What software plus services means for Microsoft (and you)

a unified view of their various devices and applications.

"I'm pretty impressed, conceptually, with what Ray Ozzie (Microsoft's Chief Software Architect) is trying to do with Mesh," Austin said via e-mail. "To me, Mesh replaces 'software plus services.' Software plus services was retrograde (looking backward) while mesh is forward looking. Software plus services was about defending the old revenue stream while mesh is about defining a new (and valuable) value proposition."

Austin also made one other prediction: "Software plus services will fall into disuse in the next several months."