Briefly: Apple Expo, Apple TV at Costco, Ballmer on iPhone

[AppleInsider]

The dates are set and pre-registration has opened for the annual Paris-based Apple Expo and conference. Meanwhile, Apple TVs have turned up at Target as well as at another popular discount chain. And Microsoft headman Steve Ballmer is running his mouth again -- this time over iPhone.

Apple Expo Paris set for Sept.

Will Apple chief executive Steve Jobs be making the cross-Atlantic journey to this year's Apple Expo in Paris, France? It's hard to tell just yet, but show organizers are making no promises after the past three years of disappointment. They are, however, opening up the pre-registration lines.

This year's conference is slated to run September 25 - 29 at the Porte de Versailles. Those interested in attending can head on over to the show's official website and generate a printable badge that can be brought to the Electronic Badge welcome desk during the week of the show and redeemed for an exhibition pass.

Though Apple has used the Paris gathering to introduce products in the past, Jobs and Co. have failed to deliver an opening keynote address since 2003.

In 2004, Jobs' keynote presentation was conducted by Apple vice president Phil Schiller after the Apple co-founder took leave from his duties at the company in order to recuperate from pancreatic cancer surgery.

Jobs was also expected to present the opening keynote in 2004, but later changed his plans when several product launches failed to fall into alignment.



The case was similar in 2005, when Apple announced then later recanted its offer to deliver a keynote presentation (presumably by Jobs) for unspecified reasons. Last year, the Mac maker passed on an opening gig from the get-go.

Apple TVs turning up at third party retailers

Per expectations, MacRumors posts a few photos confirming that Apple TVs have indeed begun to show up at Target retail stores. One photo appears to show a display unit headed for connectivity to a widescreen HD TV, as AppleInsider reported in its exclusive coverage of the matter earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Ars reports on comments from a tipster who recently spotted the wireless media hub at a Costco wholesale club, retailing for $289 -- $10 less than Apple's suggest retail price.

According to the report, Costco won't be charging a restocking fee on the device. So if you buy one, set it up, then decide it sucks due to the dearth of immediately suitable HD content, you can return it for no practically no loss of coin.

Ballmer's inferiority complex

On reprieve from all the monkey dancing, high-pitched squealing and picture squirting, Microsoft chief executive and renowned loudmouth Steve Ballmer has weighed in with his thoughts on Apple's much-awaited iPhone handset.

"It's sort of a funny question," he said when asked by USA Today whether he wished consumers were as passionate about Microsoft as they are towards Apple, the iPod, and now iPhone. "Would I trade 96 percent of the market for 4 percent of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody."

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer | Photo Credits: AP

"Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players," Ballmer continued. "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get."

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[kilraq]

I had lots I was going to say about this article.

Then they showed a picture of "That Steve".

Why does every picture that surfaces of this man just make me want to punch him in the face? WHY!?

*Plans on a trip to CostCo*

[dawho9]

Does Windows Mobile even have 2 to 3% of the market share of all of those 1.3 billion phones?

dw9

[MacsRGood4U]

Originally Posted by kilraq

I had lots I was going to say about this article.

Then they showed a picture of "That Steve".

Why does every picture that surfaces of this man just make me want to punch him in the face? WHY!?

*Plans on a trip to CostCo*

At first I was confused by AI's high pitched squealing remark. Then to my delight and profound enjoyment, i noticed that in the monkey dancing video, about 21 seconds in, ballmer actually stubs his toe while jumping around like a complete idiot and he squeals in pain and then tries to play it off! ahahahahaha

-MRG

[g5man]

So Microsoft has figured that Apple will sale about 39 million phones. Not Bad.

aapl looks cheap right now, if they sell that many phones.

[Booga]

Originally Posted by dawho9

Does Windows Mobile even have 2 to 3% of the market share of all of those 1.3 billion phones?

dw9

No. They have about 6% of the "smart" phone category, which is about 20M phones, and is about double their market share from a year ago. I think, though, talking about the total cellphone market is irrelevant. It's like including pocket calculators with the home computer market. Symbian is still the giant in this area with 3/4 of the market share, and Linux is in second with 17%. The recent gains in market share has mostly been at the expense of Palm, which is now in only 2% of them.

[Tokolosh]

The question specifically asked about iPods and the iPhone. Where did the... ummmmm...., CRAP! I just forgot the name of that Microsoft MP3 player. Anyway, where did it rank in the market? And then there is the Microsoft equivalent to the iPhone... oh wait, there isn't one.

