In the UFC or IT Market, It's Good to Be First

I have to admit, I love the UFC.  I can't even watch boxing anymore.  I also am hopelessly addicted to the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" where a bunch of UFC hopefuls gather to compete for a contract.  Last season, coach B.J. Penn tried to teach his fighters to "be first."  His point was that the person who strikes first in the fight has a good chance of winning. During several fights, you could hear him outside the octagon screaming "be first!"

Here at Microsoft, we have been first in a lot of things, but lately we haven't been getting that reputation.  The Zune followed the iPod.  The XBox followed the Playstation, and so on.  But the thing I love most about this company is its amazing agility, especially considering our size.  Consider how quickly we turned our entire strategy around when the Internet emerged as THE online services infrastructure.  After a late start, we completely changed our online strategy and excelled in that space. 

Now, our new consumer health offering "HealthVault" has done something refreshing.  It has struck first.  Google has talked about doing something like this for a while now, but we are actually doing it, and Google is now in the unfamiliar position of responding to our offering. 

There are other signs we are turning the innovate-first corner. We recently released our Fall search update and our completely revamped mapping UI allows you to incorporate traffic volume and delays into your generated directions.  Windows Live Mobile search now includes voice input (in the beta).  Once we get in the race, we like to be first.