Reporter: In all of your years at Microsoft, what do you consider your finest achievement?

Ballmer: It’s hard to put my finger on a single thing. I am very excited about where we are as a company today and our growth prospects going forward. Over the last five years, we have put in place a strong mission and values that guide our business approach and culture. Last year we adopted a Business Plan that sets forth a clear roadmap for employees，partners and the industry about our focus and direction. Our competitive focus and execution is clear with respect to Linux and open source. We have solidified important changes to our internal processes that enable much better cross— group collaboration, while giving each of our 7 business groups the ability to function with the appropriate degree of autonomy and agility. We have put a major focus on cost-efficacy so that our operating income is again growing faster than our operating costs. We have initiated key rebuilds in major cost centers such as marketing. And we’re investing significantly in R and D and engineering excellence, and showing excellent results in new product innovation, quality, security and reliability. To be clear, none of this is “my" achievement. It really as an effort that has involved a lot of hard work by Bill, me, our leadership team and our employees.

Ballmer: Innovation means many things. Microsoft can be fairly credited with innovating around the personal computer such that in a very short period of time it has become a ubiquitous tool in business, schools and many homes around the world. We bet our company, literally, on Windows, and on Office，and have continued to innovate in both of these products, and many others over the years, including enterprise servers and applications, mobile devices, applications for small and midsized businesses，entertainment, the Tablet PC, etc. Since Microsoft went public in 1986, we have invested a total of $36 billion in R and D, creating a wide range of integrated technologies that have helped customers and developers do more. Over the next 6 years alone, we will invest another $40 billion in innovation, continuing to make us a top R and D spender in any industry. Specifically, our focus is on integrated innovation, making our products and services work together and understanding how customers use technology and information toimprove their lives. No other company in our industry is focused on this kind of innovation. We also are filing for 2,000 patents a year, a number we expect to increase in the years ahead.