TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has posted his third installment of his interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Arrington reports, “When it comes to browsers, Ballmer calls Chrome and Safari rounding errors. And he certainly noticed Google’s attempts to turn IE into Chrome via a plugin.”
The most successful by far is Firefox. Chrome is a rounding error to date. Safari is a rounding error to date. But Firefox is not. The fact that there’s a lot of competitors probably is to our advantage. Yeah, we’re right now about 74 percent overall with the browser market, roughly speaking. But we’re having to compete like heck with IE 8, with great new features. The other guys are getting more and more unanticipated competitive attack factors, the thing that Google announced yesterday where they replaced IE but they don’t tell you. I mean that’s how I would say it. For all intents and purposes of what they’re doing IE is not there. It’s their operating system. Instead of now masked as browser, it’s masked as a plug in basically to IE. So, you know, we’re going to have to compete like heck and you know, see where things go. The one thing that’s unclear is what’s the economic play for anybody else competing with us at the browser level. Is this all about kind of controlling the search box or is it about something else?
MacDailyNews Take: People are turning away from Microsoft’s junk:
• Browser benchmarks: Apple’s Safari world’s fastest browser; Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dead last – May 18, 2009
• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on pace to drop below 50% share by May 2011 – May 07, 2009
• CNET writer spends ‘painfully poky week with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8’ – April 01, 2009
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8’s Epic Fail: Scores 20/100 on Acid3 vs. Apple Safari’s perfect 100 – March 21, 2009
• Microsoft inflicts Internet Explorer 8 today at noon; Mac users unaffected – March 19, 2009
• Zero-day attack targets all versions of Internet Explorer; Mac users unaffected – December 12, 2008
• Apple’s Safari browser share hits new all-time high of 7.13% as Internet Explorer drops below 70% – December 01, 2008
Ballmer on operating systems:
Here’s Windows and Windows is a very successful product. How do you attack Windows? Well, you attack with the high end, and hardware. That’s an attack. That’s – I won’t call it the Snow Leopard attack. I’ll call it the Mac attack of which Snow Leopard is a piece. You could attack from the side. That’s the Chrome – Firefox attack. You can attack from cheap, from below. You’re not from the side. You’re one on one, but that’s kind of a Linux, Android, presumably Chrome OS, who knows, attack vector. You can attack through phones that grow up. You know, mama don’t let your phones grow up to be PCs or something. I don’t know. But that’s another attack vector. So, you could say how do I feel about all these attack vectors? Strong, I feel very strong here.
I mean, we’re gaining share. Apple is expensive. And in tough economic environment, people get it. Their model is, by definition, expensive. And we’ve actually held or maybe even gained just a tiny bit of share relative to the Mac in the last 12 months. And it’s not really Snow Leopard. It’s really Windows PCs versus Mac.
MacDailyNews Take: Proof? None given by Ballmer, of course. We’ll offer these:
• Gartner: Mac takes 8.7% share of U.S. market in Q2 09 – July 16, 2009
• NPD: Apple grabbed 91% share of premium computer market in June – July 23, 2009
• Gartner: Apple Mac #1 in Western Europe education market with 26.4% share; #1 in UK with 27.3% share – June 03, 2009
• Gartner: Apple debuts in UK’s top five personal computer vendors – May 08, 2009
• IDC: Apple fourth in U.S. personal computer market with 7.6% share in Q1 09 – April 15, 2009
• IDC: Apple Mac took 7.2% U.S. market share in Q408 on 7.5% year-over-year growth – January 14, 2009
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The related articles list below reads like the table of contents of Delusional Buffoonery for Dummies.
what? i don’t understand a word that man just incoherently babbled.
delusional fscker
Ballmer: “Mac attack”
Little Freudian slip there? (And yes I do mean Freud.)
Does Balmer drink his own kook-aid oh what??? What an idiot!
Der…that was supposed to be “kool-aid”.
In what universe is windows gaining share over mac os?
@ Beowulf,
I liked ‘kook-aid’ better..
I will gladly pay for an “expensive” mac.. You get what you pay for ballmer. If macs are so inferior why do feel the need to TRY and copy Apple’s products?
Does anybody have a clue what this ass clown is talking about? Seriously, what does he mean?