[momusicman]

How much market share does this idiot Balmer claim the Zune to have? And does MS have even a 1% share of the phone OS market? Probably not!

[carlito2]

he wouldn't be laughing if apple actually allowed other people to have their software

who would win if companys had a choice between osx or windows mobile.

Apple do what they want to do when they want to do it.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by g5man

So Microsoft has figured that Apple will sale about 39 million phones. Not Bad.

aapl looks cheap right now, if they sell that many phones.

That is over 4x higher than Jobs estimate. Way to go Ballmer!

Originally Posted by Steve Ballmer

It's sort of a funny question... Would I trade 96 percent of the market for 4 percent of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.

Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players... There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get.

All in all, these are excellent remarks--finally--from Ballmer. It's like he was coached, or he masturbated just before the interview, losing that angry edge.

[DeaPeaJay]

I wish Ballmer was in the news more often. I always get a good laugh when he is.

[waytogobuddy]

Originally Posted by g5man

So Microsoft has figured that Apple will sale about 39 million phones. Not Bad.

aapl looks cheap right now, if they sell that many phones.

THere's a blog headline waiting to happen

" Microsoft: Apple to Sell 39 MILLION iPhones"

[Porchland]

Target and now Costco for Apple TV? With all the channel clogging, I think we're going to get an HD content announcement soon.

Jobs said the EMI non-DRM content would be coming in May, and The Beatles are still out there, so maybe there's a content announcement coming before WWDC.

[JohnnyKrz]

They should let Steve Ballmer do Microsoft commercials. He makes me even happier to be a Mac user than the Mac itself.

edit: Actually, I guess he should do Apple commercials.

[nagromme]

Why does Ballmer keep giving Apple (and the iPhone) free press this way? Does he really think such comments will somehow reduce the rise of Apple's sales or halt the slowing of Microsoft sales?

[Kolchak]

Originally Posted by JohnnyKrz

They should let Steve Ballmer do Microsoft commercials. He makes me even happier to be a Mac user than the Mac itself.

edit: Actually, I guess he should do Apple commercials.

Yeah, he'd give an even better impression of MS than John Hodgeman does.

[DeaPeaJay]

Originally Posted by nagromme

Why does Ballmer keep giving Apple (and the iPhone) free press this way? Does he really think such comments will somehow reduce the rise of Apple's sales or halt the slowing of Microsoft sales?

Well he was asked a direct question about them. If he ignored the question it would look like he was nervous.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by nagromme

Why does Ballmer keep giving Apple (and the iPhone) free press this way? Does he really think such comments will somehow reduce the rise of Apple's sales or halt the slowing of Microsoft sales?

Good point.

MICROSOFT'S BALLMER SAYS APPLE'S iPHONE TO SELL 40 MILLION UNITS FIRST YEAR.

[bdkennedy1]

Ahhh, excellent commentrary from the future washed-up car salesman of Microsoft. <Microsoft needs your permission to continue: OK, CANCEL>

[EruIthildur]

Originally Posted by DeaPeaJay

Well he was asked a direct question about them. If he ignored the question it would look like he was nervous.

Right on the nose.

[jamezog]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get."

I never thought I'd hear a MS exec say EXPLICITLY that they think that having huge market share is more important than making money.

Ballmer is even more of an idiot than I thought he was...

edit: that quote is so good, I think I'm gonna have to change my signature now...

[Restalot]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"Would I trade 96 percent of the market for 4 percent of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody."

Poor Stevie... he actually thinks people buy his products because they want to. How many EU aniti-trust suits will it take for you to realize you have a monopoly on OS stand alone sales... start looking in people's homes and you'll see what people choose when they have a choice.

[DeaPeaJay]

Other highlights from the Ballmer interview:


Q: People get passionate when Apple comes out with something new — the iPhone; of course, the iPod. Is that something that you'd want them to feel about Microsoft?

A:
.. <snip>

.. <snip>

In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn't just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job.

But it's not like we're at the end of the line of innovation that's going to come in the way people listen to music, watch videos, etc. I'll bet our ads will be less edgy. But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we'll get him to own a Zune.

Q: Would you agree with Steve Jobs that music companies should get rid of the digital rights management that makes it hard to copy songs?

A: I will not either agree or disagree. Every recording artist, in my opinion, is entitled to make their own decision. And I don't think Apple or Microsoft should be imposing its will on folks, because people will have different economic interests, different things to think about. We're a company that makes tools, and we're going to enable people to use those tools and make their own judgments as individual artists.

