“Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer defended his company’s record on innovation and financial performance at the annual shareholders’ meeting, but conceded that he should have moved faster to get into the booming tablet market dominated by Apple Inc’s iPad,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters.
“Bill Gates, co-founder and now chairman of the world’s largest software company, was one of the first to champion tablet-sized devices more than 10 years ago, but Microsoft failed to come up with a product that worked as well as the iPad. Gates was silent throughout the meeting, attended by about 450 shareholders,” Rigby reports. “‘We’re innovating on the seam between software and hardware,’ said Ballmer, asked why his company had fallen behind rival Apple. ‘Maybe we should have done that earlier.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Innovating on the what?! Between the where?!
The only real seam Microsoft actually tried to make failed within a day: Microsoft Surface Touch Cover splits open, exposing wire underneath. Photo: Matthew Baxter-Reynolds.
Here’s likely what and who Ballmer was trying to mimic, but failed miserably, as usual:
Edwin Land once told me: “Those people who can stand at the intersection of the humanities and science, the liberal arts and technology, that intersection, are the people who can change the world.” – Steve Jobs
Rigby reports, “A month ago, Microsoft launched the Surface tablet – its first own-brand computer – but has not revealed sales figures. ‘I feel pretty good about our level of innovation,’ he added.”
MacDailyNews Take: Balmy needs to have someone read him the reviews (see related articles below).
Rigby reports, “Ballmer said smartphones running Microsoft’s new Windows software were selling four times as much as they did at this time last year.”
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, so let’s see: one times four equals…
Rigby reports, “Microsoft has never given sales numbers of Windows phones, primarily made by Nokia, Samsung and HTC.”
MacDailyNews Take: It’s the cornerstone of the Bezos School of Lying by Omission.
Rigby reports, “Ballmer, flanked by Gates and Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein, was asked by several shareholders to explain Microsoft’s lackluster share price, which has been stuck for a decade, and has been outperformed by Apple and Google Inc stock in recent years. ‘I understand your comment,’ he told one shareholder. He went on to explain that Microsoft had ‘done a phenomenal job of driving product volumes” and was focusing on profiting from that growth.'”
Microsoft CEO Ballmer
MacDailyNews Take: Did these obviously recently-comatose shareholders give him the finger, laugh in his face or both?
Rigby reports, “Several shareholders at the meeting in Bellevue, an upscale suburb of Seattle, complimented the executives on how they had grown and managed the company.”
MacDailyNews Take: And then they each sat down carefully, removed their helmets and drool cups, and downed yet another plateful of psilocybin mushrooms.
Rigby reports, “Microsoft’s shares stand around the same level they did 10 years ago.”
MacDailyNews Take: Only morbid idiots would take an iPad, something that’s used on the lap, while lounging in a chair, or reclining on a sofa most of the time, and then build something that requires a desk (with a friggin’ kickstand no less, and a keyboard) to operate.
Apple’s truly “fighting” the black knight. In Cupertino, they must laugh their asses off at Microsoft each and every day.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ellis D.” for the heads up.]
Rigby reports, “Ballmer, flanked by Gates and Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein, was asked by several shareholders to explain Microsoft’s lackluster share price, which has been stuck for a decade, and has been outperformed by Apple and Google Inc stock in recent years. ‘I understand your comment,’ he told one shareholder. He went on to explain that Microsoft had ‘done a phenomenal job of driving product volumes” and was focusing on profiting from that growth.'”
