Ballmer: I’m Super Glad We Did Surface

If your eyes are all sore reading about Steve Ballmer, rather than something from the man himself, then today’s your luck day. The CEO of Microsoft just gave a (simple and straightforward) interview to MIT Technology Review, where he talked about some major things.

You know, things like Windows 8, Surface and where his company is heading.

Ballmer talked about the Surface division, saying that this branch of the company was very initially a department that worked on conceptualization, but has come a long way since to become a real and viable business:

“I’m super-glad we did Surface. I think it is important — and not just for Microsoft but for the entire Windows ecosystem — to see integrated hardware and software. Surface is a real business.”

Understandably, though, Redmond has learnt to manage expectations this time around, at least as far as numbers go. The current state of the market has a lot to do with it, without doubt:

“In an environment in which there are 350 million PCs being sold, I don’t think Surface is going to dominate volume, but it’s a real business.”

Yup, a real business, we get it, Steve!

The CEO also touches upon the future of the Surface tablets, as well as the company’s relationship with OEMs. Essentially, the company is trying to lead a little and pave way for the partners to come up with their own devices.

He also points towards Microsoft’s success with other products like Office and the Xbox line of consoles, and believes that future software and how it is going to take an integrated from — one that makes use of cloud services and  devices.

“If you want to do productivity, communications, and entertainment, you’re going to do it on multiple devices, and you have to do it in a coherent and consistent way for the user. You’ve got to support the different input modalities.”

Nothing particularly new in this interview, and most of the stuff you probably already knew.

But nevertheless it is somewhat comforting to know that the head of Microsoft is aware with what’s going on, has a strategy in mind, and the company itself is focused on investing on a set of core products.