“So what does Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer do when he faces a room of press and financial analysts toting a bunch of Macs? He counts Apple logos,” Larry Dignan reports for ZDNet. “During his talk about search, netbooks, Windows 7 and the business climate, Ballmer took a detour into Apple-ville and how Microsoft tracks share versus Apple.”
Excerpts from Steve Ballmer’s speech:
We have low share, by the way, in the investor audience. I can see the Apple logos versus the PC logos. So we have more work to do, more work to do. Our share is lower in this audience than the average audience. Don’t hide it. I’ve already counted them. I have been doing that since we started talking.
Anyway, we got a bank them right here in the middle. I know where they all are. One over here on the side. But anyway… that’s okay, feel free as long as you are using Office to go right on ahead.
The primary attack that comes from Apple is, hey, at the end of the day, we have the coolest hardware. When you see the hardware, the PC design that is am come out this Christmas with Windows 7, I think that conventional wisdom can begin to really change. There is some really amazing, amazing work. So it is possible to get great hardware innovation, even when hardware and software comes from separate companies.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
By SteveJack
This, of course, is exactly what Ballmer wants his investors and his customers to think. Concentrate only on the hardware, not on the OS, which, BTW, is what Microsoft makes; not PC hardware. This is one of Microsoft’s weakest attempts to freeze the market in recent memory. Does he really think we’ll believe that Dell et al. are building factories to mill ultra-thin, precision unibody laptops out of solid aluminum like Apple? Puleeze. Not with their margins (or lack thereof). And, besides, no matter what they produce, they’ll still have crappy Windows and tons of other assorted crapware pre-installed. And, stickers; don’t forget the stickers.
So, why, some may ask, doesn’t Ballmer just say, “Hey, Apple makes cool, quality hardware, so run Windows on it!”
The reason he doesn’t say such a thing, especially in a room full of press and financial analysts, is because he knows that it’s death. If people did that, buy “cool” Macs to run Windows, then they’d also get to dabble in Mac OS X. In Microsoft’s land of mediocrity and worse, this is A Very Bad Thing™. The Very Worst Thing Of All™, in fact.
Obviously, as many of you know firsthand, Windows-only sufferers who are confronted with Mac OS X routinely and quite joyously end up dumping Windows. In fact, the Windows-to-Mac switchers end up being some of Apple’s very best salespeople. Ballmer knows all this, of course, but he can’t say it, so instead he pretends that this whole Apple Mac thing is only about “cool” hardware, as if Monkey Boy were actually capable of discerning cool. Ballmer’s spiel only works on those who’ve never really tried a Mac; the rest of us just laugh.
This is how Microsoft makes their money, it’s really the only way they’ve ever made their money, on the backs of the ignorant. Ignorance is the key to Microsoft’s success. Just look at their commercials in which Microsoft peddles cheap, junky, thick, heavy, and uncool (one of the actors even says she’s not cool enough for a Mac) laptops that they don’t even make. Microsoft ignores the OS – the actual part of the “PC” that they make – altogether. Microsoft avoids the Windows vs. Mac operating system comparison for one simple reason: They cannot compete. So, sticker price is all they have left. Ballmer, like the rest of us, knows that if you give people both Windows and Mac OSes to use, they overwhelmingly choose Mac. That’s why in a room full of people in-the-know, he’s facing a room full of Macs with glowing Apple logos.
This situation, of course, is why Microsoft will ultimately lose and Apple will win. In a head-to-head matchup of Windows vs. Mac, it’s no contest. Microsoft’s only remaining technique it to try to keep as many sheep as possible in the dark. Microsoft’s last refuge is to pretend that the people who buy Macs are somehow glamoured by a glowing Apple logo and not making a sensible choice, “paying $500 for a logo,” etc. Basing your business on a lie guarantees failure. Unfortunately for Microsoft, there are too many Apple retail stores, too many satisfied customers who talk way too much about their satisfaction, and far too many roomfuls of Mac-toting financial analysts and members of the press.
Oh, BTW, not content to merely fleece the ignorant sheep, Ballmer also promised to rape them, too:
Gavin Clarke reports for The Register, “Ballmer said Microsoft had got it wrong by selling low-priced Windows – Windows XP – on netbooks. These run Windows XP and account for 11 per cent of Microsoft’s PC business, but Microsoft’s tactic of using low price to win market share against Linux has hurt its revenue.”
“With Windows 7, Ballmer vowed prices would go up, and Microsoft had a ‘great chance’ to up-sell customers,” Clarke reports. “It sounded like the upsell will come from Windows XP on netbooks to Windows 7 on netbooks and from Windows 7 on netbooks to Windows Home Premium on ultra-thin machines. ‘In Windows 7, we are going re-adjust those prices north,’ Ballmer told analysts looking for the bottom line and dismayed by the impact of netbook sales on Microsoft’s business.”
