This press release describes what the company reorganization will mean in terms of products and services.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/Jul13/07-11memo.aspx [microsoft.com]

Transforming Our Company

As devices proliferate, it has become clearer that consumers crave one experience across all of their technology. Yet today, they often face different experiences on their PC as compared to their phone or their tablet. As technology moves from people’s desks to everywhere in their lives, it should become simpler, not more complex. And our products and services should operate as one experience across every device.

...

Going forward, our strategy will focus on creating a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most.

To take advantage of our critical competitive assets, we will center our work on the following:

A business model based on partner and first-party devices with both consumer and enterprise services

Optimization for activities people value most

A family of devices powered by a service-enabled shell

Design for enterprise extensibility and enterprise needs

Why does Microsoft believe that consumers crave one experience across all technology?

I'd want a different experience from a desktop computer, a tablet, a phone, or a gaming console. One operates these different devices each with a different mind-set, so one experience for all is going to be too much of a compromise. I, for one, am not happy with Windows 8 Desktop being compromised by it needing to work with touch devices as well.

I'd be happy to see less fragmentation across technology. I think where they've gone wrong is assuming that everyone wants the touch interface across all, with no exceptions, especially for those 'power users' that want traditional mouse and file operations. It seems a little too soon for that, imho.

I'd be happy to see less fragmentation across technology.

I second that. Some server products seem to live off on their own island and just don't integrate that well on some customer's machines. SQL Server is a good example of this, although there have been improvements of late.

There is a real trend in the whole software industry toward syncing everything across devices. Sometimes this is wanted behavior, other times it's really, really not. Here's a revolutionary idea: why not just let us choose, cases by case? Surely this isn't a hugely expensive or difficult thing to ask.

Why does Microsoft believe that consumers crave one experience across all technology?

If you believe the news One is your privacy invaded equally across all platforms and their hope is that you won't mind, eventually.

This organization shift is trying to solve a lot of the internal issues that have hindered Microsoft over the years. They had a corporate culture that developed silos which made it difficult for things like Windows to work with Windows Phone, etc. A lot of the changes outlined sound like they will address the problems, but it will take many months to tell if it works.

What does "service enabled shell" mean? It sounds as though they want to integrate on-line services into the OS Android style. Everyone seems to be heading that way.

Vote for Bing.

Here's a revolutionary idea: why not just let us choose, cases by case?

Excellent idea, why didn't Microsoft and Google think of that! It's a complete nuisance that 'we' cannot control what syncs and when. I absolutely hate it when I look back at my contacts and see that my skype contacts have merged and added non-connected records into new ones. Actually, they are records that are the same people, but the dumb automation cannot match them.

All these so-called smart connected devices ought to have the control placed back with the user.

it has become clearer that consumers crave one experience across all of their technology

It has become clearer to me that Microsoft is terrible at conducting focus groups. I loathe the idea of Windows being so dumbed down that it offers the same experience on a tablet, phone, xbox and desktop. There's a reason I have an 8 core processor with 16GB of RAM and it's not so my desktop can deliver a phone-like experience.

Consumers buy tablets and phones and a whole lot of other crap.

Consumers stopped buying computers.

C'mon, they haven't stopped buying computers. The market has just divided in two:

--Power users who buy desktops and laptops because they need options, settings, the ability to install freeware and do funky things.

--Casual users who just want the darn thing to get them online without a lot of fuss.

It's very easy to see these two groups aren't that likely to want *everything* to sync. The tablet/phone people will likely gravitate toward that, but the desktop and laptop users are still going to want choices and control.

It certainly feels like they had to take a fresh outlook (no pun intended)...

I don't see many happy users of Windows 8, some upheaval may bring in some fresh thinking and get users happy again.

MS has huge potential. I'm not sure exactly what I want from them (ex windows user, ex x-box owner)... as I only use Outlook from their entire product range.