Windows Live is the most important initiative at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft"s CEO, told the audience at the annual Gartner Symposium and IT Expo here on Oct. 10.
"We"re in a transition to software that is live. It will be click to run, like a Web site," said Ballmer. "We believe in evolving to click to run."
Windows Live is a growing collection of service add-ons for Windows. Some of the services are shipping, such as Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Expo online classifieds. Nearly a dozen services are currently in beta test on the Windows Live Ideas Web site.
"The most important thing is the Live platform. The next level of consumerization is coming from Internet services and Internet delivery," said Ballmer, whose comments dovetailed with a theme espoused by Gartner analysts at this year"s conference: that consumer technologies such as search, podcasting, on-demand video and blogging will seep into enterprise IT infrastructures in the years ahead.