“Steve Ballmer was sobbing. He repeatedly tried to speak and couldn’t get the words out. Minutes passed as he tried to regain his composure. But the audience of 130 of Microsoft’s senior leaders waited patiently, many of them crying too,” David Kirkpatrick reports for Fortune. “They knew that the CEO was choked up because this executive retreat, held in late March at a resort north of Seattle, was the last ever for company co-founder Bill Gates, as well as for Jeff Raikes, one of the company’s longest-tenured executives. ‘I’ve spent more time with these two human beings than with anyone else in my life,’ Ballmer finally said. ‘Bill and Jeff have been my North Star and kept me going. Now I’m going to count on all of you to be there for me.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Dork. Supposedly, Microsoft is Ballmer’s “family.” If true, that’s really sad. See: Microsoft CEO Ballmer: I’m outta here in 9 or 10 years; as soon as my last kid goes away to college – June 05, 2008. “Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go… I owe my soul to the company store.” Ballmer can’t even manage his own priorities, much less a multi-billion dollar company. Maybe they’re not just crocodile tears, it could be that he’s really, genuinely crying — because he knows there’s no unprepared sugared water salesbozo around to sign away Apple’s company jewels this time.
Kirkpatrick continues, “What the executives were witnessing was the end of an era. On July 1, Gates officially retires from daily duties at the software giant. He’s leaving in order to begin a second life as a full-time philanthropist and to explore his dizzying range of intellectual interests.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, the vertigo is intense when you’ve spent the last 25 years staring 850 miles due south.
Kirkpatrick continues, “But his departure raises some obvious and very large questions about the future of Microsoft: Can the now $60 billion behemoth keep finding new ways to grow? Will Ballmer and his lieutenants be able to successfully adapt their products to an increasingly web-driven world? In short, does the company have what it takes to thrive without its iconic founder at the helm?”
MacDailyNews Take: No. No. And no.
Kirkpatrick continues, “And then there’s Apple. From the iPod to the iMac to the iPhone, its products have cornered the market on cool. Apple’s small share of the PC market in the U.S. is growing fast – it was 7.4% in the first quarter of 2008, up from 5.1% a year earlier, according to International Data Corp. (IDC). Perhaps even more alarming, its ubiquitous ‘Get a Mac’ TV ads have painted the personal computer loaded with Windows software – the central achievement of Gates’ 33 years at Microsoft – as a loser. To a lot of consumers out there, Microsoft really does seem like that bumbling nebbish played by Daily Show contributor John Hodgman.”
“The feud with Apple is mostly about honor. It pains Ballmer and his troops react viscerally when they watch those Apple ads – and when they see how much they’ve harmed Microsoft’s reputation. The consulting firm CoreBrand calculates Microsoft has declined from 11th among global brands in 2004 to 59th today, and reports that the two-year-old ‘Get a Mac’ campaign has almost certainly played a role,” Kirkpatrick reports.
Kirkpatrick reports, “The ads hurt even more because they strike a nerve… Ballmer does not intend to keep tolerating Apple’s insults.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Buy a Dell and get a Zune?” Sounds more like a prison term than a marketing promotion.
Full article, in which Kirkpatrick looks at Microsot’s plans to make Windows “cool” with a new marketing campaign, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
I for one cannot wait to see MS’s big ad campaign later this year.
Let’s see, it has been 3 years in the making and is put together by a committee. If you replace 3 with 7, that reminds me of something else MS recently did that was a huge success.
These ads are definitely going to be good! I can almost feel the WOW. I hope I’m sitting down when the first one appears on my TV so I don’t fall on my ass laughing.
Give the guy a break, after all he is human. Forget that monkey boy stuff, anyways man has 99% of the same genes as monkeys it’s just that in most people the 1% takes precedence.
They guy has a computer in his head and runs a computer company, it’s obvious, where’s your sense of logic, you should buy a computer off him not a toy MAC from Apple.
Apple charges you lots of money for their computers and operating systems, I mean to keep current with MAC SOX you would have spent hundreds more than XP service packs and the glorious Vista. Live is great, and MSN, and HotMail, and they are all free, just watch up to fifteen minutes advertising out of every hour of your free time, and that’s free otherwise it wouldn’t be called free.
“Maybe the resident dorks at MDN need to grow up a little.”
“IF I DON’T SEE A RETRACTION OF THE FIRST PART OF THE MDN TAKE ON THIS STORY BY 11 PM PST TODAY, I AM FOREVER DONE WITH THIS BOARD.”
R4D5…
Maybe try following your own advice.
BTW… thanks for clearing a little bandwidth for the rest of us.
There are a few regular trolls here that should make and own up to that kind of promise.
Rarely have I encountered such a piece of rank hagiography. Reminds me why I dropped FORTUNE.
It’s going to take a lot more than repackaging and marketing, not to mention those 11×17 sheets of numbers, to improve Microsoft’s standing. Apple succeeds not because Jobs tells people Apple’s products are “cool”. The customer makes an emotional connection with the product and concludes “wow, that’s cool!” And those “Get a Mac” ads that get under their skin? It’s because Apple makes visceral what the customer has long felt: that Windows sucks, and there’s a better alternative out there.
