“The word ‘intense’ was invented for [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer, who met with us in a green room that had a paper sign with his name taped to the door. While he was at first warm and engaging, a question about security features shifted his mood. His eyes, soft when he smiles, grew dark. The usually boisterous Ballmer became unexpectedly quiet and soon exited the room without saying goodbye. Still, he had a lot to say… before he did,” Dyan Machan reports for SmartMoney Magazine.
A few choice snippets:
Machan: Steve Jobs’s iPhone announcement stole the thunder from Bill Gates’s keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show. Do you wish you had the iPhone?
Ballmer: No. Apple has put its brand into a new category. That doesn’t mean it’s a good product. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of our partners came out with a device that looks exactly the same at a lower price in six or seven months [near the time when iPhones will ship]. There’s a notion that there’s magic with Apple. iPod is a hot brand — not Apple.
Machan: But Apple is in the home, winning in the very place Microsoft has identified as important to its strategy — that is, entertainment.
Ballmer: It’s a romantic notion that Apple has the lead. People who build overpriced, underpowered equipment and then market it in an edgy way do not have a formula for broad success. In the home there are PCs; Apple has no presence. There are videogame machines; Apple has no presence. TVs: Apple has no presence; Microsoft has some presence. Music: Apple has a very large presence [via the iPod]; Microsoft has an interesting presence in the high-end market.
Machan: You mean the Zune? Please.
Ballmer: We don’t kid ourselves. We won’t come out our first Christmas and take over. There will be a phase two and three. But at the end of the day, entertainment devices will be a very good business for us.
Machan: People complain about feature bloat. Most of us use 5 to 10% of features. People won’t buy for features.
Ballmer: No. They will buy for features. People use more of these products than they think. Maybe you couldn’t write [a great PowerPoint presentation]. But now you can read it. The user interface is sexier. Sex sells.
Machan: What part of Bill Gates’s job stretches you the most?
Ballmer: There’s no replacing Bill Gates. I gotta go.
More in the full interview, including the security questions, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dave” for the heads up.]
Certainly, any Microsoft shareholder with a brain would concur with Ballmer’s last sentence. Selfishly, we hope he stays long enough to ride the ship all the way down to its well-deserved watery grave. Microsoft has an interesting presence in the high-end music market? Please, indeed. Kudos to Dyan Machan for going at Ballmer hard. The Zune is a joke. Vista is a bloated, messy joke with an interface that even the most-delusional know is trying to look like Apple’s Mac OS X. Hey, “sex sells,” right? Ballmer’s hope to compete with iPhone is the same old, same old Microsoft business-as-usual: make it “look” like an Apple product to fool the ignorant. What’s really interesting about this is Ballmer’s Gates-like hasty exit: even they seem to be so tired of hearing their own B.S. that there’s no point of continuing their charades. For their shareholders, Microsoft really ought to keep Ballmer and Gates off the interview circuit until they get their Apple envy under control.
Related articles:
AT&T has received 1 million Apple iPhone inquiries so far – March 27, 2007
Train wreck: Windows Vista flaw locks up PCs when users try to delete, copy, move files – March 27, 2007
Bill Gates not amused when asked about Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ ads – March 15, 2007
Gates dumps Microsoft stock – March 05, 2007
Why Apple’s smart ‘Get a Mac’ campaign drives Bill Gates crazy – March 04, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer talks infected feet, profuse sweating, and Windows Vista – February 21, 2007
Ballmer says pirates to blame for poor Vista sales – February 19, 2007
Bill Gates: Vista is so secure it could run life support systems – February 16, 2007
Ballmer calls Apple ‘cute, little tiny niche guy’ – February 15, 2007
Microsoft’s Gates tries FUD to keep people from switching to Apple’s secure Mac – February 12, 2007
Bill Gates unhinged with Apple envy; Microsoft on path to become high profile casualty – February 06, 2007
Bill Gates has lost his mind: calls Apple liars, copiers; slams Mac OS X security vs. Windows – February 02, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 2007
Bill Gates lists Microsoft ‘innovations’ that Apple has offered Mac users for years – January 30, 2007
Gates bristles over Vista, Mac OS X comparisons – January 29, 2007
Apple #1 brand in North Amercia, #2 after Google in global rank – January 26, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
Bill Gates confronted by glowing Apple logos as every single blogger at meeting uses Macs – December 15, 2006
Ballmer: ‘Zune halo effect’ will help Windows Vista – December 06, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune selling like snotcakes – November 15, 2006
Ballmer: I’m Microsoft’s ‘primary champion of innovation’ – July 27, 2006
Microsoft CEO Ballmer spends two days unsuccessfully trying to clean Windows PC malware – June 05, 2006
Couldn’t you just buy a Mac and run Windows? Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘No, we prefer real PCs’ – April 29, 2006
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admits to brainwashing his kids not to use Apple iPods – March 28, 2006
Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘Apple iPod users are music thieves’ – October 04, 2004
Microsoft CEO Ballmer on the digital home: ‘There is no way that you can get there with Apple’ – October 03, 2004
Fuckin fantastic!
