1. Finally, Apple Unveils the Tablet:Officially, Apple has never said a word about making a tablet computer. Yet for months, everyone in tech has been talking and writing and arguing about the Apple tablet as if it’s already here. The product has already received more press than most products that actually exist. Bloggers debate its faults and flaws, its strengths and shortcomings–such is life in the weird and wonderful world of Apple. And this does not happen by accident. Apple orchestrates this stuff. It did the same thing with the iPhone, remember? For a year before the product was unveiled, rumors circulated and fake prototype photos popped up all over the place. It’s all about creating hype, and wrapping a product in a cloud of mystery and drama, so that by the time you do unveil it people are dying to buy it just to see what all the fuss is about. The great thing about Apple, however, is that usually the products live up to the hype. Certainly the iPhone has. Arguably, it is the single most important tech product of the past decade. Will the tablet be as profound? We think it will be. Amazon’s Kindle has pioneered the market for a portable reading device. But Kindle is far from perfect. Our bet is that Apple enters this space the way it did with the iPod and iPhone: it lets others do the pioneering work and make all the mistakes, then comes along with a product that blows the predecessors away. Better design. Better build quality. Better service. And a user interface experience that’s light years ahead of everyone else’s on the planet.
2. Murdoch Pulls Out of Google
3. Malware Disrupts Facebook
4. Starbucks Will Stalk You
5. Movie Downloads Stall Blu-ray
6. Your Phone Replaces Your Wallet (MacDailyNews Note: Our own SteveJack was a bit early on that one.)
7. Facebook Goes Public
8. Twitter Use Flatlines
9. Microsoft Pushes Out Steve Ballmer: Ballmer’s 10th anniversary as CEO of Microsoft arrives in January, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll be celebrating. Microsoft stock has dropped by nearly 50 percent on his watch, lagging not just other tech companies but even the Dow Jones industrial average. Distracted by the Windows Vista fiasco, Ballmer has missed every big new tech market of the past decade. Google won the race for Internet search and keyword advertising. Apple won in MP3 players and online music sales, and now holds the high ground in mobile phones, while Windows Mobile fades away. Microsoft’s Zune music player is a dud. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, will never catch Google. Ballmer is said to be a brilliant guy, but he got a black eye for the way he blundered and blustered and finally botched an attempted acquisition of Yahoo. He’s a screamer and a bit of a bully–not the easiest guy to work for. If Microsoft were any other company, this guy would be in trouble. But the catch is, Ballmer was put into the job by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and the two have been pals since their undergraduate days at Harvard. If Gates wants to get rid of Ballmer, he’ll have to craft some kind of graceful exit that lets his buddy save face. Another problem: there’s no heir apparent on the management team. Nevertheless, investors must be getting restless. Soon they’ll start calling for a shake-up.
MacDailyNews Take: May Steve Ballmer remain Microsoft’s CEO for as long as it takes!
10. Google Faces Antitrust Suit
Full article (use Newsweek’s arrows as if you were a Windows user) here.
[Attribution: Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tom R.” for the heads up.]
You know Ballmer’s days are numbered when the media starts calling for his ouster. When it happens, it will be a sad, sad day for Apple.
I find the writer to be extremely insightful and accurate! The way he explains Apple’s magic touch and Ballmer’s catastrophe are very impressive!
nah, apple will keep on trucking and microsoft will keep on failing
Mr. Ballmer,
As an Apple fan I think I speak for all of us, that we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you have a long and happy career as CEO of MicroSoft.
No, Verizon, then Comcast will have updates that FORCE the default search engine as Bing. Plus, Microsoft will invest in Mozilla, and Mozilla will make Bing the default search for FireFox.
Who cares what Newsweak thinks anyway?
Can we make a protest to keep Ballmer running Microsoft??? He is a brilliant guy, he is taking a way one of the greatest virus of all time: “Windows”.
