Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone

by Satya Nadella

I knew they were hopeful but also skeptical. One had only to look at a few industry charts to see why. After decades of steady growth in worldwide PC shipments, sales had peaked and were now in decline. Quarterly PC shipments were now around 70 million, while smartphone shipments were reaching over 350 million. This was bad news for Microsoft. Every PC sold meant a royalty payment to Microsoft. To make matters worse, not only were PC sales soft, but so was interest in Windows 8, launched eighteen months earlier. Meanwhile Android and Apple operating systems were surging, reflections of the smartphone explosion that we at Microsoft had failed to lead and barely managed to participate in. As a result, Microsoft’s stock, long a blue-chip investment, had been treading water for years.