How does Microsoft enable artists with the ability to choose whether to use DRM or not? They force the DRM on DRM-free tracks! I don't see much of a choice there.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by DeaPeaJay

Well he was asked a direct question about them. If he ignored the question it would look like he was nervous.

Well, according to Arnold Schwarzenegger, arguably one of the biggest self-promoters out there, you should answer the question, but redirect the discussion to what you are promoting immediately... so, Ballmer could have said instead, "There's no question Apple is an excellent marketing company selling niche products to vocal fans, although at Microsoft we believe our industry-leading position continues to set the standard for the vast majority of computer and digital entertainment consumers...", etc.

Not that I want to be accused of giving Ballmer any advice.

[drblank]

Per your calculations 3% is 39 million. That's a lot of added revenue! And how many Zunes has Microsoft sold? Has Microsoft sold 1 Million yet?

[hmurchison]

It's not the iPhone generation 1 that should be worrying Ballmer. It's "Generation 3" in 5 years after solid evolution.

Do you remember the advice that Falco (Senator) gave Commodus in The Gladiator?

I have been told of a certain sea snake which has a very unusual method of attracting its prey. It will lie at the bottom of the ocean as if wounded. Then its enemies will approach, and yet it will lie quite still. And then its enemies will take little bites of it, and yet it remains still.

This is a good analogy to what Apple is doing. While Microsoft his huffing and puffing and blustering about Apple is laying quite as if wounded. Even then Apple cannot mask the shot acrosst Microsofts bow with Leopard Server. With a Calendar Server built on open standards sitting at hte root..Apple is indeed planning an assault on Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange dominance.

The iPhone figures into this heavily simply because it's not going to lock people into a MS Exchange solution it's going to give companies the ability to deploy iPhones in networks that don't run Leopard Calendar Server or Exchange but DO run a CALDAV enabled calendar and open mail standards.

Microsoft isn't dumb. They see this coming but consumers and the occasional clueless tech writer don't.

Generation 1 will be about launching a working product.

Generation 2 will be about opening up the platform and filling out the featureset

Generation 3 will be extending the lead in areas of iPhone strength. The ecosystem at this time will be huge for the iPhone. We'll be approaching 10.7 and basically your digital lifestyle will follow you everywhere in your pocket.


Right now. Apple is "scaring" a lot of people...Microsoft included.

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

It's not the iPhone generation 1 that should be worrying Ballmer. It's "Generation 3" in 5 years after solid evolution.

Do you remember the advice that Falco (Senator) gave Commodus in The Gladiator?

I have been told of a certain sea snake which has a very unusual method of attracting its prey. It will lie at the bottom of the ocean as if wounded. Then its enemies will approach, and yet it will lie quite still. And then its enemies will take little bites of it, and yet it remains still.

This is a good analogy to what Apple is doing. While Microsoft his huffing and puffing and blustering about Apple is laying quite as if wounded. Even then Apple cannot mask the shot acrosst Microsofts bow with Leopard Server. With a Calendar Server built on open standards sitting at hte root..Apple is indeed planning an assault on Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange dominance.

The iPhone figures into this heavily simply because it's not going to lock people into a MS Exchange solution it's going to give companies the ability to deploy iPhones in networks that don't run Leopard Calendar Server or Exchange but DO run a CALDAV enabled calendar and open mail standards.

Microsoft isn't dumb. They see this coming but consumers and the occasional clueless tech writer don't.

Generation 1 will be about launching a working product.

Generation 2 will be about opening up the platform and filling out the featureset

Generation 3 will be extending the lead in areas of iPhone strength. The ecosystem at this time will be huge for the iPhone. We'll be approaching 10.7 and basically your digital lifestyle will follow you everywhere in your pocket.

Right now. Apple is "scaring" a lot of people...Microsoft included.

Making Boot Camp for OSX was the big move that started it. I've spoken and read of so many people that bought new Macs and finally having the chance to compare side by side OSX with Windows is what made them finally throw off the chains and see that, yes, Macs are better, Apple is better, and Microsoft has been selling them a bill of goods!

[Buck]

But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we'll get him to own a Zune.

Oh dear. Imagine Ballmer trying to teach that 85-year old to use Zune. The old chap could die!

[BuzDots]

Ballmer's inferiority complex

I sure wish the hell he pony up for a toupee - he is one fugly, monkey jumpin S_B

Didn't some Brit figure out a few years back that chicken manure helped grow hair?