Full article here.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
More vapor from the big blowhole.
So, Microsoft is now making PC hardware?
Frigtard.
I can almost feel his sphincter tightning up like a hydraulic vice on overload!!! Haha I wish someone caught his reaction with all those Macs on video.
More stench from Microsoft’s head Ballsack.
Doesn’t that moron say the same thing every year? Typical Microsoft MO, promise something better just around the corner but never deliver it.
Damn, is this verbatim the way he speaks, I feel a headache coming on after reading just the excerpts, don’t feel brave enough to slog though the complete article. He could take public speaking lessons from rain man
I’m not msft fan. Ballmer should be fired.
A lot of us switchers were morons , I really wanted a Mac, but did not get one until Intel and Boot Camp, so I could still use windows for the “important things”
After 6 months, I realized, I had not booted into XP in 3 months! when I did a clean install for leopard, I did not re install windows
That was 3 years ago, and 4 additional Macs for the family
Long may Ballmer continue to run Microsoft into the ground. Man, I love it whenever he comments on anything. Pure gold.
Where’s ZuneTang? Conspicuously quiet today!
The PC world has a history of occasionally coming out with either “fantasy” pc’s that appear really cool, and different from what Apple has, but never make it into production. They also will come out with pc’s that attempt to have similar styling to existing Apple models, and “surprise”, they wind up costing the same or more than the Apple model they are copying from.
The only ‘new’ thing the pc world has come up with recently is the netbook (not really new, but everybody’s jumped in with both feet, except for Apple), and just now they are finding out that hey, between the cost of miniature components and the Windows XP license, there isn’t much money to make on them, and it’s cut into sales of ‘real’ computers, where they actually make a little money.
‘he Windows-to-Mac switchers end up being some of Apple’s very best salespeople. Ballmer knows all this, of course, but he can’t say it’
You know that is how he thinks, or are words just being put in Ballmer’s mouth again?
He is repeating the message behind their new add program. “The Apple hardware is pricey and cool – but you don’t have to have a cool expensive computer to have a good computer”. By concentrating on the hardware, he takes your mind of the important stuff – the OS and software.
Sadly, there are still some PC programs I must use (to program specific audio processors)! I don’t have a choice. The stupid engineers seem to think there is only one type of “pro” OS. 🙁
Ballmer will lead MS down the drain, and he seems to be accelerating.
I’ve been suspecting this since MS first announced their “Me Too” stores that are to be built next to Apple’s stores. Balmer’s statements seem to suggest this now: Microsoft will be selling Microsoft-branded PCs and laptops with the launch of their stores. iCal me on this.
The guy was always deluded, more recently he has been seen to be panicking but now it seems to be increasingly paranoid too, incapable it seems of even expressing a couple words that actually make any sense. Can’t tell whether he reminds me more of Caligula or Nero but one thing’s for sure, the guy’s clearly breaking up before our very eyes, ain’t life good.
Microsoft: Hard where you kneed ’em, software you don’t.
As mentioned by SteveJack – it is the software. I switched to Macs in 2004. I stick with the Macintosh because of Mac OS X and that is it. Yes, the hardware is nice, but I could care less. Apple assembles its hardware with the same pieces (mostly) that PC manufacturers use. Yes, you can buy cheap PC hardware but you get what you pay for in that. For me, it is not about the design of the Mac it’s about the OS running on it because at the end of the day, I am staring at the screen all day interacting with applications on Mac OS X. I am done with Windows System Registry. I am done with every possible virus and other malware coursing through the veins of the Internet waiting for too many opportunities to get infected. I am done with the time wasting installation routines and uninstallation routings for applications in Windows. I am done with Microsoft bloatware.
This November marks my 5th anniversary free of Microsoft Windows. Yay!!!!
Here’s my switching to a Mac story:
Being a graphic designer I was one of the few who used Windows and took offense when print houses could not / would not accept my design files. I thought that Mac users were snobs, an elitist group that were clinging to a dying platform. As crazy as it now seems, I remember wishing that the Mac OS would just die off (Sorry!) so compatibility problems would be a thing of the past. (Did I just admit that on a Mac blog?!) Well thank God that never happened. I had looked into Mac’s obviously but, just like other price shoppers, compared specs and I always ended up going with Windows on price alone.
I’m definitely in the power user category and work on Photoshop files in the 600 MB range and video editing 60 minute TV shows so I’ve always needed the most ram and fastest processor that I could possible afford.
One day ) had a lightning strike that hit my design studio and it damaged $15,000 worth of equipment including my computer, a $6000 Epson printer etc. The insurance company wrote me a check for the damages and now it was time to go shopping.
