During a dinner Thursday at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley when “asked about smartphones, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Nokia, Research in Motion and Apple will all lose out as the market expands over the next five years, because they design their own proprietary hardware and tie it closely to their software,” James Niccolai reports for IDG News Service.
“Nokia leads the smartphone market today with about a 30 percent share, he said. ‘If you want to reach more than that, you have to separate the hardware and software in the platform,’ he said,” Niccolai reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Like with PlaysForSure vs. iPod+iTunes?
“In other words, he thinks the same strategy that helped Microsoft become the leader on the desktop — licensing its OS for use by other hardware makers — will let it win out on smartphones. Long term, he said, the battle will be between the Symbian OS (which is now open source), mobile versions of Linux and Windows Mobile,” Niccolai reports.
MacDailyNews Take: What allowed Microsoft to take the PC market was the absence of Steve Jobs at Apple combined with the one-time luxury of a poorly written contract signed by an unprepared sugared water salesbozo which allowed them to poorly rip-off Apple’s Mac ad infinitum. Microsoft will not have the same luxury this time. Apple has over 200 iPhone-related patents that Steve Jobs has publicly-stated Apple plans to vigorously defend.
We’ve been pushing the state-of-the-art in every facet of design… We’ve been innovating like crazy for the last few years on this and we’ve filed for over 200 patents for all of the inventions in iPhone. And we intend to protect them. – Steve Jobs, January 9, 2007
Niccolai continues, “Apple won’t boost its share of the personal computer market or become a threat in the enterprise for similar reasons, according to Ballmer — because it won’t license its software to others. ‘Apple’s a good company, I won’t take anything away from them, but they have a certain kind of strategy. They believe in putting the hardware and software together, they don’t believe in letting other people make it.’
MacDailyNews Take: And therefore, it actually works for the users instead of against. Which is why Microsoft and Ballmer dumped PlayForSure to try to, once again, copy Apple by “putting the hardware and software together,” with the Zune. Related: Microsoft tries to match Apple’s vertical approach – October 11, 2006. And Apple is already significantly boosting its share of the personal computer market, dummy.
Niccolai continues, reporting that Ballmer also said, “I’m not saying there isn’t a threat’ from Apple, he said. But if Microsoft and its PC partners ‘do our jobs right, there’s really no reason Apple should get any footprint in the enterprise.”
Full article here.
Such a fundamental lack of understanding of major markets in which his company competes should be appalling to not only shareholders, but… uh, we mean: May Ballmer remain Microsoft’s CEO for as long as it takes!
Ballmer is a great asset…for Apple.
Ballmer should keep his gaping pie hole shut and stay in his cave.
I’m convinced that Ballmer’s mouth is really his rectum, because only diarrhea seems to pour out of it.
I love this guy.
I use to get mad, now I just laugh
When was the last time Ballmer was right? Lets just hope he remains with M$ forever.
Ballmer is a salesperosn. That´s it. And a liar, and maybe a bit borderline- So what ? Huh?
He leaves the door conventiently wide open to blame his partners when separating the hardware and the software fails to stop Apple. And that’s when M$ will have their hardware&software;boxes ready.
How can he make these arguments anyway with the Zune strategy opposes this?
“I’m convinced that Ballmer’s mouth is really his rectum, because only diarrhea seems to pour out of it.”
Thanks Mr. Reeee, now I’m gonna have that visual with me all day…
He reminds me of certain politicians that we all know. Develop a philosophy, run with it, see it doesn’t work, and continue to insist on it for everything. But that is all based on greed and power for the politicians. I’m sure Mr. Ballmer is different though…
He’s so clueless. I really get a kick out of stuff he says. How did this guy become so important? It’s mind-boggling.
And with Win Mobile 7 delayed until at least late NEXT year, wow, I can’t imagine how far behind they are going to fall in the smart phone wars.
What? Burning? You say Rome is burning? Get outta here! I have a fiddle to play!
Today’s more savvy consumers don’t fall for bad copies like they used to ..
He’s counting on MS monopoly to wear our the competition in the long run. Thats not fair competition in the market.
I love Balmer. I hope he stays as CEO of Micro$oft forever!
Does the consumer really care if something is open source or if it’s proprietary? If the product provides excellent quality, good looks, high performance, superior usability and great user experience then what does the consumer care? For those that do care, like programmers, web developers and so on, Apple is very standards compliant and does embrace open source. This is open source at it’s best.
ballmer was probably hired as the night’s entertainment
the juggler , acrobat and sword swallowers couldn’t make it
so they got the booby prize
and ballmers is most definitely a prize booby
Ballmer is cute in a monkey boy sort of way.
Ballmer is pure entertainment, both audibly and visually. What a nut! He should be the clown that comes to my kids school.
It is amazing that dividend hungry shareholders will never hold him accountable. At least RIMM shareholders will at least make a statement.
When M$ does fall, it will fall hard and quickly.
Shareholders will completely desert them not if, but when this time comes.
What he really said was a long string of grunts, tongue flicks, clicks and moans. Once he’s finished squirting a sentence, an assistant makes her best guess.
@ Mr. Reeee
Gross, dude.
And as the water was up to the neck of the captain of the Titanic, he shouted…”This ship is unsinkable”.
Ballmer also said, “I’m not saying there isn’t a threat’ from Apple,
Let’s take out the negatives in this sentence…just for fun.
“I’m saying there is a threat’ from Apple.”
So little ole no market share, niche player, proprietary, Apple is a threat to M$.
Ballmer also said, “I’m not saying there isn’t a threat’ from Apple,
Let’s take out the negatives in this sentence…just for fun.
“I’m saying there is a threat’ from Apple.”
So little ole no market share, niche player, proprietary, Apple is a threat to M$.
Now. C’mon guys. What do you expect Ballmer to say? The truth? “We have made big mistakes and seem to be continuing to make big mistakes. We don’t “get it”. We don’t understand what’s happening, and we don’t give a sh*t!”
He’s not going to say that! He’s going to try to spin and weave and dodge.
Unfortunately, he can spin, weave, or dodge well enough to avoid looking like a doofus to everyone who knows the truth. Sadly, the media doesn’t seem capable of doing any research to evaluate the veracity of his statements!!
But I’m not bitter!
“Ballmer also said, ‘… But if Microsoft and its PC partners ‘do our jobs right, there’s really no reason Apple should get any footprint in the enterprise.’
So Ballmer’s pretty much guaranteed that Apple won’t just get a “footprint in the enterprise”, Apple will totally rule enterprise.