It seems like the usual "Hi, I'm the new CEO" letter can't be very inspiring. I mean, it would be rude for him to slam Steve Ballmer right after replacing him -- he needs to have some tact. And, he can't be to enthusiastic and claim that they'll be making devices with rainbows shooting out of their SD card slots -- that'd make everyone say, "Who does this guy think he is?"

I'm sure everyone read it with a neutral response, because it was pretty boilerplate (as it kind of has to be).

I'm hoping they're inspired--they should be! In a lot of ways, this type of e-mail can be impossible to write; simultaneously writing about your pride in a company while acknowledging the recent missteps of your predecessor and also keeping the tone of the message completely optimistic is really challenging. I feel like I, as an outsider, knew exactly what this e-mail needed to say to give me hope for Microsoft as a customer, but had no idea how I would go about saying it. After reading, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where Nadella takes Microsoft in the next few years.