Developers, Developers, Developers vs. Customers, Customers, Customers.

Steve Ballmer is on Channel 9- at last! Once again, he spouted his mantra- "developers, developers, developers". He said that "it was about building things".

You know what? It is not. It is about "customers, customers, customers". I think Google gets that and Microsoft does not. In fact, I would argue that this is going to be the fundamental difference between Google and Microsoft. Google realizes that it is about building cool apps, of course. But, not just cool apps for cool apps sake. It is about cool apps that customers will use. It is about changing how individuals interact with software and process information. Yes, developers build that stuff and you cannot have a software company without developers. But, you know what? You cannot have a software company without customers either.

The funny thing is just yelling "developers, developers, developers" does not get these guys to your side. The cool apps part is a better way of attracting developers.

In Ballmer's world, it is about selling to enterprises and then hiring developers to do the grunt work. The individual customers gets what the enterprises want and not necessarily what is in their best interest. On the other hand, in Google's world, innovation is designed for the little guy and the big guy gets to use similar stuff as well.

Which is better? Only time will tell.