July 26, 1999 Web posted at: 10:12 a.m. EDT (1412 GMT) by Bob Trott

From...

(IDG) -- Microsoft plans to make Windows "Web-centric" by issuing a set of so-called "Internet APIs" that will help developers write Web-based applications for the operating system, according to company bigwigs.

Chairman Bill Gates and President Steve Ballmer released sketchy information about the technology July 22 at the company's conference for financial analysts. Gates said more details would emerge this fall, and Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in February would showcase the initiative.

Gates said, future applications will include more of a balance between server-side and client-side code.

"We will have symmetry between rich clients and [the] server," Gates said. "No one has made it easy to write those applications."

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Gates, Ballmer, and other Microsoft executives delivered a message to the financial community that when it comes to the PC, the company is in the midst of a balancing act -- trying to maintain the genre's vitality, in which it has an obvious stake, while at the same time moving beyond the PC with Windows.

In fact, Microsoft has altered its original creed, "A PC on every desk and in every home," which dates to 1975, to something a little wordier, and broader: "Empower people through great software anytime, any place, on any device."

"The PC remains the central device ... but we certainly admit that there are going to be a lot of other devices," Ballmer said. In particular, he said, "PCs remain red-hot for application development."

However, Jeff Raikes, group vice president of Microsoft's Worldwide Sales and Support group, emphasized that the PC is still one of the most significant -- if not the single most important -- cog in Microsoft's strategy. The company estimates that PC shipments increased 16 percent in fiscal 1999, which ended June 30.

"When we look back, we see a year of growing presence of the PC, broadening and deepening usage of the PC," Raikes said. The Redmond duo also discussed the competition facing Microsoft, with Ballmer calling Linux the most important platform competition Windows has seen since the heyday of OS/2. The reason, Ballmer said, is because the open-source operating system is rejuvenating Unix on the Intel architecture.

"Linux is a serious, albeit a little bit crazy, implementation of Unix on the Intel platform," Ballmer said.

The officials delivered their state-of-the-company presentations three days after the company reported net income for the fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, at $2.2 billion, up 60 percent from what it reported a year ago. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $5.76 billion, up 39 percent from the same period a year ago.