Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, alongside Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski, spoke with CNBC Business News’ Scott Wapner today regarding a variety of subjects, including Microsoft’s Zune and Apple’s iPhone and iPod:
Wapner: Steve, let me ask you about the iPhone and the Zune, if I may. The Zune was getting some traction and Steve Jobs goes to Macworld and he pulls out this iPhone. What was your first reaction when you saw that?
Ballmer: (laughs) $500 full-subsidized with a plan! I said that is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine. Now, it may sell very well or not, I, you know. We have our strategy, we’ve got great Windows Mobile devices in the market today, we, you can get a Motorola Q phone now for $99, it’s a very capable machine, it’ll do music, it’ll do, uh, Internet, it’ll do email, it’ll do instant messaging. So, I, I kinda look at that and I say, well, I like our strategy. I like it a lot.
Wapner: How do you compete with that though? He sucked out a lot of the spotlight in the last few weeks because of what happened at Macworld, not only with the iPhone, but with the new iPod. How do you compete with that, with the Zune?
Ballmer: Right now, well, let’s take phones first. Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year (half smile). In six months, they’ll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace (laughs) and let’s see (shrugs), you know, eh, what’s the expression, let’s see how the competition goes. In the case of music and entertainment players, Apple ob.., uh, absolutely has a preeminent position. We said we wanna be in this market, there’s a lot of reasons why there’s synergy with other things that we’re doing, we think we’ve got some unique innovations – particularly what we’re doing with community, with wireless networking. And, we came into the market, a market in which they are very strong, and we took, I don’t know, but I think most estimates would say we took about 20-25% of the high end of the market. We weren’t down at some of the lower price points, but for devices $249 and over we took, you know, let’s say about 20% of the market. So, I feel like we’re in the game, we’re driving our innovation hard, uh, and, uh, okay, we’re not the incumbent, he’s the incumbent in this game, but, uh, at the end of the day, he’s going to have to keep up, uh, an agenda that we’re gonna drive as well.
Wapner: You still feel like you can be very competitive in that space?
Ballmer: Sure. Absolutely. If we didn’t think there was transformation going on, we woudn’t be playing.
Full CNBC video: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=167100574
MacDailyNews Take: It is very evident that Ballmer has nothing. That he goes straight into FUD mode with the outright lie that Apple’s iPhone is “the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace” shows fear. Apple’s iPhone does have a keyboard, of course, as Ballmer probably knows full well; maybe not, as he seems to lack understanding about prices, DMP market share, and more.
Microsoft’s Zune is a primitive device to begin with; next to an iPhone, it is even more of a joke than it is now, if that’s possible. Today’s so-called “smartphones” with Windows Mobile and other operating systems look like last decade’s technology next to Apple’s iPhone.
Ballmer can bluster all he likes with nonsense such as “we’re driving our innovation hard” and babbling about some unknown “agenda” that Microsoft’s supposedly “gonna drive,” but he has nothing of substance to offer.
Microsoft should be embarrassed at their total lack of innovation and Microsoft should be embarrassed that they even have Steve Ballmer as an employee, much less as their CEO.
Related articles:
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
The Motley Fool: Apple makes Microsoft’s Zune a paperweight – January 10, 2007
RealMoney’s Comeau predicts: ‘Microsoft will kill the first Zune media player by midyear’ – December 16, 2006
Microsoft Zune plummets to 5th place in U.S. digital media player market share with 2.1 percent – December 04, 2006
watch closely.. you can almost see the thought bubbles…
“Shit. Apple figured out how to sell the UMPC that we couldn’t give away…”
I get loud static when trying to play the youtube version, and the other link won’t play… weird!
Anyone else having problems?
STEVE BALLMER HAS NO CLUE ABOUT CELLPHONES,he sad iphone is the most expensive on earth maybe he should check out some high end NOKIA cellphones($700-$900).
he is an idiot .
Ballmer is the modern day equivalent to Nero fiddling while Rome was burning…
Pathetic!
Ballmer math: (No one has a Zune) / (Everyone has an iPod) = 20%-25%
WTF!!
And anyone with any experience in this market knows that there are smart phones that don’t have half of the iPhone’s capabilities available *today* that cost more than the iPhone. Go check in any cell phone store. And he knows that.
Incompetent boob.
