Nilay Patel Interviews Satya Nadella on the Business of Windows

Satya Nadella, in a terrific, wide-ranging interview with Nilay Patel:

The other point is it also lives in an ecosystem. Let’s say Windows has a billion users. So does Android. So does iOS. In fact, Android and iOS will have more than a billion users perhaps, or maybe Android has 2 billion, [and] maybe iOS is similar to Windows’s size or what have you. But the reality is any Windows user — we have to start with the assumption that they have a phone and that phone may be Android and iOS and we have to design for it.

I do think that operating systems are important, but they’re important in so far as they compose with everything else that’s part of my life, whether it’s other devices with other operating systems, [or] whether it is clouds that I use, which are powering some of the applications and experiences.

It’s a practical reality, really. Let’s meet Windows users where they are, and meet their current needs and unmet, unarticulated needs.

I crack wise about the inelegance of Windows, but I do think that under Nadella, Microsoft knows what Windows is and what it’s supposed to be, and Windows 11 is exactly that. That’s a strength. That know thyself confidence comes across in this interview.

★ Monday, 28 June 2021