"We will pursue partnerships and investments to realize the competitive advantages that come with scale"
I don't think Microsoft will get much more scale than they already have, they are on most peoples desktop already. What they should pursue is technology - they are obviously unable to create compelling technology themselves. Besides with their resources they would easily be able to buy every interesting startup in sight.
Microsoft is not going to do anything innovative in search or any of the things Balmer mentions. One fine day, like IBM did with their PC business, MSFT will sell their MSN division for cents on the $.
I don't think Microsoft will get much more scale than they already have, they are on most peoples desktop already. What they should pursue is technology - they are obviously unable to create compelling technology themselves. Besides with their resources they would easily be able to buy every interesting startup in sight.