Microsoft faced a similar decision with Office. The Office suite was a main draw for Windows devices, which many people bought to use Word and Excel. Making it available across mobile devices and web browsers threatened Windows. Putting Office on the browser could also cannibalize its own healthy desktop sales. The asset milkers wanted Office to be available primarily via desktop installs. The future staters, looking ahead to the coming age of mobile and cloud computing, wanted it everywhere.

Microsoft’s strategy for Office during the Ballmer years generally followed the asset milkers’ desires. Instead of building Office for web when Google released Docs and Sheets, Microsoft kept Internet Explorer slow and held Office off-line. Some years later, Microsoft put a limited version of Office on the web and released it for mobile—but only on Windows devices. Even then, Microsoft kept Office’s web version so quiet that its employees didn’t even know it was live.