Ballmer changes tune and dances around Apple's success

[AppleInsider]

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who's watched his company's PC business come under immense pressure from Apple, used a forum this week to discount the Mac maker's potential for future share gains and designate its mobile phone business as a doomed initiative that will "lose out" in the long run.

Microsoft aims at Apple integration

In July, Ballmer issued a widely publicized email to employees acknowledging the looming threat presented by Apple, in which he outlined a cause of action that, among other things, suggested Microsoft follow the example set forth by its rival in providing the same "narrow but complete" experience to its customers going forward.

Among the changes he proposed were a shift in relations with Microsoft hardware vendors designed to mimic the experience offered by Apple's tightly-controlled Mac platform. Likewise, he called for a similar approach in the mobile phone arena, vouching to create "great end-to-end experiences" akin to that of Apple's closed ecosystem, where it maintains tight control of nearly every aspect of a product's design.

Ballmer's 180 on integration

Ballmer was quick to criticize those same strategies during a dinner at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley this week. He said Nokia, Research in Motion and Apple will all lose out as the market expands over the next five years, because they control their own proprietary software, which is then tied too closely to their own hardware.

Today, Nokia leads the worldwide smartphone market with a 30 percent share. "If you want to reach more than that, you have to separate the hardware and software in the platform," he said, suggesting that the same strategy that helped Microsoft dominate the PC market will inevitably win out in the mobile space as well.

Of those mobile platforms left standing and battling for the biggest piece of the pie will be the open source Symbian OS, mobile versions of Linux, and his very own Windows Mobile, Ballmer claimed.

The market indicates otherwise

According to mobile market tracker Canalys however, it has been Microsoft's Windows Mobile share of the market that has slid precipitously, falling from 23% in the first quarter of 2004 to 18% the next year, and 12% in 2006, where it remained through 2007. In the fourth quarter of 2007, Apple grabbed 7% of the worldwide smartphone share, despite being limited to one model and primarily one provider in one country. It's expected that Apple will match or overshadow Windows Mobile sales worldwide this year, and the iPhone has already trounced Windows Mobile in the US and as a browsing platform.

Symbian's smartphone platform has similarly fallen from a commanding 72.8% lead share in late 2006 to today's 55% share under the assault of integrated phones including RIM's BlackBerry, Apple's iPhone, and Motorola's closed Linux phones sold in Asia. Symbian partner Sony Ericsson is struggling with weak sales, and Symbian itself reported earlier this month that revenues had tumbled 14% as its software royalty payments per phone continued to fall. Nokia is buying out its Symbian partners to take the platform open source for the very reason that there is little business model left in selling the phone software.

Add in Google's free Android platform, and Microsoft is left as the last vendor trying to sell a commercial software platform for smartphones. This has led many observers to expect that Microsoft would attempt to release its own 'Zune phone' model, but the company has said no such product is the works, and instead has pointed to the release of Windows Mobile 7 late next year.

Ballmer dismisses the iPhone in 2007 while touting Windows Mobile

Microsoft expects Mac to do as poorly as iPhone

Ballmer similarly argued that Apple will fail to see further Mac share gains or make strides in the enterprise market because it won't license the Mac OS to third-party hardware vendors.

"Apple's a good company, I won't take anything away from them, but they have a certain kind of strategy," Ballmer said. "They believe in putting the hardware and software together, they don't believe in letting other people make it."

"I'm not saying there isn't a threat" he added. But if we "do our jobs right, there's really no reason Apple should get any footprint in the enterprise."

Just a month ago, Benjamin Gray of Forrester Research pointed out that the Mac had taken 4.5% of the enterprise market in June, despite Apple's apparent lack of any targeted efforts to push its systems. Microsoft's Windows Vista, a year and a half after launch, had still only reached 8.8% deployment in the enterprise. That was far short of Microsoft's original goal of 20% Vista adoption by the end of 2007.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"I'm not saying there isn't a threat" he added. But if we "do our jobs right, there's really no reason Apple should get any footprint in the enterprise."

Hmmm, I think that should read "If we abuse our monopoly power right, there's really no reason Apple should get any footprint in the enterprise."

[Ireland]

Ballmer's like a fish out of water. He looks and acts like a car salesman trying to run a large tech corporation.

used a forum this week to discount the Mac maker's potential for future share gains and designate its mobile phone business as a doomed initiative that will "lose out" in the long run.

