Focusing his efforts in the broader area

I guess this had been a pretty well-known rumor for some time, but now it's official: Ray Ozzie is retiring from Microsoft.

You have to love the carefully-chosen words:

Following the natural transition time with his teams but before he retires from Microsoft, Ray will be focusing his efforts in the broader area of entertainment where Microsoft has many ongoing investments.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the short Microsoft announcement was this: "the CSA role was unique and I won’t refill the role after Ray’s departure". The role may well have been "unique", at least if "unique" means "only two people ever held it"; as everybody knows, prior to Ray Ozzie the Chief Software Architect role was filled by some guy named Bill.

Well, hmmm, what do we make of all this? Where is Microsoft going, and how do they intend to be part of the ongoing computer industry? I'm sure the next few weeks will be filled with lots of speculation by lots of people, but if you see any informative assessments, drop me a line and let me know!