So BillG is handing over some more of the reins. Good for him! The B&MGF does some really good work in this world.
There’s been lots of commentary today on what this change means for Bill and for Microsoft. My question for you is what does it mean for the MacBU?
My answer? Probably not much at all. Bill and Steve have both been very aware of our products and plans, and both have been very supportive of our group. I don’t anticipate that changing. As for the effect of the actual shuffling of which top exec does what, in my 10 years at Microsoft I’ve experienced exactly one re-org that had any real effect on my day-to-day work, and that was when the MacBU moved from the Desktop Applications Division to whatever the Home and Entertainment Division was called back in 200x. (And you can see what a large effect it had, given that I can’t even remember the year it occurred.)
The MacBU, like many smaller groups at Microsoft, runs pretty autonomously. That’s one of the things I love about our group — we’re really like a small company, just one that has a lot of support from a much larger organization.
Perhaps that’s a topic to blog on. Another day, however; I need sleep!