Steve Ballmer was interviewed by German newspaper “Die WELT” in an article published yesterday and some questions touched on Apple Computer, Inc. Martin Stein has provided an English translation on his weblog, “Martin Stein’s Publishing Weblog.”
Stein prefaces the Q&A section with, “After asking Steve if he has a ‘Apple Computer,’ he says that he does not have a Mac nor a iPod. ‘Of course, I have to know the devices. We have to know what the competitors do,’ [Ballmer said].”
Die WELT: But couldn’t you just buy a Mac without hesitation since Apple opened up their machines for Windows?
Ballmer: No, we prefer real PCs.
Die WELT: Was it a satisfaction that Apple had to give in?
Ballmer: Honestly, I don’t think that it is that important. Actually, it is relatively expensive if a user gets a separate Windows OS for his Mac. Not a lot of people will do this.
Die WELT: Apple is leading in the Music business as well. Does this bother you?
Ballmer: No question, it would have been better if the iPod would have been a Microsoft invention. The device is really popular. Apple didn’t invent anything new. They just combined existing technologies in a smart way. They succeeded to create a nice package which bundles Music services, devices and software.
Die WELT: Is Apple’s success reason enough to copy them?
Ballmer: This wasn’t the last word in this competition. Over the next years, a lot of things will happen in the market of portable devices. Who wants to carry different devices to listen to Music, to play games, to take pictures or to communicate with others? A small, integrated device will master many functions. We won’t be simply watching this development.
Die WELT: Is Apple unbeatable?
Ballmer: Which company would be able to compete with Apple at these days? It can only be Microsoft or Apple stays without any serious competitor. I think, everybody deserves some competition.
Stein’s full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy” for the heads up.]
Die WELT’s full article in German here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Die WELT, Apple “gave in.” Whatever. Embrace, then extinguish. In a head-to-head Mac OS X vs. Windows XP comparison — exactly what users will get with new Macs with “Boot Camp” and soon, Mac OS X Leopard, running Windows and/or Windows applications — even with people steeped in Windows’ upside-down and backwards “experience” for years, we’re quite confident that we know which platform most people will choose to use most often.
So, Ballmer prefers “real PCs?” What is that supposed to mean? Ballmer should just state, “I am pompous know-nothing asshat.” It achieves the same purpose with a bit more clarity.
Oh, now Microsoft’s going to compete with iPod+iTunes? Haven’t they been trying to do so for the nearly half a decade since Apple debuted the iPod? With what exactly will Microsoft compete? Vapor? Some also-ran third-party online music outfit; aren’t hundreds of Microsoft WMA-based failures enough? That piece of crap Origami that even the OEM’s CEOs can’t figure out how to operate? Microsoft can’t even copy correctly; they never could. Microsoft can’t even get the warmed over, slipping-for-years, stripped-down mess Windows XP SP3 that they’re going to try to sell as “Windows Vista” out the door, towel-less Microsoft employees are on the verge of mutiny, Microsoft shares tumbled 11.4% on Friday, their biggest one-day drop in 5 years, and Ballmer thinks he can compete with a lean, mean Apple that been firing on all cylinders for years now? Ballmer, along with the vast majority of the world and most of Wall Street, are in for quite a shock. The jig is almost up, Monkey Boy. Enjoy your golden parachute ride.
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ron – I mean Apple owners thinking of buying a Windows PeeCee to run the newest video games or whatever other software that is not available for the Mac.
By Apple allowing Windows on Apples this helps stop any of those PC sales. (The bad news will be that people will see how fast and snappy XP is compared to OSX.)
Apple with it move to Intel chips and now Bootcamp is moving towards the Windows world. Again, why would a Windows user buy a Mac to run Windows? Doesn´t make sense.
>a defensive move by Apple to halt PC sales by Apple owners.>
>queezie, Apple owners do not sell pc’s. Again, words mean things.
English is a great language when used correctly.
Ballmer: “Actually, it is relatively expensive if a user gets a separate Windows OS for his Mac.”
I’ll be damned if Monkey Boy didn’t get this one 100% correct. In addition to buying a copy of XP there is the cost of the anti-virus software, the security software, the time lost and wasted when you STILL get viruses and when XP freezes and or crashes, etc. And of course there is the cost of upgrading to Vista when it hits the market just in time for the 2008 holiday shopping season……..
Thought criminal… You don’t know the history of stinking lame-brained zoophiliac pedophile LIZARDS. I do!
Isn’t it amazing that Ballmer has successfully driven MSFT, one of the strongest, most pervasive companies in the world a few years ago, into the ground?
All that’s left of them is remnants of their massive user base, which is already being chipped away at.