Where’s my chair!!
love the picture!!
What color is the sky in his world?
It’s a shame MicroSlut has to be such a tough cookie. Apple and Microsoft could have ruled the world together if they wanted to work together. Oh well…
-Pi
Smart “Monkey” Magzine
MW: show, as in, “Show me the Monkey!”
Don’t blame Balmer for walking out. The interviewer was asking retarded questions and I’m surprised Balmer didn’t call him on it. One of the worst tech interviews I’ve read in a long time.
Market value down from $600 billion to $270 billion that it is today is well done.
Microsofs´s market value will be down to $150 billion soon. The Leviathan is sinking no doubt about it.
He and Gates are feeling pressured. It’s gotta’ suck to constantly be asked about your much smaller, much sleeker rival. Basically, they keep getting asked: why do you suck? and do you realize you’re really, really boring, Señor Copycat?
Who knows more about what is sexy than Ballmer?
That’s a no-brainer. Literally.
jeff wrote:
“The interviewer was asking retarded questions…”
Your painful grammar aside, what exactly was “retarded” about these questions? They were very reasonable in my opinion.
MDN take is right on. We DO NOT want this man to leave the ship Microsoft. We DO NOT want a motivated visionary taking over and erasing the culture of “no taste” left by Gates/Allen/Ballmer. Be sad, the day this man leaves.
MW: With. Microsoft is better off (for us) WITH this man!
Note to MSFT shareholders: Uncle Fester’s got to go.
-jcr
Ballmer = biggest retarded dork ever
I’m glad someone finally had the guts to call out Ballmer on some of his bullsh*t for a change. That’s why the moron monkey walked out of the interview so quickly.
“You mean the Zune? Please.” Sums that up perfectly.
Not a word about quality, Ballmer’s whole auro, along with MS, is all about power and control, quality isn’t even in the game plan. Its all about winning consequences be damned. I think – I hope, that’s becoming more and more obvious to potential buyers.
And I have to disagree with some of MDN’s take: VISTA is NOT a joke, its a deadly cancer that a lot of people and businesses are going to pay dearly for, well above and beyond the cost of purchase.
All together MS really is just a a shitty company isn’t it.
The word I was trying for in the first sentence was “aura”. Peace.
You mean the Zune? Please. – LOL
A somewhat related interview with Steve Ballmer, as far as sex and Microsoft.
Balmer is definately in his own little fantasy island. Bill, the plane, the plane, screams balmer.
I really don’t know why Microsoft and Mr. Bill haven’t gotten rid of Balmer years ago.
Apple has taken over completely the home market in Video, and music and downloads. The iphone is so hot even before it has even been released people on Ebay are charging $1200.00 for something that doesn’t exist and people are actually trying to buy them!
Yes Balmer, you just stay in your little fantasy island and Apple will be visiting you very soon.
” . . . who met with us in a green room that had a paper sign with his name taped to the door.”
Ballmer made the sign himself over a two week period using Vista Paint. It will be saved for his refrigerator.
There will be a phase two and three… right ok and i guarantee that he doesnt have the foggiest idea of what that is. how can he? all ms does is implement a poor copy of Apple.
The Zune is a great example of this. i really cant stop laughing about the zune though, i mean 5 years after the iPod, all they can do is rebadge a toshiba (really thinking this is going to compete with the iPod?) give it a crap UI, then a couple months later Apple announce the iPhone, which blows everything out of the water including anything in the mobile phone sector!!!!, and all microsoft can say is “Microsoft has an interesting presence in the high-end market”.
ROFL it sure is interesting you dickhead, interesting how full of sh*t you are.
More and more are seeing that the Emperor has no clothes.
ROFL!
Yet another fantastic piece of media interviewing!
Has anyoen actually trained Ballmer how to speak through and deal with the press??
I have been media trained for TV, press interviews etc and I look like a media expert compared to him!
Jesus – A CEO of one of the most influential companies in the world talking absolute bollocks.
He has’nt a clue how to deal with the press… but then again, what do you expect from a salesman with no sales skills.
I get the impression he treats all his employees like shit… I wonder how I got that impression…
He is also in a state of extreme denial, he cannot accept that Bill Gates is finished with Microsoft (thank god!).
We’ll heere’s a tip Ballmer, you want to turn around the bad press? – start talking through them NOT to them. The press are a vessel to get YOUR message across. Instead of bullshiting all the competition, speak to them about positive features, what Microsoft is doing to combat Apple’s presence.
You need some training!!
I think he’s gettin’ one up. You know, a little boner…