Satya Nadella’s closing Windows 11 remarks had been a direct shot throughout Apple’s bow

At the top of a surprisingly eventful, thrilling presentation of Windows 11, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella got here on the video feed to ship some closing remarks. He laid out his imaginative and prescient for Windows 11 as a “platform for platform creators,” and in doing so, he issued a delicate however nonetheless stinging critique of Apple.

Nadella’s speech was virtually solely about constructing a case that Windows can be a greater platform for creators than both macOS or (particularly) iOS. He argued that “there is no personal computing without personal agency,” insisting that customers ought to be extra accountable for their computer systems.

Nadella known as out the adjustments Microsoft is making to its app retailer guidelines, permitting extra forms of apps, Android apps, and — most significantly — permitting apps to make use of their very own cost programs in the event that they so select. He mentioned, “A platform can only serve society if its rules allow for this foundational innovation and category creation.” That rhetoric sounds vaguely good and galvanizing out of context, however within the particular context of the present debates, lawsuits, and laws over app retailer guidelines, it’s a pointy and direct critique.

More than something, although, Nadella and Microsoft are placing their finger on an rising development within the debate about app retailer insurance policies: how they have an effect on particular person creators. Alluding to Ben Thompson’s latest article about “sovereign writers,” Nadella says, “Windows has always stood for sovereignty for creators and agency for consumers.” Microsoft even went as far as to construct a direct tipping function for creators into Windows 11.

It’s honest to name this critique opportunistic. After all, Microsoft itself tried to construct an app retailer ecosystem for Windows that completely did not match the extent of success we’ve seen for the iPhone (or Android, for that matter). It’s a truism that, in tech, the underdog all the time requires openness till they’re the highest canine — and Microsoft’s app retailer is certainly the underdog. But simply because a critique is opportunistic doesn’t imply it’s not right.

Nadella ends by alluding to this quote from Arthur Schopenhauer (with out naming him, doubtless as a result of he was very problematic):

Authors will be divided into meteors, planets and glued stars. The meteors produce a loud momentary impact; we glance up, shout ‘see there!’ after which they’re gone for ever. The planets and comets final for a for much longer time. … The mounted stars alone are fixed and unalterable; their place within the firmament is mounted; they’ve their very own gentle and are always lively, as a result of they don’t alter their look by a change in our standpoint, for they haven’t any parallax. Unlike the others, they don’t belong to at least one system (nation) alone, however to the world. But simply because they’re located so excessive, their gentle often requires a few years earlier than it turns into seen to the inhabitants of earth.

That’s a great distance of declaring that regardless of the short-term incentives, Nadella is taking part in a really lengthy sport with Windows 11. Just as Google and Apple construct their corporations round their enterprise fashions, so does Microsoft. But Microsoft’s enterprise mannequin has nothing to do with promoting Windows and even getting a reduce of app gross sales anymore. It’s about Microsoft 365, Azure, and enterprise companies.

When Nadella says Windows is “a platform for platform creators,” Microsoft’s different companies are a few of these different platforms — that occur to work properly on Windows. For the time being, Nadella’s argument is that Windows 11 is large enough and broad sufficient to make room for others, too — and that different platforms usually are not.

Nadella’s full remarks are beneath. And simply as this story was printed, Nadella himself tweeted the core a part of his speech:

I’m actually excited to be right here with you all. Today marks a serious milestone within the historical past of Windows. It’s the start of a brand new technology. I’m excited by what now we have proven you as we speak and the way we’re reimagining all the pieces from the working system itself to the browser to the shop and the feed.

And I wish to mirror briefly on how we bought right here. Throughout its historical past Windows has been a democratizing power for the world. Windows has created solely new classes for each shoppers and companies. It’s led to most of the world’s most profitable software program classes from communications and productiveness to design and enterprise purposes, every of which has created their very own ecosystems. The internet itself was born and grew up on Windows. It’s pushed silicon innovation system innovation. It’s enabled so many individuals — together with hobbyists, builders and entrepreneurs — to all dream large; flip their concepts into actuality; and monetize their creation.

Windows has all the time stood for sovereignty for creators and company for shoppers.

With Windows, you may eat apps and construct apps. You can play video games and design video games. You can purchase a PC and construct a PC. You can be part of your neighborhood and create your neighborhood. You can purchase from a enterprise and begin your individual enterprise. With Windows 11, now we have a renewed sense of Windows’s position on the earth. As I look forward I see three clear alternatives.

First, Windows acknowledges that there is no such thing as a private computing with out private company. Personal computing requires alternative and we have to nurture and develop our personal company over computing itself. We wish to take away the limitations that too typically exist as we speak and supply actual alternative and connection.

We must be empowered to decide on the purposes we run, the content material we eat, the folks we connect with, and even how we allocate our personal consideration. Operating programs and units ought to mildew to our wants, not the opposite approach round. That’s why we’re making it simpler so that you can join with the folks you need, the content material you need, the apps you need throughout all units you need.

Second, Windows is the stage for the world’s creation. As a creator, each time you decide up a Windows system, it turns into a stage to your inspiration, so you may dream large and create one thing profound and lasting. Creation goes by a sea change because the steadiness between consumption and creation adjustments.

With this new technology of Windows, we’re unleashing the innovation and ingenuity inherent in every of us. We wish to foster these virtuous loops between content material, consumption, and commerce — pushed by communities for everybody. These cycle ought to movement freely, giving folks frictionless entry to apps, recordsdata, video games, films, reveals, content material, and communities that matter to them. We wish to empower you to supply and encourage you to create. It’s why we’re introducing an entire new person expertise in serving to you be extra productive.

And lastly, Windows isn’t simply an working system. It’s a platform for platform creators. It permits for the broadest of design areas, enabling folks to construct their very own companies and communities.

Today, the world wants a extra open platform, one that permits apps to develop into platforms in their very own proper. Windows is a platform the place issues which might be greater than Windows will be born, like the online. That’s our aspiration with Windows 11, to be the platform for the following internet, the following transformational software program class, the following personalised content material enterprise.

A platform can solely serve society if its guidelines enable for this foundational innovation and class creation. It’s why we’re introducing new retailer commerce fashions and insurance policies, and creating new alternatives for native publishers, and supporting much more apps with Android apps on Windows.

This is the primary model of a brand new period of Windows. We’re constructing for the following decade and past. And after I mirror on these chapters to come back, I’m reminded of an analogy from a nineteenth century thinker who in contrast creators to things in our photo voltaic system. He wrote about meteors that flash however fade away. Planets that burned longer, however whose vitality is confined to their very own orbit — and in contrast them to stars which might be fixed and lightweight the trail of their very own.

That’s our ambition with Windows: to assist different stars and whole constellations to be born and thrive. I imply extremely pleased with what Windows has achieved and the way it’s fostered lasting alternative for others. And I stay up for seeing what you obtain with Windows 11 and the way it’ll unlock enduring alternative for folks on the earth.

Thank you all very, very a lot.