There’s no hope for them, they’ve been on the decline and there is no way to turn it around at this point.
Sweet justice
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Maybe someone has already said this…..if so, sorry for the redundant shite droppings.
It’s a fact that a whole lot of windows users out there did not upgrade their OS for years for whatever number of reasons. What does this portend?
It means there are a lot of consumers who own a copy of windows 2000 or windows xp who will at some point upgrade their hardware and and see the rationale for a mac purchase while still hanging on to that 2000 or xp disc to keep them in that comfort zone for a while. wtf. There’s no need to think about buying a windows OS to install on that new leopard driven machine. They already own one.
Personally, I think that adds up to a nice bump in market share not to mention a steady incline to the installed mac base.
Was in Apple store the other day.
Overheard conversation that went basically like this.
Windows PC owner came in hearing that Macs run Windows. He was interested in seeing it Windows running on an Apple computer.
Apple store – We don´t have Windows on Macs to see.
Windows PC guy – What? So how do I know it works?
—
Windows PC guy – Do you install windows on Apple computer for me?
Apple Store: No. We don´t provide any support for Windows on Macs.
—
Windows PC guy in discussion about installing it – “So I am totally unfamiliar with Mac OS and Mac computers and you expect me to install Windows on it?
Apple Store: Well, maybe you could get a friend or somebody to help you.
Windows guy leaves store empty handed.
Was in Apple store the other day.
Overheard conversation that went basically like this.
Windows PC owner came in hearing that Macs run Windows. He was interested in seeing it Windows running on an Apple computer.
Apple store – We don´t have Windows on Macs to see.
Windows PC guy – What? So how do I know it works?
—
Windows PC guy – Do you install windows on Apple computer for me?
Apple Store: No. We don´t provide any support for Windows on Macs.
—
Windows PC guy in discussion about installing it – “So I am totally unfamiliar with Mac OS and Mac computers and you expect me to install Windows on it?
Apple Store: Well, maybe you could get a friend or somebody to help you.
Windows guy leaves store empty handed.
Was in Apple store the other day.
Overheard conversation that went basically like this.
Windows PC owner came in hearing that Macs run Windows. He was interested in seeing it Windows running on an Apple computer.
Apple store – We don´t have Windows on Macs to see.
Windows PC guy – What? So how do I know it works?
—
Windows PC guy – Do you install windows on Apple computer for me?
Apple Store: No. We don´t provide any support for Windows on Macs.
—
Windows PC guy in discussion about installing it – “So I am totally unfamiliar with Mac OS and Mac computers and you expect me to install Windows on it?
Apple Store: Well, maybe you could get a friend or somebody to help you.
Windows guy leaves store empty handed.
Was in Apple store the other day.
Overheard conversation that went basically like this.
Windows PC owner came in hearing that Macs run Windows. He was interested in seeing it Windows running on an Apple computer.
Apple store – We don´t have Windows on Macs to see.
Windows PC guy – What? So how do I know it works?
—
Windows PC guy – Do you install windows on Apple computer for me?
Apple Store: No. We don´t provide any support for Windows on Macs.
—
Windows PC guy in discussion about installing it – “So I am totally unfamiliar with Mac OS and Mac computers and you expect me to install Windows on it?
Apple Store: Well, maybe you could get a friend or somebody to help you.
Windows guy leaves store empty handed.
Ballmar is really a paid secret agent for Apple infiltrated into Microsoft to destroy the company. He can´t be fired because he has photos from his college days with Gates that show Bill Gates in a compromising position. Think Bill and Ram (not the computer kind, but the baa-baa kind).
It’s really like boiling a frog (baller & co.) in water.
Put the frog into boiling water, and he jumps out immediatley sensing something is wrong.
But, put the frog in the water when it’s cold, slowly heat it up until it’s boiling…the frog doesn’t realize what he’s in for..and he dies.
Similarly, if Steve Jobs announced one day that Apple would be moving to intel processors, and that you could dual-boot Windows and MacOS, MS would have had to realized this as was a real threat.
Doing it in gradually, while denying anything Windows-related, is the mastery of Steve Jobs and how he’s hoodwinked MS into thinking the move to intel processors was just about performance per watt.
Even if the frog realizes right before that he’s about to boil…it’s too late.
Mister Grnkman & his pet Lizard, Red Sheila
In CompUSA last week, I saw Windows running on an iMac and told the salesman about Parallels. CompUSA is generally the worst place to look at anything Apple.
Mister Grnkman,
I was in an Apple store last week too, and I asked if they had 1 computer running Windows, just becuase I was curious.
The guy must of thought I was a Windows user. He smiled smugly and said no.