First, I would like to thank MDN for altering their MDN take to read as it now does, whether or not I was the catalyst for the revision. I no longer consider you guys dorks, and you are responsive to your readers.
To those who supported my comments: it looks like we were right.
To all my detractors, the original MDN Take read: “Dork. Microsoft is Ballmer’s family. That’s what’s really sad”. Now it reads: Dork. Supposedly, Microsoft is Ballmer’s “family.” If true, that’s really sad.” Also, it looks like MDN revised other parts.
In sum, I am vindicated, and will continue to visit and post on this board.
There is no reason that ragging on MS can’t be tempered with a little civility.
I’m very happy with my Apple products and recommend Apple to others. I use Excel because it does for my business what Numbers can’t.
I prefer Apple over Microsoft and Jobs over Gates or Ballmer.
But, I don’t understand the impulse to spew vitriol at Microsoft, Gates and Ballmer the way so many people on this site do. What does it help? And how does it sound to people new to Apple and to this site? You welcome them by crapping all over the place they come from?
I also don’t get what personal attacks have to do with Microsoft and it leadership or products.
As to the family comment he made, I have several ‘families’–my own, my closest friends, my work mates–and I care for all of them. I’d hate to think that I could only express my feelings for one of them by invalidating the feelings I have for another.
Last words: Well aimed ribbing is often deserved, fun and funny but when it gets really nasty it can leave a bad aftertaste. Even when you disagree others I believe it only makes sense to treat them with the same basic respect you would like to be treated with by those who disagree with you. It feels better..and you seldom win friends, or converts, by spitting at them.
R5D4,
…the guy is a human being…
Are you so sure?
…and deserves to be accorded a basic level of respect to which we are all entitled…
Uh, huh. Just like the deep level of respect that he has when he and his company ruthlessly killed hundreds of companies putting thousands and thousands of skilled, hard-working, career-minded, tax-paying, family-oriented people out of work.
It’s not enough that has he made money for his company — indeed, his fuduciary duty. But, he’s prevented others from getting theirs. Why would he do this? What kind of compassionate human would feel compelled to work to get his earnings — yet, work HARDER to destroy yours?
This is the first post I’ve EVER seen from you. And you come in with your blowhard demands.
I suspect that this is a sock-puppet account, never INTENDED for more than a single use at MDN.
You are a silly person, if you think we are stupid enough not to believe you’ll be here after 2am tomorrow. With a ‘new’ new handle, or re-use an old one.
If not, then GFR!
I cry every time I watch this classic.
Okay, seriously….
Ballmer sells windows1.0
“”The feud with Apple is mostly about honor. It pains Ballmer and his troops react viscerally when they watch those Apple ads – and when they see how much they’ve harmed Microsoft’s reputation.”
Cry me a river.
The greatest harm to MS has been caused by MS itself. MS is its own worst enemy.
@ iPityThatCompany
Chill out. If you read the entire string, you’ll see the controversy is over. And while I don’t post as often as a lot of people on here, I have posted more than a few times in the past. Wasting time on here is one of my current interests.
And I love how a lot of folks on here assume that if your comments don’t reflect those of a blind Apple fanboy, you are automatically a shill for MS or Dell or whomever. That’s the whole “you are either with us or against us” mentality that bought us the war in Iraq and a second term for the Wonder Boy from Houston. Good luck with that.
Anyone see that one hour program om BBC2
No, and I’ll tell you why.
A friend of mine was working for a bit of the BBC that deals with factual programming and was charged with generating some ideas for programmes on science and tech that might appeal to BBC3’s more youthful audience.
I suggested to him that – assuming that they could get past Apple’s Kremlinesque secrecy and were willing to delay transmission to suit any embargos that Apple may insist upon – it would be interesting to watch Apple develop something to do with their iPod division.
Now all of this is unbelievably unlikely in any instance, however any practicality or otherwise didn’t matter to my friend’s boss who said that such a programme would be seen as “an unpaid advert for Apple”.
That was approximately six weeks before the cock-sucking, ass-kissing hagiography that accompanied the launch of Vista again on The Money Programme (“we’re really proud of removing the word ‘Start’ from the Windows menu”).
Two programmes that unreservedly gush on Microsoft and Bill Gates in 18 months is at least one too many, especially when there is very little analysis on Microsoft’s less abuse of its monopoly.
Rather than being sub-titled “The Geek Who Changed The World”, maybe tonight’s programme could have been called
“The Geek Who Got Lucky and then Stole Nearly Every Idea From Smarter People Who Thought Of It First!”
Or how about…
“The Geek Who Developed A Shit Operating System That Frustrates The User Class and Exists To Keep IT Technicians In Employment Thus Distorting The Competitiveness Of Any Company Stupid Enough To Implement It!”
I’m normally really proud of the BBC: I think – at its best – it makes programmes that no other broadcaster has the vision or the courage to make and which can, in the case of Planet Earth and similar, genuinely fulfil what should be television’s “mission to explain” as opposed to the “mission to trivialise” which is more common.