Yeah, over 100,000,000 apps sold in 60 days and 20 Million phones sold by the end of this calendar year I can see where he'd get that opinion. I wouldn't like to see what he'd have said if they iPhone wasn't a runaway success. Also, what he fails to realize is the it's not just a phone, a mini computer, or a smartphone, but the groundwork for the markingting and technology that will help sell the world the Mac touch and its user interface when it makes a splash next year with Snow Leopard. Ballmer has no clue what's coming.

Fat, Angry men don't influence me. Ballmer like Microsoft has become stale, predictable and boring.

[TBaggins]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Among the changes [Ballmer] proposed were a shift in relations with Microsoft hardware vendors designed to mimic the experience offered by Apple's tightly-controlled Mac platform. Likewise, he called for a similar approach in the mobile phone arena, vouching to create "great end-to-end experiences" akin to that of Apple's closed ecosystem, where it maintains tight control of nearly every aspect of a product's design.

Yup. The progression of reactionary companies to competition is always thus:

Ignore.
Ridicule.
Attack.
Copy.
Steal.

We are now at Copy. Here's your doggy treat, Ballsmer.

...

[mutant]

Ballmer really shouldn't be spending his time worrying about Apple as more so Android, which is directly going after Microsoft's mobile platform. There's plenty of room out there but it's all at the expense of RIM and Microsoft.

[filburt]

Why is he still the CEO of Microsoft? He doesn't know much about technology, the company's stock has dropped its value by 50% since he took over in January 2000, he's not even a good salesman (which is his only strength), and he's a raving lunatic.

[monstrosity]

Originally Posted by mutant

Ballmer really shouldn't be spending his time worrying about Apple as more so Android, which is directly going after Microsoft's mobile platform. There's plenty of room out there but it's all at the expense of RIM and Microsoft.

Absolutely. Android could potentially be the death of microsoft as we know it. Actually not 'could', 'will' be the death of msft.

[BHoughton]

I never liked Apple.

Ever.

I've used Windows since 3.1 and was blindly fanboyish towards them.

But when I bought an iPhone and actually saw the quality and attention to detail that Apple puts into their products, it made me go out an buy a brand new MacBook Pro for school.

It's been about 3 months now and since I have transferred any important files from my Windows PC, I no longer use it. In fact, I actually packed it up and stuck it out in the garage today.

The point to this post is that he is claiming that Apple is going to eventually fail with the iPhone. But from my experience, the iPhone is what made me an avid Apple fan.

I doubt that I'm the only one who has done this.

[slapppy]

He's right. In the long run. MS has a nice little system going for them with guaranteed profits every quarter. So why not. Keep producing crap till they catch up. What other company has a nice advantage like that?

[heinzel]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

Hmmm, I think that should read "If we abuse our monopoly power right, there's really no reason Apple should get any footprint in the enterprise."

Yeah, like, keep not fixing Mac Office, so it remains being even more useless than the current Windows version. E.g. Excel 2007 is already a dog with large files (I am talking moving an XY plot of >32000 rows x >6 columns here), compared to the previous versions, but Excel for Mac takes the cake in terms of slowness, even on a fast machine. Add in the lost macro support, close to no keyboard shortcuts (compared to Windoes), etc. - sure they won't gain marketshare in the enterprise, where almost everybody uses MS Office.

You just gotta love Ballmer and his peons.

[corinhorn]

I don't see why so many Windows lovers think having a device in which the hardware is designed by company A and the software designed by company F is a good thing.

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by BHoughton

The point to this post is that he is claiming that Apple is going to eventually fail with the iPhone. But from my experience, the iPhone is what made me an avid Apple fan.

I doubt that I'm the only one who has done this.

Indeed, you're certainly not the only one. As far as I can see, the "iPhone halo effect" has a much greater potential to get people to switch to Macs than the "iPod halo effect". This is a very exciting prospect. I only hope that Apple doesn't fuck it up by pissing off all the iPhone developers. The fact that the NDA prevents discussion about iPhone development really is ridiculous and I hope Apple sorts it out soon.

[kaiser_soze]

Microsoft’s business model has always been to provide cheap software to companies who want to sell so-so hardware to businesses and people who prefer to buy the cheapest product on the shelf.

This strategy has worked incredibly well for Microsoft. But the nature of this situation is such that there was never really any pressure on Microsoft to make software that worked particularly well, and that is why Microsoft never made any software that worked particularly well. Finally, after more than two decades of this pathetic situation, people are now starting to wise up and figure out that the money you save by buying Microsoft’s crappy software just doesn’t make up for all the perpetual hassle. People everywhere, after fighting constant battles with viruses, with software that is wrought with race conditions due to a lack of synchronization, and with perpetual upgrades to new versions that don’t ever fix what was really wrong with the previous version, have had enough. The wind is finally starting to blow in the other direction.

