Michael
April 30th, 2007, 04:06 PM
<img src="http://www.iphonealley.com/images/storyimages/ballmer.jpg" alt="Ballmer" align="left" />Today, USATODAY posted <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2007-04-29-ballmer-ceo-forum-usat_N.htm" target="_blank">an interview</a> they conducted with Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer (yay?). During the interview, he was asked about the iPhone and iPod and gave his opinion on both.
When asked if he was envious of the passion exhibited by the Apple crowd and excitement that surrounds their products, Ballmer answered:
<blockquote>"It's sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.
Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."</blockquote>
I'm not sure what he's smoking, but Microsoft certainly has nowhere near that much market share in mobile phones. They definitely do a lot of business with large companies, but the average consumer doesn't own one of these fancy pants devices. They're all using Razr's and Crazr's and Tazr's and Lazr's and all those other phones missing vowels. Apparently vowels aren't as trendy as they once were. But if Ballmer's ignorance didn't shock you, this certainly will:
<blockquote>"In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn't just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job."</blockquote>
How very nice of him. Thing is, even though he says Apple got it right with the iPod and iTunes, he still insists on getting his 85 year old uncle to use one of those crap-o-rific Zunes. Poor guy. And speaking of crap, I should remind everyone that they still come in a tasteful shade of crap brown.
So no surprises here, folks. Ballmer's still crazy and doesn't like Apple or it's products. And you thought this was news :D
When asked if he was envious of the passion exhibited by the Apple crowd and excitement that surrounds their products, Ballmer answered:
<blockquote>"It's sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.
Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."</blockquote>
I'm not sure what he's smoking, but Microsoft certainly has nowhere near that much market share in mobile phones. They definitely do a lot of business with large companies, but the average consumer doesn't own one of these fancy pants devices. They're all using Razr's and Crazr's and Tazr's and Lazr's and all those other phones missing vowels. Apparently vowels aren't as trendy as they once were. But if Ballmer's ignorance didn't shock you, this certainly will:
<blockquote>"In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn't just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job."</blockquote>
How very nice of him. Thing is, even though he says Apple got it right with the iPod and iTunes, he still insists on getting his 85 year old uncle to use one of those crap-o-rific Zunes. Poor guy. And speaking of crap, I should remind everyone that they still come in a tasteful shade of crap brown.
So no surprises here, folks. Ballmer's still crazy and doesn't like Apple or it's products. And you thought this was news :D