“Recently, Steve Ballmer got all loquacious at a meeting with financial analysts, many of whom were using Apple laptops. He was moved to comment on the preponderance of Macbooks, referring to Apple as ‘a fine company’ that was prospering from a low-volume, high-price strategy. He then proclaimed that Microsoft hadn’t lost market share to Apple over the past year and any changes in the reported market share numbers were a rounding error,” Robin Bloor writes for Seeking Alpha.
Bloor writes, “Nobody needed to butt in and tell him that his statistical skills needed a little polishing, because he contradicted himself in the next sentence by saying that ‘market share gains by Apple cost Microsoft nothing’ and ‘hopefully we’ll take share back from Apple.'”
Bloor writes, “Ballmer is whistling in the dark. Microsoft’s revenues collapsed 17 percent in the last quarter, mostly from the decline in Windows revenues, while Apple still managed to post growth in Mac sales – albeit of a modest 4 percent. Meanwhile the iPhone was taking off like a rocket.
“The tendency of CEOs whose companies are in trouble to become suddenly inept with statistics is legendary, but it’s not in a CEO’s nature to stand up and proclaim ‘the competition is killing us.’ But that’s what’s happening to Microsoft,” Bloor writes. “Competition is killing it.”
Bloor writes, “The coup de grâce here will be the Apple tablet… The new Apple tablet will be a big bad iPhone. It will start to consume the laptop market from the get go. It will be what the Netbook should have been, but never was.”
“Apple now has 90 percent of the high-end PC market. It has slaughtered the competition in that area. But Ballmer thinks that’s unimportant, because it’s low volume. Well take a look at the iPhone’s grip on the hearts and minds of consumers and watch what happens to the Apple tablet, Mr. Ballmer,” Bloor writes. “It won’t be low volume. Apple is coming at you from both directions and you’re caught in the sandwich.”
Full article – very highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is familiar territory for Microsoft; they’ve been feeding their customers shit sandwiches since 1975.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
I think we all know what that particular sandwich is called.
Ewwwww…. a Ballmer sanwich
“Loquacious”. I had to look that one up using my Dictionary.com app.
Apple had better have a tablet out there
PC shills are salivating over new Zune Touch… get a life, guys!
Microsoft doesn’t even sell hardware. maybe they should? Attack Dell… Attack other PC makers. They just make shitty software. If Apple only made software they wouldn’t be in business. I am an Apple person through and through, but to be fair, this isn’t Apple and Oranges.
If PC makers forced Microsoft to innovate then maybe Microsoft would have by now. But it’s been shit in- shit out since the beginning. SO who’s to blame?
I dunno, like I said, I’m a Mac guy and I am proud of it. End of story.
-Pi
I’m going to laugh my ass off when the overhyped “iTablet” doesn’t show up. It’s a dead market pontificated by those who still think they get Apple, and yet never will…
Could someone confirm something for me? Do OEMs pay Microsoft the same license fee for $3,000 pro systems as for $500 no margin disposables? If so, what does Microsoft care that Apple dominates the high end?
If M$ had any sense–and they don’t–they’d have long ago sensed the growth of Apple and created a high-end, exclusive, M$-branded PC with its own Win-based, yet secure, OS. The OS would not support tons of legacy hardware, you’d have to pass rigorous tests in order to make hardware compatible for it, and it wouldn’t sell on Dells or Acers. Such a thing would have sold like hotcakes and been a real challenge to Apple.
But they didn’t, and now it’s too late. Even if Ballmer could be convinced to start up a division for a premium M$ PC and OS, it wouldn’t see the light of day for years, and the puck will have moved to the other side of the rink. Given the corporate mentality at M$, they probably can’t even create such a thing, but even if they could, M$ now has the rep as a me-too photocopy-cat company of no ideas. They’d be seen, rightly, as trying to steal Apple’s market, and they’d fail.
M$: Your frustration. Our fault.
“MacDailyNews Take: This is familiar territory for Microsoft; they’ve been feeding their customers shit sandwiches since 1975.”
Make that Zune sandwiches and you’d hit the nail on the hand !
