Microsoft's Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie are poised to take over more of Bill Gates' technology role after the Microsoft chairman steps away from daily work at the company in July.

One of the first changes for Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer, is leading Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Group, which includes the company's work for the developing world as well as its philanthropy. The job should keep Mundie in close contact with Gates, since the co-founder's departure is meant to give him more time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which also works on technology initiatives aimed at helping developing nations.

IDG News Service talked to Mundie at Microsoft's Government Leaders Forum Asia 2008 last week about possible changes at Unlimited Potential, and what Microsoft is doing to create new technology for people in the developing world.

Since Unlimited Potential is under you now, what does that mean for the group? More money, more attention?

No. The recent decision to put it in my group is really just so that I can provide some consistent oversight to it. In a way, I helped create the Unlimited Potential Group several years ago and we had housed it within one of the business divisions and a number of executives were providing oversight to it.

The other real reason to put it in my group is because the other two new businesses I've got in my group are health and education and when we look at what the Unlimited Potential needs are, yes one component of it is to allow people to be productive, but almost invariably the other two legs of that stool are healthcare and education.

Does your early work at Microsoft's non-PC division help with your role in Unlimited Potential?

No, not really -- except for the cell phone. The work that I did with Windows Mobile and the cell phone stuff has carried forward today and does give us a basis for adapting cell phone technologies to the Unlimited Potential class of opportunities. Interactive TV may be another one that may ultimately play a role here.

What are some strategies you have for Unlimited Potential? What technologies will you focus on?

When you think about people with little or no disposable income and how to approach that market, it's clear that you can't go at it with the idea that they just run out and buy personal computers or that we're going to give them all one. And so a lot of our focus has been on trying to take technologies that are derived from the global scale use of PCs and help build both less expensive devices and software that's more purpose-built relative to the needs of those kinds of customers.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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