Microsoft’s Ballmer sees company mimicking Apple business model more often in future

“Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has signaled a new direction for the world’s largest software company, pointing to hardware and online services as its future, taking a page from long-time rival Apple Inc.,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters.

“Ballmer’s comments in his annual letter to shareholders published on Tuesday suggested that Microsoft may eventually make its own phones to build on its forthcoming own-brand Surface tablet PC and market-leading Xbox gaming console,” Rigby reports. “‘There will be times when we build specific devices for specific purposes, as we have chosen to do with Xbox and the recently announced Microsoft Surface,’ wrote Ballmer. The new approach mimics Apple Inc, whose massively successful iPhone and iPad demonstrated tight integration of high-quality software and hardware and made Windows devices feel clunky in comparison.”

Rigby reports, “Alongside the shareholders’ letter, Microsoft’s annual proxy filing, which deals with the shareholders’ meeting and other governance issues, showed that Ballmer, 56, got a lower bonus than he did last year, partly for flat sales of Windows and his failure to ensure that the company provided a choice of browser to some European customers. He earned a bonus of $620,000 for Microsoft’s 2012 fiscal year, which ended in June, down 9 percent from the year before, according to documents filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His salary, which is low by U.S. standards for chief executives, remained essentially flat at $685,000. It is the third year in a row that Ballmer has not earned his maximum bonus, set at twice his salary.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: How apropos for a company built on poorly mimicking Apple’s Mac OS.

Upside-down and backwards is no way to go through life, son.

Hey, while you’re at it, build some more fake Apple Retail Stores that you have to fill by handing out free concert tickets. Too bad you don’t have any fake iPods to peddle, huh, Zune Boy?

And, Reuters, by what measure exactly is Microsoft “the world’s largest software company?”

Apple leads. Microsoft follows. As usual.