Continuing from the previous post
Guy commented on how Microsoft is different. Responsive, helpful and a change from what Microsoft's image has been historically.
Some questions from the audience
On Adobe
They are a big competitor in some areas. Specifically in the Silverlight and .NET vs Flex and Flash arena. There is no expectation that they are going to "go away". Will continue to work with Adobe where it makes sense.
On Internet Explorer not moving at the speed of .NET
Many innovations, including the browser, were tied to the "next O/S after XP". Microsoft .NET was not. It was because they took dependencies on the O/S. That will not happen in the future. Future IE will incubate the innovations outside of the O/S and move them into the O/S once they have been proved out
On the PHP applications that Yahoo has
There will be some refactoring of the search, ad and email technologies when Yahoo and Microsoft get together. Some technology will come from Microsoft. Some will come from Yahoo.
On the Synergies between Microsoft and Yahoo
Scale is an advantage in the search game. More search = more ads = higher bids on ads. The more ads you have, the larger the number of ads that can be inserted into the results of a search. Google has more ads that either Yahoo or Microsoft. The merger will help scale out in this market.
On the Virtualization Server Licensing Scheme
The question was regarding the licensing cost for virtualization to be able to compete with Amazon's computing in a cloud (ECC or EC2, I can't remember the acronym). The answer was that Microsoft has plans to provide a similar service.
On Silverlight on the iPhone
Microsoft would love to get Silverlight on every mobile platform they can. There is currently no free runtime license for apps on the iPhone. Apple apparently wants 30% of all of the revenue generated through the iPhone. So while it would be nice to have, the expectation is that developers are unlikely to bite. And it was suggested that perhaps Apple is not being embracing of external developers.
On Silverlight and Microsoft applications
The question is whether Silverlight will become part of Microsoft apps, such as Hotmail. As the product cycle for the relevant products is appropriate, Silverlight will become part of the deliverable. But only on those technologies where appropriate. MSN Messenger was called out specifically as not a likely choice.
On HD DVD vs Blu Ray
Microsoft doesn't make peripherals. They support the devices where the demand is and will continue to do so. In the long term, the format isn't that important, as content is more likely to be delivered over the network.
On Enterprise adoption of social networking
The ways in which people interact with each other within the corporation is changing. Sharepoint provides collaboration services, so there is already some knowledge about how people interact. The key is to leverage these areas to provide more 'social-like' capabilities. This area is early technology, so there will be advances in the future.