On November 30, 2006, Microsoft Corp. announced that the new Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, Office 2007, and Exchange 2007 were available for businesses. Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, called the release the most significant in the company's history. While many developers and customers of Microsoft are skeptical about the new product versions, Ballmer replies that his company is making the development of applications easier and providing developers with more tools than ever before. Ballmer also touts the integration of the products, saying that people want things to work well. In response to questions about how Microsoft can make the Windows development process shorter and more agile, Ballmer says his experience with the Vista development process showed him that the company should have taken more time before it attempted to implement massive product integration. He says two years of the development cycle time were lost in this regard. Additionally, the need for Microsoft to spend time addressing security issues in Windows XP Service Pack 2 took time away from Vista. Ballmer notes that every innovation represents both an opportunity and a threat for a company in the industry. In regard to Google Inc., Microsoft's strong competitor, Ballmer says the company takes all of its competitors seriously and that it has managed to compete effectively even with free productivity software that can be downloaded from the Internet.