“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.]
What are people so surprised about?
http://www.atpm.com/13.12/apple-talk.shtml
“With its big footprint on the computing industry, Microsoft simply cannot be seen in “collusion” with Apple to expand OS X market share. Forget antitrust regulations—the Microsoft shareholders would riot. No, no, no. The company is already doing everything possible to ensure that Apple continues to be a resounding success…”
“And it’s not just Microsoft that’s doing this. The PC vendors are also in on the game, everyone working extremely hard to increase Macintosh market share quarter after quarter. I have my hunches (e.g., all these CEOs have huge AAPL positions or something) but, really, I don’t know why they are doing it. It just boggles my mind. But whatever the reason is, “good on ’em!””
http://www.atpm.com/13.12/apple-talk.shtml
The truth is he was crying since they ran out of MEAT for him to chaw on.
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I really think Ballmer is realizing the “party’s over” and that in 20 years, he’ll be a senior citizen. Being about the same age as him, his tears were probably as much for himself as for Bill Gates upcoming departure.
Whoever replaces Ballmer will inherit the biggest mess in IT history.
And, for those who say that MS doesn’t pay attention to its customers, I believe you are 100% accurate.
What goes around comes around, and MS is about reap what they have sown all these years. Hopefully, Jobs and company are ready to push ahead and take some REALLY large market share.
As smart as Jobs and company are, I have to believe they are already 2/3rds of the way through a 10 year plan. I believe Jobs had this planned out in the mid nineties.
Time will tell, but Apple has performed extraordinarily over the past 7 years.
Balmer isn’t scared shitless because “shitless” means “without shit” and Balmer is certainly “full of shit.”
Ballmer balls his eyes out. Even Big Oil execs and cigarette company heads cry when they lose their true man-love friends. He needs help.
I was disappointed with MDN’s take as well. It seemed ‘unjustifiably’ harsh to me. I am no fan of Mr. Ballmer or Microsoft. I take time and care in making up my mind and I like to think I’m strong in my convictions. I have not bought any Microsoft product since 2002, even when I was using windows both at work and school (Fedora at home). With various product lines from cheaper mouse/keyboards/josticks to xboxes to MS Office, it was not easy to resist, but I’m proud that I did. I can’t use Apple’s Numbers, it’s not there yet, but I still refuse to load MS Office on my Macbook pro. The same way, I’m seriously considering boycotting everything Jim Cramer and TheSteet. We fans, aren’t always the ‘rational’ ones.
But for the heartless snide on Ballmer, I wished a justification was provided by MDN, maybe a trip down the memory lane for MDN and a refresher course for many of us. I like MDN and enjoy many of its sarcastic yet professional takes of recent times. This, I believe could have been done better. How about a take two? Not an ‘about face,’ but an update. That is my request.
MDN MW: ‘better’
@mark
Totally agree
@LordRobin
You should be thankful that whatever job you hold doesn’t require reading comprehension or analytical skills
@ChrissyOne
I do smoke, and it really does help me tolerate snarky little comments from folks like yourself. BTW, way to derive self-worth with your little “I know the name of the next Mac OS and you don’t” routine a while back. You’ll really enjoy the adult world once you get there.
That’s it! I demand that R4D5 answer my questions — or I’ll, I’ll, I’ll do something. Really awful, too! I mean it!
I’ll buy a Zune. I will!
LOL
Uh, ‘unjustifiably’ harsh? Really?
Bllamer’s competitive business ‘style’, might be considered ‘unjustifiably’ harsh.
Phew! I guess we’re even.
>Whatever his faults, the guy is a human being and deserves to be accorded a basic level of respect to which we are all entitled.
Judging from the above pictures either Darwin got it right about man finding its roots as an Ape, or the MS CEO is stuck in a very perverted ape reality.
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Tehyr’e claeld tpoys. Ccehk itno it.
mwaasaa boo hoo Microsoft.
My heart bleeds for you (NOT)
@R5D4 We have disagreed before, but this time you are right on! We like apple. Cool. we like apple a lot. great. But the moment that MDN starts demonizing people the thin line between ideologically-driven jest and propoganda has been breached. Too far MDN.
@R5D4
…Its after 11 you little twat so live up to your simpering moralistic threat and leave.
Ballmer deserves no sympathy. He and his company have deliberately hurt people and their families by killing off start-ups through vaporware or takeovers. He has helped kill off innovation as well. He denigrates, mocks and acts like an idiot. He deserves sympathy? Save it for people who need it…like those that have been hurt by Microsoft innovation (/sarcasm).
Moreover, MDN is a Mac site which can write pretty hilarious stuff which makes me and many others a fan. In fact there are a lot of great commenters that frequent these pages…..too bad you and some other hypocrites here won’t be reading my comments anymore because of your childish threats….why don’t yo just hold your breath until you turn blue? (yeah right).
“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.”
Hardly the voice of confidence.
Imagine Steve Jobs blubbering, and asking rest of the company to “be there” for him. Wow indeed. This is supposed to be an adult running Microsoft, not a child babysitting himself for the first time.
‘Tis gonna be interesting with Ballmer alone at MS’ helm.
Glad Ballmer found a proper placement of his wife and children.
Um, Where do they fall on his list again?
The Emperor is officially naked.” And the court jester Jobs is seriously unfunny
Why no mentions of this here http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208700965
Oh if you think this is all out there http://www.digitalmunition.com/dma.html
And here http://foro.elhacker.net/gnulinux-b9.0/
and here http://www.leetupload.com/dbindex2/index.php?dir=OSX/
They have you in their sights now…. You cant run…
@R5D4
I love the way MS get bashed, but I agree with you that there are times when the language is unnecessarily nasty and/or extreme.
Respect for people is an excellent quality however “bad” you might think those people are.
John
Does Ballmer have what it takes to keep MS going?
“MacDailyNews Take: No. No. And no.”
I want to believe.
Okay, I know you didn’t ask, but here’s my take – and it does assume that Bill Gates has had, or at least, has recently gotten a conscience: BG is perfectly at ease with MS going down the tubes, if for no other reason because his huge ego (yes SJ has one of those too), does not want to see MS succeed without him. But more altruistically, I think BG wants to die in peace, which has a lot to do with his new career, and also explains why he’s allowing such an incredible bafoon to become the new leader of MS. In a way he’ll get his cake and eat it too, (and history has certainly proven his proficiency at doing that), MS will go down in his absence thus proving that its success was all about him; the giant succubus we know as MS will finally get what it deserves after all of the lying cheating and stealing, thus absolving BG prior to his final breath; and finally, he’s set about to give away (actually, to give back), large amounts of the money that was essentially misaquired in the first place. Even in the end, the legacy of BG is icky and dark.
I think MDN, there is sometimes a case to be made for a little more subtlety…
And isn’t it great that it took Apple’s ads to tell the world that the emporor WASN’T wearing any clothes.
And let me tell you, here in the UK most people still mindlessly admire and advocate Microsoft. It’s incredible but true. They should run the US versions of the Mac ads all over the world…
Have you seen the recent MS Live Search ads? In two that I saw, money gets plucked off of people who don’t notice. Good grief.
1-800-WAAA! [removed]void(0);
I love Ballmer taking full charge of Micro$oft. They couldn’t have chosen a better pilot to fly their plane into the ground.
@R5D4
Perhaps you should find a “kinder gentler forum.” Those of us who are regulars here happen to like MDN just the way it is.
It’s all fun and games ’till a flying chair comes your way. Then things get ugly at M$. Ballmer is just an evil nasty fellow.