The job that Apple has done with helping the public to come to this realization is exemplary and astonishing it itself. Less than a decade ago, hardly anyone, especially anyone on Wall Street, would have believed that Apple could possibly do what Apple has managed to do. It is an unprecedented phenomenon.

There is no way that Apple will ever knock Microsoft off their pedestal. But I believe that the trend of the past several years will continue, and that Apple’s annual gain in gross revenue and net profit will continue steadily and indefinitely into the foreseeable future. It isn’t important whether Apple ever knocks Microsoft off that pedestal. What is important for me, not merely as a stock holder but also as someone who just is fed up with Microsoft and with Bill Gates and the whole pack of mediocre people and their crappy software, is that Apple continues to be a viable, successful alternative for people who want their computers and their gadgets to work the way that computers and gadgets ought to work.

[wheelhot]

Ignore.
Ridicule.
Attack.
Copy.
Steal.

I wonder what they going to do in Steal phrase? Buy Apple? Nooo, it will be a post-armageddon for Apple users.

Now, to the main topic. And that's why we all "love" you Ballmer! Your complete Windows dominance in the whole world is now giving your company major headache, from Virus to hardware compatibility issues. Accept it, you like the tight-integration concept. Zune Phone? LOL, MS is backstabbing their partners. Zune does not cannibalize iPod sales, it cannibalize its own MS Mp3 partners market. . . . (but Apple need to do something about it though, before Zune become widely known as the iPod alternative)

The job that Apple has done with helping the public to come to this realization is exemplary and astonishing it itself. Less than a decade ago, hardly anyone, especially anyone on Wall Street, would have believed that Apple could possibly do what Apple has managed to do. It is an unprecedented phenomenon.

Yea, M.Dell, he sure understand fully what you said. Except he is no economist.

There is no way that Apple will ever knock Microsoft off their pedestal. But I believe that the trend of the past several years will continue, and that Apple’s annual gain in gross revenue and net profit will continue steadily and indefinitely into the foreseeable future. It isn’t important whether Apple ever knocks Microsoft off that pedestal. What is important for me, not merely as a stock holder but also as someone who just is fed up with Microsoft and with Bill Gates and the whole pack of mediocre people and their crappy software, is that Apple continues to be a viable, successful alternative for people who want their computers and their gadgets to work the way that computers and gadgets ought to work.

Yea, I dont want Apple to become bigger then Microsoft also cause by then Apple might end up becoming Microsoft No.2 I prefer Apple to stay small and not end up like Microsoft which is trying to put their hands on almost anything they can see. I say its good that Apple is expanding itself, but its also good that they remind themselves of what make they have royal followers.

Do MS have loyal followers? Bring me any Windows lover and give him a Mac to test within a week, he will come back to you and ask "Where is the nearest Apple store?" .
Well that is fiction but it did happen just not exactly like what I said, I have a friend, who bought a XPS and I got a MBP. He say he dont like Macs, but now after he seeing me using my mac and how long the battery life is compared to his Dell, my MBP and easily outlast XPS 13" battery, odd though considering its a 13 vs 15" screen. He start complimenting my Mac, so Im pretty sure in the future his next product will be a Mac.

Now if we can only get engineering softwares (SolidWorks!) to be on the Mac.

[Phizz]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

Indeed, you're certainly not the only one. As far as I can see, the "iPhone halo effect" has a much greater potential to get people to switch to Macs than the "iPod halo effect". This is a very exciting prospect. I only hope that Apple doesn't fuck it up by pissing off all the iPhone developers. The fact that the NDA prevents discussion about iPhone development really is ridiculous and I hope Apple sorts it out soon.

Mr H., I thought you were the Language Police.

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by Phizz

Mr H., I thought you were the Language Police.

I try to keep the profanity to a minimum, but I believe in this case it reflects the seriousness of the situation. Apple has such enormous potential in its hands with the iPhone and I do worry that its attitude towards the development community at the moment leaves a lot to be desired and could be its undoing Vs. Android et. al.

[justflybob]

Originally Posted by Phizz

Mr H., I thought you were the Language Police.

C'mon, now. Give Mr. H a break.

After all, he did use "fuck" and "pissing" in a complete sentence.

[dasein]

Originally Posted by heinzel

Yeah, like, keep not fixing Mac Office, so it remains being even more useless than the current Windows version. E.g. Excel 2007 is already a dog with large files (I am talking moving an XY plot of >32000 rows x >6 columns here), compared to the previous versions, but Excel for Mac takes the cake in terms of slowness, even on a fast machine. Add in the lost macro support, close to no keyboard shortcuts (compared to Windoes), etc. - sure they won't gain marketshare in the enterprise, where almost everybody uses MS Office.