But why do we want to wish misfortune on Balmer or MS? What good does that do us? If you do not like their products don’t buy them. Taking pleasure in other’s misfortunes is not healthy.
I would sign up to join the protest. We don’t want Ballmer to leave Microsoft “EVER”! He needs to stay where he is at.
There’s no hair apparent on the incumbent either
@ HughB,
Many who frequent this site possess dark hearts. They have no ability to forgive or forget, nor to feel empathy or compassion for others. Their views and beliefs are the only ones to be accepted, and there is only one side to any story.
That being said, Steve Ballmer has only himself to blame for all of the ill will that people have for him.
Microsoft probably will get rid of Ballmer, but that won’t solve their most important problem: their internal structure. Microsoft created Word and Excel for the Mac and ported them to Windows after two years. They bought the company that made Access, the company that made FrontPage, the company that made Visio, and so on, and made Microsoft Office out of that mish-mash. Microsoft has to overcome a tangle of clashing corporate structures and cultures just to get a product out the door. One of the factors in the Vista debacle was their byzantine organizational structure.
Microsoft’s next biggest problem is that they are sales oriented, rather than product oriented, and they certainly aren’t customer oriented. To them, a product is a means to a sale, and a customer is something the partner handles. That’s backwards.
Microsoft walks with its foot in the wastebasket, its CEO throws chairs, its developers spit on the baling wire of Windows every day, and it won’t be long before that corporate image will become fatal.
Brilliant analysis, sir. Thank you!
PHEWW!!! I will be sooooooo relieved when they axe Ballmer (ax him what?). I am deeply worried about Ballmer and his uncanny ability to outfox Apple at every turn. Getting rid of him, while no-doubt bad for Microsoft, will be good for Apple. Worried worried worried about that über-genius that is Ballmer.
Ten years two late
@Harvey,
Indeed. Nice analysis.
Attention everyone. A Ballmer ouster is NOT good news for Apple and the rest of us.
The last thing AAPL holders need is for somebody to come into MSoft and fix it. Such a development would be a result of a Jobs-like genius (I know, I know – there aren’t any more of him out there) to methodically do each and every thing that Apple does with the result being there’s no longer for Apple to exist.
I know most don’t believe the bloated bureaucracy will allow the company to copy Apple to the extent that Apple itself is threatened, but don’t be so sure.
BTW, my brother is a manager of a European-owned investment banker and stock brokering company. When they buy outs of American companies, they try to get rid of “American-style managers.” You might ask “Oh… do tell, Greg L, just what is an ‘American-style manager’?”
Well, they want intelligent people with analytic minds. When they are hunting and shooting the bad eggs, their mental image of what they’re looking for is “Ballmer: the bald ape who throws chairs.” Sooooo American, in their view.
@Now Hear This:
Ya think?
Ballmer is a shill, secretly paid by Apple.
</conspiracy>
No comments from Zune Tang lol
too busy painting your nail maybe?
Nooooo, no no! MS PLEASE do not get rid of Ballmer, he’s just the right guy at the right place to do to Microsoft what it’s needed for a long time. I am all for Ballmer staying on at MS. I think we need a Save Ballmer as MS CEO petition!
Harvey’s comment caused me to envision Ballmer in a ‘Three Stooges’ skit:
One foot in the wastebasket, office chair glued to one hand, other hand glued to forehead, inadvertently placing other foot into bucket of mop water and falling backwards down three flights of stairs.
The man would be a natural.
Umm MDN you missed: Malware Disrupts Facebook: The follow-the-money rule also helps explain why there aren’t many threats for Mac computers. They may have some security advantages over PCs, but mostly their market share isn’t big enough to be worth malware creators’ time.
John Sculley for CEO of Microsoft…
Perfect for Microsoft. Someone who is not afraid of going against S Jobs. And he is a salesman like Ballmer.
Besides, it might be enjoyable for Jobs to go against Sculley.