Ozzie said dramatic changes had taken place over the last five years – “substantial business ecosystems have collapsed as many classic aggregation & distribution mechanisms no longer make sense.”
He predicted similar disruptions over the next five years, “catalyzed by the huge and inevitable shift in apps and infrastructure that's truly now just begun.”
While he said the PC ecosystem will keep growing for a long time to come, such a change would undoubtedly threaten to Microsoft's traditional software cash cow.
Ozzie, who joined Microsoft in 2005, resigned suddenly last week and will leave the company shortly. His memo from that year is credited as convincing the company of the importance of cloud computing.