MDN: miss as in missed the boat.
There must be a rubber room reserved for this guy. He’s totally incoherent and babbling. Yikes!
The man is completely incoherent. I am SO glad that I don’t (and never did) own Micro$oft stock. This guy is going to single-handily take down his entire company. What a JOY that will be to watch!
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I mean, we’re gaining share. Apple is expensive. And in tough economic environment, people get it. Their model is, by definition, expensive. And we’ve actually held or maybe even gained just a tiny bit of share relative to the Mac in the last 12 months. And it’s not really Snow Leopard. It’s really Windows PCs versus Mac.
So what happens when the economy turns around and customers have money to buy computers again?
I don’t know.
I can believe that.
@AliceKK – I’m with you, I have no idea what he even said. For all I can decipher from this rant – that sounds more like the ramblings of a drunken lunatic (with whom I could at least feel sorry for) than the words of a man running a massive corporation – he thinks Chrome is an IE plugin and Safari is an error in my math class. Seriously, doesn’t this guy think things through or plan a little before an interview?
I’d say Ballmer can bite me, but you know when you think about it, you would probably catch something really nasty.
I’m sure it made more sense coming directly from Ballmer *rolls eyes*
‘Ballmer Rule’ number 1: When you can’t intellectually refute the truth, lie…
and keep lying…
then lie again.
Until people finally begin to question their own ability to discern the truth. Then, you own them.
What a chump. If I was a MS stockholder, I’d be bailing out so fast. How can someone actually be dumb enough to think an interviewer is going to buy this shit, or worse yet, even believe this incoherent rambling himself. And… he’s the CEO??
‘Nuff said!
“success” does not mean good, unfortunately. Windows is successful, but it sure isn’t good.
Between the Palm/iTunes thing and these continued inane comments from Ballmer, the anti-Apple machine is clearly humming along quite nicely. All we need now is some idiotic press release from Psystar to round out the day…
Couldn’t let this Ballmer statement go by: The one thing that’s unclear is what’s the economic play for anybody else competing with us at the browser level. Is this all about kind of controlling the search box or is it about something else?
Umm, it’s about making sure you don’t turn the internet into yet another closed, proprietary Microsoft fsckup. Otherwise, Microsoft would be the gatekeeper of the entire internet, which Google and Apple (to name just two) would find extremely unappealing. Hence, their browsers which push for true interoperable standards. Of course, Ballmer probably knows this but can’t say it, since (in typical Microsoft-myopic fashion) he probably considers IE’s rendering engine to be the “standard”.
T.C.O. …, Balmy ….. T.C.O !!
(total cost of ownership, that is)
Its wunnerful to run my Mac w/o the need for subscription anti-malware — (the “feature that keeps on giving…..so long as you keep on paying for it) —
and not be bothered with using a firewall !
Oh, Balmy — let me know when (if ever) you figure out how to give your sheep –(uhhh customers) — a little feature called “Stealth Mode” !!
I’ve had a lot of PeeCee weenies just drool over that one– and wonder why WinCrap doesn’t have it !!
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not a single coherent sentence
Blithering Ballmer-babble
Clueless idiot! And why are they trying to get little girls to buy Windows 7 to make images of cats and bunnies? I thought this is the software that Fortune 100 companies want not kitchen parties and little kids!
Clueless. Very clueless idiot! May he run Microsoft forever!!
Whatever your religious persuasion…keep praying for Steve Ballmer’s health. He’s slowly running Microsoft into the ground, presiding over it’s demise and while they are doing OK at the moment it’s obvious to anyone with a higher brain function that they’ve seen their best days. It’s NOT getting better for Windows.
Apple is firing on all cylinders and not looking back.
Wow!!!
Mention Apple and you could see the Vista come out real fast.
I think he had a Windows moment!
Mr BaLdmer, please reboot yourself!!!
OK, he said one thing right: Macs are expensive.
So what?
Windows machines that are feature-competetive with Macs are even more expensive! Hmm … he neglected to mention THAT fact. Wonder why!
Maybe it was lost in his ramble?
About Safari – the ’rounding error’ – Win/IE is down to less than70% of the visitors to my wife’s web site while Macs are up to 25% … who’s “gaining market share”?