But the Money Programme, which used to be a great programme with a genuine investigative bent, is more often than not a shallow programme which never really provides any realistic insight into any market or company!
The real reason Bill is leaving is because he wants to start investing in AAPL shares.
… says Melinda Gates, Bill’s wife. “You don’t walk away from your life’s work if it’s not going well. He just could never do that.”
I believe this is contrary to what we’re seeing unfold at Microsoft. Gate’s stated he relinquished his decision-making powers years ago and yet Vista is his swan song. While it may not have been his decision to yank all of the goodness out of Longhorn in order to ship it, he’ll carry this stank to the grave.
Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish should be <strike>chiseler</strike> chiseled on his headstone. Let us not forget, with Bill it was ALWAYS about the money. It still is.
Ballmer displays all the classic symptoms of the Peter Principle and under his watch we will continue to watch the company drift laterally, at least until his youngest son graduates from college anyway.
Ballmer’s carried Gates’ water for so long, the reservoir to hold it all could have spared the Mississippi River Valley.
@ R5D4,
Not sure how you’re vindicated – it still calls him a dork!
Are you sure you’re not smoking a little too much today?
Will you leave NOW?
R4D5,
Yeah sure, I’ll get right on that.
Again, what kind of compassionate human would feel compelled to work to get his earnings — yet, work HARDER to destroy yours?
FWIW, your controversy ‘ended’ 6 minutes before I posted. 8 posts before I posted. I have no control of time. I posted BEFORE the second page was created.
If it makes you feel any better — Apple’s hockey puck mouse sucked. So did taking off Firewire from the iPod, and not USB.
Smoking might do him some good.
Hey! Look what time it almost is.
Stir it up…
Little dah lane…
I have a drawer full of those hockey puck mice… which now fills with only slightly less unpleasant Mighty Mice.
This is the only hardware race that Microsoft wins, so I give it to ’em.
R5D4:First, I would like to thank MDN for altering their MDN take to read as it now does, whether or not I was the catalyst for the revision. I no longer consider you guys dorks, and you are responsive to your readers.
Translation: “Everyone’s laughing at me! How can I save face? Ooh, look! They changed a few words! I’ll claim credit, even though the meaning is almost exactly the same!” Thanks for the comedy gold, R5D4. It’s not every day that I witness a poster coming out of nowhere to demand changes, threatening to leave otherwise, which would place the board in the same state it was… yesterday.
The article: “Can the now $60 billion behemoth keep finding new ways to grow?”
What do they mean “keep”? Microsoft’s grotesquely enormous, but its growth has been stagnant for nearly a decade, if its stock price is any indication.
——RM
“I’ve spent more time with these two human beings than with anyone else in my life”
Oh the ideas that come to mind. Wonder if livestock was involved.
And which, unfortunately, is probably true.
If I had sacrificed myself for MICROSOFT of all fscking places I’d probably be in tears as well.
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@RD54
i understand what you mean. i agree with you.
i think you yourself already understand this so this is for the other people who have commented and for MDN people:
its clear MDN is written by and mostly commented on by 14 year olds and/or people who were part of the “Great Transmigration” of people who came to the apple platform post 2005.
14 year olds and persons with cognitive reasoning ability of 14 year olds wont ever understand the word “objectivity”.
i almost never read the MDN inserted banal comments that could just as easily be inserted randomly using a computer generated fan-boy app:
replace ballmer with dork
replace windows with the enemy
replace gates with cheat
i also almost never read the comments inserted by these readers either for the same reason.
what MDN IS good for is a quick headline summary and then i just go directly to the “Full Story here” link so that i can read the ORIGINAL story to understand the writer’s intent. it is what i wish more of MDN’s commenters would do so they can actually learn about other opinions and how others’ divergent thoughts do matter.
the great loss is that these post-2005 platform joiners are like lemmings: these same people will desert the mac-ipod-iphone platform that apple has built when the next well-marketed “us vs. them” platform comes along.
these are the people who havent understood or benefitted from the meaning of apple’s greatest contribution which is getting people to “Think Different”.
that, is the greatest loss.
Apple is a company and Macs are tools. As much as I love my Mac I’d use something else if it was better for what i need my tool to do or what my tool can do for me.
@can we stop the bashing?:
Apple is not just another company. That’s the whole point of the Mac experience. How many companies can you name that are really more interested in outdoing themselves than they are in maximizing their profits? Apple is one of those rare companies, and this is why people love Apple and, by extension, their Macs.
And the Macintosh is not just another tool. Would you say that a BMW is “just another car,” fully interchangeable with, say, a Chevy Nova because both vehicles have an engine, four tires and a steering wheel?
Why should we stop bashing Microsoft? Steve Balmer is a clown and Microsoft’s historic success is based largely on predatory practices. A more fitting object of scorn would be hard to come by. It’s very cathartic, but feel free not to join the discussion.
“can we stop the bashing?”
have they stopped deserving it?