Lol Thong Tin Vui

TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS, CUSTOMERS, PARTNERS AND EMPLOYEES:

It is a humbling experience to write this letter to you as only the third CEO in Microsoft’s history. As I said when I took this role, I originally joined Microsoft to have an opportunity to change the world through technology and empower people to do amazing things. Many companies aspire to change the world, but very few have the talent, resources and perseverance of Microsoft.

I believe this is a landmark moment for the company and for our industry as a whole. Cloud and mobile technologies are redefining how people work and play. Three billion people will soon be connected to Internet-enabled devices; 212 billion sensors will come online in a few short years; trillions will be spent in consumer and business technologies. But it’s not about technology for technology’s sake! It’s our mission to enable the use of technology to realize the true potential of people, teams and organizations.

As I shared in my email to employees in July, we will be the productivity and platform company for this mobile-first and cloud-first world. We will empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more. And we will accomplish this by building incredible Digital Work and Life Experiences, supported by our Cloud Operating System, the Device Operating System and Hardware platforms.

In the same way that we aspired to and achieved our original vision of a PC on every desk and in every home, we will reinvent productivity. This clarity of purpose and boldness of our aspiration inspires me and all of us at Microsoft.

We began to take steps toward this core focus last fiscal year.

To drive our mobile strategy, we acquired Nokia’s Devices and Services business, creating an expanded Microsoft Devices Group that includes Nokia phones, Xbox hardware, Surface, Perceptive Pixel products and accessories. We also announced Office on iPad, which led to 35 million downloads of Word, Excel,...