“Mary Jo Foley [is] a ZDNet blogger who has covered Microsoft since Bill Gates first emerged from puberty,” Betsy Schiffman reports for Wired.
MacDailyNews Take: Our condolences.
Schiffman sat down with Foley on the occasion of Foley’s new book, Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era. Here are a few snippets that we found interesting:
Wired: When do you think Steve Ballmer will give up or get kicked out?
Foley: I think he’s going to stick to what he said. He said last year he would [serve as CEO] for nine years, because that’s when his youngest son will be in college. I don’t think they’ll get rid of him before then.
Wired: So what do you think of Windows Mobile?
Foley: I’ve avoided it like the plague. Every time I get a new cellphone, everyone always warns me not to get Windows Mobile. The thing’s awful. I think Windows Mobile is a huge challenge for them.
Wired: And what do you think happens to Microsoft after Gates retires?
Foley: There’s always been this dichotomy between “Bill’s guys” and “Steve’s guys.” Steve’s guys have MBAs and their roots are in sales. Bill’s guys have been traditional technologists. The people who are more like Steve will probably get more power and will run the show, so I wonder who’s going to be the tech champion for Bill’s guys. I think that’s going to be a big cultural and noticeable change once Gates is out from his day-to-day duties.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ian K.” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Windows Mobile does indeed suck. If even Foley is saying it, it sucks hard. As for Ballmer and Microsoft, here is a very relevant excerpt from a BusinessWeek interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs from October 12, 2004:
Steve Jobs: How are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly. But after that, the product people aren’t the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It’s the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what’s the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself? So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they’re no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn’t.
BusinessWeek: Is this common in the industry?
Steve Jobs: Look at Microsoft — who’s running Microsoft?
BusinessWeek: Steve Ballmer.
Steve Jobs: Right, the sales guy. Case closed.
Source: The Seed of Apple’s Innovation
Sometimes I’m not sure whether Mary Jo is bending the truth or she’s just ill-informed. There’s certainly a lot of the latter. I well remember her attack on the Mac awhile back. It annoyed a lot of Mac fans, but most of what she said was so ill-informed and so preposterous it amused me.
But never mind what she said about Windows Mobile, she’s unusually disparaging of Microsoft’s main product in thsi bit:
“[Ballmer’s] pretty wedded to a lot of old-school ideas — like, he’s never going to say, “Let’s just toss out Windows and start over,” which is what a lot of people think is necessary.
I’m surprised MDN didn’t pick up on that. It’s not interesting for the comment on Ballmer, who should do what his technical people advise him in matters like this.
It’s interesting because here is Mary Jo of all people actually giving voice in public, however tentatively, to the idea that, frankly, all is not well with Windows and, in fact, it’s a bit of a disaster area.
Dvorak’s just given Vista a really good kicking, too — I don’t think MDN’s picked up on that yet:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2286065,00.asp
Whatever next? Will Paul Thurrott admit the Zune is a piece of trash … oh, wait a minute, he has.
Strange times.
“because that’s when his youngest son will be in college”
Wha? I don’t get the CEO correlation.
For you computer historians out there Steve Job’s comments on how a monopoly is lost couldn’t be more spot on. If anyone remembers Prime Computer, this is exactly what happened. The sales guys took over and were just interested in pushing mini-computers. The development guys left and founded Apollo computer, one of the first true workstations, an idea that the guys at Sun picked up and ran with and the rest is history.
Having used PR1ME at different jobs back in the day, I can tell you that they NEVER were much of a market leader. Maybe relative to Gould and Harris, but DEC was way far ahead of them in sales. AS I recall, even Data General was bigger. (And yes, that was their cutesy format for their name, kind of like NeXT.)
“because that’s when his youngest son will be in college”
“Wha? I don’t get the CEO correlation.”
Because Ballmer is hoping his son will get a lucky dorm assignment thus ensuring his family’s future.
@ HMCIV
“I’d check it out myself but MS Outlook just crashed.’
OMG… Entourage 2008 is CRASH-TASTIC. Which is frustrating, because otherwise it seems so good, far better than anything on the PC side. What in the hell happened? It quits on my at least 4 times per day.
@ Ampar
Ballmer will better be able to bribe the college more easily for a dorm mate from a rich family if he is still CEO – and he hopes to do it with some MS shares.
Gandalf:
Maybe he’s secretly buying Harvard?
Microsoft sycophant = Psycho comfort stain
MJF was on a recent episode of Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrot and Leo Laporte and I have to say she was not sounding the MS sycophant she has in the past. I would never trust her to get anything right concerning the Mac and the overall PC market in general but I don’t think she has much love for Balmer.
@Ampar
I avoid Windows Moble and cliches like the plague.
Wait, what are these boils on my… oh crap!
HMCIV:
@ Ampar and Cubert
A pox on all this talk of plagues!
MS’ customers and priorities are VERY different than Apple’s (though at least as profitable so I don’t knock them). But, interestingly, the best diagnosis of what’s wrong came from Steve Jobs. Who has probably never written a line of code in his life and yet leads his company consistently to skating to where the puck is going to be… technologically.
Yes Gates was a follower, but at least he understood WHAT to follow. The whole waffle-on-Yahoo thing shows how visionless Balmer is.
It’s also clear that Gates hasn’t been hands on for some time. I really don’t think Vista would have happened had he been fully engaged.
Of course, MS without vision makes me kinda happy. As long as we still have Apple to demonstrate that the personal computer is still a good idea and every single thing is NOT best done on the web. The iphone demonstrates that as well… turns out people really do want to develop for devices and OSes… not just for web 2.0.
But if MS keeps losing ground and momentum, maybe Apple really will have to license OSX. Not for 20% share, but yes if MS truly loses it and ipod-level share (70%) is available. But not yet… now is the time to take ipod level share on phone sized computers.
Bill Gates emerged from puberty? Damn. I swear there is no way to keep up.
The entire purpose of the technology industry is to advance technology. Apple does. Windows doesn’t.
Thus inspired, I’m going to go make fun of Microsoft. Maybe later I’ll come back and leave a link.
Guess I’m a little late catching up, but I recently bought a cellphone, too. iPhone is not an option in South Dakota, so I got a red Palm Centro. Looks like I made the right choice for now if even MJ Foley is badmouthing Windows Mobile!!