[DeaPeaJay]

Originally Posted by BuzDots

I sure wish the hell he pony up for a toupee - he is one fugly, monkey jumpin S_B

Didn't some Brit figure out a few years back that chicken manure helped grow hair?

ha ha, it's funny when you make fun of bald people. You're so witty

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Well, according to Arnold Schwarzenegger, arguably one of the biggest self-promoters out there......

Hey, hey, hey..... Ahnold is my hero (seriously). Pls don't sully his name by comparing him to Ballmer.

[BuzDots]

Originally Posted by DeaPeaJay

ha ha, it's funny when you make fun of bald people. You're so witty

Well, some bald guys look good! Such as myself..

But his only help is to cover it up - and that may not work! Sorry your feelings were so close to your scalp... I hope you are not a chicken farmer too.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

BALLMER SAYS: ..... "It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money."

I am sure it must be me, but I am having trouble figuring out his logic here.

How can "they make a lot of money" if it's a "subsidized item?"

[MacCentric]

Regarding Ballmer's comment about Apple making a lot of money, I would say that is a good thing. Companies exist to make money. Let's have a look at the performance of AAPL vs MSFT over the past 5 years.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=5y&s...z=m&q=l&c=MSFT

Case closed.

Apple surpassed Dell's market cap, I say that in 10 years, it will surpass Microsoft's as well. Microsoft is sitting around not doing anything really innovative, making products that people think are 'just ok' while Apple is innovating all the time and making products that people 'love'.

[bdj21ya]

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

I am sure it must be me, but I am having trouble figuring out his logic here.

How can "they make a lot of money" if it's a "subsidized item?"

I think he was referring to Cingular subsidizing the phone (by paying money to Apple for each one sold, by sharing subscription revenue), hence Apple making a lot of money. Of course all of that is pure speculation right now, as far as I've heard.

[neptune2000]

Originally Posted by Porchland

Target and now Costco for Apple TV? With all the channel clogging, I think we're going to get an HD content announcement soon.

Jobs said the EMI non-DRM content would be coming in May, and The Beatles are still out there, so maybe there's a content announcement coming before WWDC.

I saw a big Apple TV stand a Fry's this weekend. They also sell it online at frys.com:

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/514...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by bdj21ya

I think he was referring to Cingular subsidizing the phone (by paying money to Apple for each one sold, by sharing subscription revenue), hence Apple making a lot of money.

I thought about that possibility. However, it seems to me that the prices as announced by SJ in Jan ($499 and $599) would be roughly the same whether they were selling the locked version (in the US) or not (outside the US). I can see that it might be at a bit of a premium in the UK or EU in currency-adjusted terms, but that is normal of all of Apple's pricing in those markets (relative to US pricing). In other words, that has nothing to do with whether it is locked or not (the locked version being the "subsidized" one).

Originally Posted by bdj21ya

Of course all of that is pure speculation right now, as far as I've heard.

I think that is a fair assessment.

[Porchland]

Originally Posted by Buck

Oh dear. Imagine Ballmer trying to teach that 85-year old to use Zune. The old chap could die!

My jaw dropped when I read that line in the transcript. The fact that he used an 85-year-old in an anecdote about ANY product is pretty funny, but it's damn ridiculous in an example about MUSIC PLAYERS!

Go away Mr. Pasty White Dinosaur Man! And take your Zune with you!

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Porchland

My jaw dropped when I read that line in the transcript. The fact that he used an 85-year-old in an anecdote about ANY product is pretty funny, but it's damn ridiculous in an example about MUSIC PLAYERS!

Go away Mr. Pasty White Dinosaur Man! And take your Zune with you!

And he'd be 86 before the Zune successfully synced with his PC.


Seriously though, to think that the iPod is harder to use than a Zune is just foolish at best.

[Clive At Five]

Originally Posted by Ballmer

But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them, than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get.

Uhm.... Ballmer forgot to mention one small thing about Microsoft's CURRENT smartphone OS marketshare:

Originally Posted by Mr. Matalino (on MacRumors)

Canalys worldwide total smartphone device market - market shares 2006 Q4 2006:
Symbian - 72.5%
Linux - 16.9%
PalmSource - 2.0%
Microsoft - 4.6%
RIM - 3.8%
Others - 0.2%

Way to go, loser.

By the way, AI, thank you once again for pulling that freightening S. Ballmer image from the vault. Now I won't be able to sleep for another 3 weeks.

-Clive