Apple is missing a huge opportunity here. But this is a potential boon to other resellers, who should not hesitate for a second.
…but Intel Macs are real PCs. The fact that they boot Windows natively pretty much fits the textbook definition of a “PC” as most people mean it (an x86 box).
Macs are Intel PCs with a single button mouse and otherwise really nice design. The only proprietary thing about them is their ability to run Mac OS X.
Mister Grnkman the assclown;
At my local CompUSA (western MA) the Apple rep told me quite plainly that he’s witnessed, conservatively, a 15% uptick in Mac sales since the Boot Camp announcement. 15%!
I was in there one day getting a hard drive and I personally witnessed a professional PC-using woman grilling him about running Windows on a Mac. He happily answered her questions. She bought an iMac.
A couple who are friends of ours who own their own business like us but are wall-to-wall PC users have asked about these developments each time they’ve come over in the last few weeks to watch DVD’s. He is the president of their company, and he’s just salivating about being able to run Windows software without actually running Windows, and the possibility of maybe being able to do that with Leopard.
All of this is ALREADY HAPPENING and the general public at large doesn’t even really know anything about this development. Can you imagine what’ll happen soon if Apple actually (gasp!) STARTS TO ADVERTISE THE MAC AND THIS FEATURE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC?!?!?!?
“A small, integrated device will master many functions. We won’t be simply watching this development.”
In other words, MS will once again try to be all things to all people, not only making this device’s primary functions difficult to use, but making each of the 97 functions they will force into it an unbearable user experience.
Ballmer = idiot
nuff said
Ballmer is the best asset Apple has.
As a PC user who picked up a Mini last year and is thinking of switching to an iMac or one of the upcoming PowerMac replacements as his “main” computer, I come to this site regularly to see what is going on in the world of Macs. I like the Mac and think it’s a great OS, but will still run XP and Vista on when it comes out. I can understand the appeal of Macs and am fully aware of all the good and bad on both sides.
Having said all that, is it really necessary to refer to Balmer as an “asshat”? How old is the person posting the MDN take – 12? I mean really, if you want to convert people and brag up the OS and Apple it would be FAR more effective to present a logical argument on why a person would want to do so rather than early teen potty-talk. I realize that Microsoft has given people a reason to dislike them but the zealot behavior of the Mac (and Linux) fanatics hurts far more than it helps. Microshaft? M$? Microsucks? Please. I am firmly convinced that the attitudes and ranting of the anti-Microsoft crowd has slowed down people who may be on the fence looking at alternatives. If web sites want to be taken seriously, an even token attempt at acting professional would go a long way. If you want to rant, that’s what blogs are for.
ron – A different take. I too saw an iMac running Windows at our local CompUSA store. Just about everyone in the Apple section played around with that iMac sooner or later. Since the Apple owned stores will not show a Mac running Windows, it’s great that other stores do. CompUSA and others complete the marketing picture.
Peace.
…a 15% uptick in Mac sales since the Boot Camp announcement. 15%!
Great, so now Apple’s world-side market share is about to go from 3% to 3.45%. We’ll have the dominant platform in another few decades.
Uhhh…Mr. Ballmer, when a Mac is running Windows, it is a real PC, duh! Queezie, I see WindowsXP online for only $130. That’s pocket change.
http://getkickedoffaplanewearingthis.blogspot.com/
Ballmer: No, we prefer real PCs.
Had Die Welt only then prodded Ballmer to describe, in sufficient detail, what a “real PC” is the world would know the true expansiveness of Ballmer’s thinking.
Ballmer: The (iPod) is really popular. Apple didn’t invent anything new. They just combined existing technologies in a smart way. They succeeded to create a nice package which bundles Music services, devices and software.
Faint praise from the weak of heart and meager of mind. Ballmer’s pathetic response only begs the question, if Apple’s iPod and iTMS were so clearly obvious as successful business endeavors, why didn’t Microsoft “package” this “bundle” first?
Ballmer: But every now and then, where it makes sense, Microsoft could build its own devices.
A truly vague, ill-defined, and overly optimistic response. I get a sense that there is no real vision, purpose, or direction in Redmond. Based on recent history it seems unlikely that Microsoft would realize opportunity if it knocked on the front door or recognize failure when it stared them in the face.
Ballmer: We will let you know what (our own innovative devices) will look like when the time is ready.
Not a hint of upcoming products? No secrets to reveal? Nothing to entice the imagination? No boasting, no swagger, no self-assurance. It seems that Mr. Ballmer is the perfect caricature of Mr. Bumble and the Windows masses as clones of Oliver Twist. Flee, Oliver, while you have the chance.
MDN, where DO you dig up these evil pictures of Ballmer?