I went to the Dell website (Ahh!) and built the baddest system that they had. It totaled about $12,000. I then went over to Apple and repeated the same steps. Surprise. We’re talking better specs for $10,500. This was about 4 years ago but the specs at the time were: Two 3.2 GHZ proessors, 8 GB Ram, Two 30 inch Displays, upgraded everything that was possible. ( I think you could get this same system, or better, for around $6000 now.
I then called Adobe and they said I could cross grade the software for free – just pay for shipping. Wow, I thought! Am I really going to do this? What about my other software I wondered?
That same week Steve Jobs announced that they were switching to Intel processors and one could now run Windows on a Mac! Done deal! Decision made!
One week later the Mac arrived and my initial reaction was to the packaging. Everything was so meticulously packaged and presented and I guess design guys notice things like that. I started it up – loaded all my software – wondered what the hell did I just do after I dragged an icon off the dock and watched it go poof.
Then – – – I started to wonder if I really need to load boot camp and Windows after all. I did end up loading it. And never, ever used it. I drank the Apple koolaid by the pitcher and gulped it all down – every last drop.
I found myself browsing Mac blogs (MDN) and it all seemed to be more of a community – and us against them mentality that permeated the Mac community. And now I understood why. After all these years I finally realized that it wasn’t all hype. The Mac was a vastly better machine and the software was such an improvement that I couldn’t even believe it.
Gone were the days of constantly rebooting to get the computer to run at a decent speed. Locating drivers and worrying about viruses were a thing of the past.
S0 – 4 years later – where am I now.
We’re a 4 iPhone family, one iPod Touch. I’ve bought iMacs for my wife, son and mother. My son’s girlfriend bought an iPhone because she loved his so much – and now she’s buying a Macbook for college only because she loved the iPhone so much ….
I could go on and on – it’s a cycle thats repeating all across America as more people are introduced to the Apple brand. I may have been late to the party – but I’m doing my best to drink my fill.
Hahahah. And I was just reading “Microsoft’s Yellow Road to Cairo” on RDM. Talk about eerily appropriate.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/4E2A8848-5738-45B1-A659-AD7473899D7D.html
And so Ballmer is making a vaporous promise that people should suspend their thoughts of buying a Mac in the near future because SUPER KEWL PC hardware is due to arrive this Christmas with the launch of Windows 7.
So what you want about the man, but at least respects tradition.
@Jubei
“I can almost feel his sphincter tightning up”
Eeew! That’s gross!
In my experience it is true that many of the people who attempt to make the switch from PC’s to Macs end up becoming staunch Mac supporters. I won’t say all – some people make a legitimate effort and just don’t settle into MacOS X for some reason. Others never really give it a fair shot and go running back to Windows, but that is their loss.
The absolute best way to get a Windows user to switch is to make a Mac available to them for a reasonable period of time to give them a chance to experiment without the pressure of having just dropped $1300 or whatever on a new and completely unfamiliar computing experiment. That may be one reason why the Apple Stores are working so well. They give people a chance to dabble in Macs without having to make a big financial commitment. They also immerse these people in a friendly environment that encourages them to explore the computer as a helpful tool, and not just the word processing or spreadsheet juggling box on your desk at work.
M$ is really reaching the bottom when Ballmer says “…feel free [to use a Mac] as long as you are using Office….” M$ has only a few cash cows – Windows, Office, and corporate services/licensing like MS Exchange. Those revenue streams are vulnerable and M$ has limited control in terms of the PC hardware on which they are hosted. So far the PC vendors like Dell, HP, etc. have let them down, just as M$ has let the vendors and public down.
Oh, please. Balmer must think everyone else is as stupid as he is, apparently. I’d rather use Mac OS X on an old scratched up PowerBook G4 than Windows on ANY brand new PC laptop.
If he actually believes Windows market share is suffering because PC makers cannot make cool hardware, he is both stupid and deluded. It’s obvious that Windows market share is suffering for one reason, Windows (and maybe Microsoft’s cheap-is-better-than-cool marketing strategy).
Good lord, what happened there?
*Say what you want about the man, but at least he respects tradition.
A couple of corrections – poor proof-reading…
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The absolute best way to get a Windows user to switch is to make a Mac available to them for a reasonable period of time to give them a chance to experiment without the pressure of having just dropped $1300 or whatever on a new and completely unfamiliar computing *experience*. That may be one reason why the Apple Stores are working so well. They give people a chance to dabble in Macs without having to make a big financial commitment. They also immerse these people in a friendly environment that encourages them to explore the computer as a helpful *and fun* tool, and not just the word processing or spreadsheet juggling box on your desk at work.