This Is The Only Paragraph You Need To Read To Understand Why Steve Ballmer Changed Microsoft
If you want all the particulars on who is doing what at the company now, and how Microsoft is reorganized into new business groups, we have those details here.
Ballmer is changing Microsoft's structure, shifting away from a number of individual business units working on projects that don't connect to a more integrated model where overlapping groups are working together.
If you want to know why Ballmer is doing this, you only have to read this paragraph Ballmer wrote last year in a letter to shareholders:
We will continue to work with a vast ecosystem of partners to deliver a broad spectrum of Windows PCs, tablets and phones. We do this because our customers want great choices and we believe there is no way one size suits over 1.3 billion Windows users around the world. There will be times when we build specific devices for specific purposes, as we have chosen to do with Xbox and the recently announced Microsoft Surface. In all our work with partners and on our own devices, we will focus relentlessly on delivering delightful, seamless experiences across hardware, software and services. This means as we, with our partners, develop new Windows devices we'll build in services people want. Further, as we develop and update our consumer services, we'll do so in ways that take full advantage of hardware advances, that complement one another and that unify all the devices people use daily. So right out of the box, a customer will get a stunning device that is connected to unique communications, productivity and entertainment services from Microsoft as well as access to great services and applications from our partners and developers around the world.
It's a bit dense, which is Ballmer's writing style.
But, in short, what he's trying to say is this: Microsoft has a lot of great products: Office, Windows, Xbox, Bing, etc. We work with great hardware companies, like Lenovo, Samsung, HP, and Dell. We want Microsoft's fantastic products to work flawlessly on our partner's great hardware right out of the box to deliver a consumer experience that is 100X better than what Apple, or Google offer.