online movie distribution partnership (Through netflix presumably)  currently your offerings are at best poultry, and many people are buying the PS3 based on its Blu-Ray capabilities. Microsoft seems blind to the fact that these two services would be absolutely incredible if they were combined. It would be a marketplace that offers music, video, downloadable games perhaps, and any other service you could dream up. Creating this for a universal platform would yield a tremendous jump in usage and position Microsoft better in many of the industries that it is currently fighting in. It seems almost as though each unit fights its own battle. If Microsoft would collaborate its services into one then it would be much more efficient.

Speaking of efficiency, I fail to understand what the Yahoo deal brings to Microsoft. The center of the issue is Microsoft’s failure to capture market share from rival Google. Why is this? Well from the standpoint of a consumer that uses both, Google is much more efficient. On the mobile platform, Live search is terrible and hardly functions well compared to a snappy and quick performing Google mobile search. History has shown the affects of when 2 companies with different coporate environments try to combine (AOL and Time Warner), and we have also seen the devastating effects  that has on the value of the company. Microsoft does not need Yahoo. It needs interoperability. There is so much that can be done with Live Search that is not being done. Take for example the other night, when I was looking for the BioShock demo on XBOX live. There is no search function there, I had to scroll through every demo alphabetically until I found it. Why doesn’t Microsoft add a search tool there to help the user find things more quickly, and efficiently? Microsoft needs to work hard to establish itself in the Online Market, and that comes from bundling Live search with new computers being sold, and IE 7 downloads. This is what Google has done and become very successful from. Although most of this has seemed negative, I must applaud recent efforts by Microsoft. It is fantastic that Microsoft have realized that it is necessary to reduce the footprint of Windows 9 to make it run efficiently; this is one of the main selling points of Apple, even if it is a fallacy or not. I am sure with a few modifications to how Live search works, how its marketed, and how its implemented, that Microsoft can sit firmly on top of the Search market. As for its other divisions, interoperability will allow efficiency between your products and services and yield an over-all better and more competitive product. I myself have been working on a venture, cellseek.mobi. However I am forced to use Google Adsense, as it is the only service that offers the services I need as a web publisher. Anything up coming in this area?
Thank you for your time, and I hope that you at least read and consider my ideas.
Andrew Blejde

From: Steve Ballmer <Steve.Ballmer@microsoft.com>
To: Andrew Blejde <blejdinator300@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 2:28:14 PM
Subject: RE: Consumer Comments regarding the state of Microsoft