Steve Ballmer says HTML 5 is the future

Ballmer discusses HTML 5 besting Silverlight and his hopes for Windows Phone 7 and the cloud

In this interview yesterday at Gartner's IT Symposium, Steve Ballmer was given 30 seconds to answer a range of questions including privacy in the cloud, the next billion market for Microsoft, the coolest product launched in 2010 and HTML vs. Silverlight, among other topics.

I've typed out a few of the highlights. Ballmer says ...

"Privacy in the cloud. People are going to insist on privacy in the cloud and there's no reason why smart technical people can't deliver on both."

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft's next $1 billion market.

Coolest products launched in introduced 2010? Xbox Kinect.

HTML 5 or Silverlight (or acquiring Adobe)? "Universal, no question, world is going HTML5. The world is pushing down HTML 5 path and so are we." He sees Silverlight as useful for adding multimedia to client apps, and points to its use in Windows Phone 7 as an example.

And if he had one message for enterprise users, its the cloud. "Cloud, we're all in. Most of you are telling us you are all in at least in the application side."

But don't take my words (above) for it. The interviewers did a good job keeping Ballmer's sales pitch down and getting the meat of his opinions.

^{Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft, interviewed by Gartner analysts Neil McDonald and John Pescatore in front of 7,000 CIOs and IT leaders at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2010.}

• Microsoft
• HTML 5
• Silverlight
• Steve Ballmer
• Windows Phone 7