MAC is the one whistling in the dark—and they should be. MAC shills are salivating over their vaporware netbook wannabe overpriced proprietary toy tablet thingy. Whatever. It ain’t gonna save an unimaginative, visionless company suffocating under the weight of its 30-year old Unix OS. Hey Cupertino here’s some free advice: Time to throw it all out and start over.
Speaking of sandwiches, MAC isn’t even on the plate. Their paltry 2% market share is like crumbs on the floor. On the plate before me is a delightful Windows 7 and xBox sandwich with fresh Zune HD on a Powerpoint fougasse and Bing on the side. Are you MAC fangirls jealous? You should be. It’s freakin’ delicious.
Your potential. Our passion.™
@HMCIV
Me Too. I had to look up “Loquacious”
@liopaapa well start laughing you ass off cause it hasn’t shown up yet, and until it does it hasn’t.
You may have been able to guess the meaning of loquacious by realizing it had the same root as a word like eloquent. Now, Ballmer is never eloquent, but he does talk alot!
It will start to consume the laptop market from… the bottom up.
And, I should add, it will start to consume the netbook market from the top down.
@ZuneTang
Your ‘delicious menu’ reminds me of the story of the two castaways, Bill & Ben, on a remote island waiting for rescue. They agreed they should take daily turns being Chef, but if one complained about the food produced then he would have to be Chef for a whole week and endure all complaints and criticism the whole 7 days.
One day a turd pie was served to Ben. He tasted it and then said to Bill, this is pure shit! Bill smiled and said, yes but perfectly cooked!
I love Zune Tang’s smorgasbord. Too bad the meat is bad.
Scot: Maybe name that high-end PC the eColi.
“Apple now has 90 percent of the high-end PC market”
Um, this isn’t exactly true.
It’s 90 percent of the retail over $1000 PC market. There are lots of direct sales over $1000 that are excluded from this calculation (primarily businesses).
But Microsoft definitely has been losing steam.
Scott Murphy writes, “If M$ had any sense–and they don’t–they’d have long ago sensed the growth of Apple and created a high-end, exclusive, M$-branded PC with its own Win-based, yet secure, OS.”
Let’s start with the “Win-based, yet secure, OS” fantasy. Uh, isn’t that an oxymoron? What evidence do you have that Microsoft is able to develop such software short of starting from scratch and dropping backward compatibility as a requirement?
Second, do you seriously think PC makers will continue relying on Microsoft for their OS if they’re now a competitor in that same space? Think how their partners reacted when MS released their own hardware – the Zune. Enough said.
@ Jings
“Ballmer Sandwich”
I will never make another double entendre again. You have forever ruined a piece of my happiness.
@Zune Tang
Look at you, what do you have? Nothing..
After all you are just a stupid fool that buys Microsoft products. Besides what PC Manufactures manufactures simple and elegant stuff than Apple? No one and even if they do they will all look like Mac clones.. and they will load it up with crapware…
Redmond, start your photocopiers.
Life is Simple, Get a Mac.
RE Gordon Horne: “what does Microsoft care that Apple dominates the high end?”
Because it demonstrates that most people who invest money in a computer will more than likely choose a Mac running OS X versus a PC running Windows. The question is, do they choose the Mac because of the hardware, operating system+software, or support?
Apple only makes computers at this end of the market (except the mini). If most of the switchers are buying a Mac because of the OS+software, then what would happen if someday Apple releases ‘PC OS X’ that could run on most modern PC hardware, including netbooks? If this was the case, Microsoft has a lot to be afraid of.
RE dave: “Um, this isn’t exactly true … There are lots of direct sales over $1000 that are excluded from this calculation (primarily businesses).”
They used that figure as a base… there are a lot of Macs sold direct as well, especially from Amazon and Apple Online Store.
And sales to businesses shouldn’t be a factor in the consumer space, because Apple doesn’t cater to corporate sales and it’s not their targeted market. Apple targets individuals, which is why they have such high marks when it comes to customer satisfaction and support.
I still find it funny after all this time that people think Zune Tang is for real.
And this sandwich will be named what? A Redmond Steamer?
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