Does anyone remember the episode of The X-Files in the last season where The Lone Gunman have fallen on hard times and have been forced to sell their Macs and get one lone buggy, and unreliable PC running Windows XP (I nearly wet my pants at that one)? The only reason most people use Windows at all is because they are forced to. The crack they are smoking in Seattle must be pretty special crack if Ballmer is any indication . . . and it’s amazing what they’ve done with ape cross-breeding. Very cutting edge stuff, kids.
“And, we came into the market, a market in which they are very strong, and we took, I don’t know, but I think most estimates would say we took about 20-25% of the high end of the market.”
…For any sufficiently narrow definition of “high end”.
less than $245: low end
more than $245 and less than $250: high end
more than $250: super high end
Ballmer! ROTFLMAO! LOL! BALLMER! HAAA!
That guy is a load that should have been swallowed! LOL!!!!!
BALLMER!!!! Oooof! ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
botton line…….he’s worth 20 plus billion and doesn’t give a crap about your opinions
i would gladly trade places with ballmer, including that ugly mug & body for that kind of dough. wuold you trust your girlfriend if she had a chance to be mrs ballmer or his mistress?
i envy steve ballmer!
“Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year”. On what freakin’ planet, you lying sack of crap?
My gawd!!! I sure hope you’re joking. The only person lower than Steve Ballmer would be the loser who would envy that fat turd. I’d rather live in abject poverty. Oh wait, I already am. Nevermind.
That was just on TV? I thought Peter Boyle passed away a couple of weeks ago.
Did MDN insert all those “Uh” remarks in Ballmer’s ravings or is that verbatim? I didn’t get to actually see the video. Maybe when I get home. If they didn’t, Ballmer really is a fat sack of lying, stupid shit.
MSFT is shipping millions and millions of phones? Really now Mr. Ballmer, last I checked your bug-riddled, crippled OS was merely loaded onto other’s phones – you make it sound like MSFT designed and sold their own phones. The truth is that you shelved your home phone hardware because you couldn’t even sell that!
As someone that made their living on MSFT technology, I’m embarassed at the direction SB has taken MSFT. He’s done a great job of running a good OS into the ground.
On top of that, lies will get you no where.
And people still wonder why M$ can’t deliver great products…
With the CEO of the company being such a moron, how could they?
The guy can’t even talk properly… I would never trust a CEO that hesitates so much in a conversation.
Truly pathetic.
“And, we came into the market, a market in which they are very strong, and we took, I don’t know, but I think most estimates would say we took about 20-25% of the high end of the market.”
Right before he reels off his 20-25% stat, he states that he doesn’t know.
WTF?
Zune is getting traction.
the only traction is from brown skid marks…
And we all know where that is from.
no amount of traction can help you on a slippery slope
and yes, Balmer can be held accountable for “hype” BUT who is going to nail him?
I thought Peter Boyle passed away a couple of weeks ago.
He did. And he would still make a better CEO for Microsoft than “Dances With Monkeys”. But would he be as funny?
Balmer can be held accountable for “hype” BUT who is going to nail him?
Surely all it takes is one “disappointed” shareholder. And a team of parasitic lawyers, or – as I like to call them – lawyers.
If you really want to nail him, buy a few shares. And then start a class action.
What a buffoon. Uncle Fester is the perfect name for him.
Hahaha! Just wait until the iPod line is refreshed with 60/100 GB models using the same functionality as the iPhone (minus the cell phone parts which allow for the harddrive). Voila. Instant WiFi iPod running a full version of OSX and can iChat, do photos, video, music, and whatever else it will be able to do by the summer.
Poor Balmer.
Someone should take responsibility for MSFT’s stock price. What can you say about its board?
Q: What was your first reaction when you saw it?
A: He obviously didn’t see it. No keyboard? Overpriced?
It is an iPod ($199 for 4GB or $249 for 8GB), a phone ($399 for a “smart” phone like a Blackberry), and an internet navigator unlike anythin g on the market today ($you name the value here$).
You cannot buy a $99 phone and get the package of services that Apple gives you. There is NO comparison because no one else can use OS X, or iTunes.
His real reaction was to throw several Zunes against the wall, and a few chairs through the window.
Apple just made all the smart phones on the planet dumb phones.
Ballmer… one of the greatest standup comedians of our time. His “delusional” routine is very realistic too. Nobody does it better, not even the other Stooges: Dvorak, Enderle, Thurrott. Hope those guys get together to make some movies; the world needs more belly-laughs. Glad to see MDN has a Comedy section.
ZuneTang = ZuneTits