You just gotta love Ballmer and his peons.

Try OpenOffice...it's free and the new beta is written natively for the OS X
http://download.openoffice.org/680/

It reads/writes to the MS Suite.

[stniuk]

Ballmer has lost the plot. I think he lives in a different Universe to the rest of us.

LISTEN TO THIS BALLMER JUST BECAUSE YOU KEEP SAYING THINGS DOESN'T MAKE THEM CORRECT.

The world has caught on to the Microsoft swindle. It will take a long time but I really think Microsoft's days are numbered.

[Phizz]

OS market share in August 2008 (source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8):

Windows: 90.66%
Mac + iPhone: 8.16%
Linux: 0.93%
Other: 0.25%

My estimate for August 2018:

Windows: 40%
Google OS: 34%
Mac + iPhone: 20%
Linux: 5%
Other: 1%

Windows will mainly be a corporate thing, stuck with by companies who are currently already heavily invested in Windows, or chosen by home users who are resistant to change.

Google OS will be hot off the heels of Android/Chrome, given away for free to manufacturers. It will be simple, easy and quick and very popular with home users, education and corporations looking for low cost computers (computers themselves may be heavily subsidised if Google AdWords are implemented into the OS - we're talking $99 laptops). It will be embraced by developing nations as the OS of choice.

Mac will be the superior system, with its growth constrained only by the higher prices which makes them unattainable for many. That said, due to its profit margins, Apple will be the wealthiest company.

Linux will be a solid open source community developed OS, but not widely embraced by general consumers.

As many more devices become more like mini-computers, the 'Other' category will grow.

And then 2028? Who knows...

[minderbinder]

Ballmer: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

You'd think this guy would have learned from this humiliating mistake.

[davesmall]

Is there anyone out there who thinks Microsoft has a clue when in comes to future technology directions, innovation, etc.?

I think Apple owns that franchise.

Microsoft is not in the technology business. Nor in the innovation business. They're in the marketing business. It's about bundling and deal making for them.

Microsoft's greatest (only?) successes have come from copying others. They ripped off spreadheets from Lotus. Word processing from Word Perfect. Operating systems from Apple. And many many more. They are such major league pirates and yet they have the gall to rail against software piracy.

I'll give them this much. Steve Ballmer is the perfect guy to oversee their downfall.

[wheelhot]

Ballmer: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

You'd think this guy would have learned from this humiliating mistake.

Erm no..remember when iPhone was released he says its the most expensive phone in the world, no build in keyboard and nobody would buy it? Look what happen now?

[smokeonit]

i think he's a psychopath!

mac osX is selling very well, which automatically means that macs sell very well. and since the iphone runs on osX too, it sells very well...

to call the iphone a closed system proves that he doesn't really know what he's taking about... i mean the software side... or is he talking about the hardware side??

the hardware has been the strong point of apple since they directly control quality and compliance all the way, that's why macs and the iphone is much more reliable (the iphone is still very new, so some glitches are understandable)....

i think windows mobile is a much more closed system,. since M$ controls the s/w and no one really knows what software upgrades might bring... osX, based on unix (like linux) is what it is and is very solid base for programmers, thus the huge success with the app store... but apple needs to loosen up its restrictive policy!!! GPS and bluetooth have to be accessible, or many companies trying to write apps for the iphone will look elsewhere...

my old phone, the tro650, was my navigation device... i don't understand why apple is not coming thur with a good navigation app on their own or allowing one or all of the navigation comapnies, like tomtom or garmin, to release an app ASAP.... people want it, so give it to them...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MarkyMark7]

"Microsoft's Windows Vista, a year and a half after launch, had still only reached 8.8% deployment in the enterprise. That was far short of Microsoft's original goal of 20% Vista adoption by the end of 2007."

And thus those nauseating Seinfeld TV ads, whose narrow target-demographic is the group of corporate IT decision-maker / influencer cubicle-monkeys who are (correctly) nervous about migrating from XP to Vista.

[res08hao]

In all seriousness, if there has ever been a candidate for world champion blow hard of all time, it is this pompous buffoon. He is so monumentally wrong he could run Lehman Bros into the ground single handidly-oh wait, somebody already has.

[wizard69]

Originally Posted by corinhorn

I don't see why so many Windows lovers think having a device in which the hardware is designed by company A and the software designed by company F is a good thing.

MS problem isn't that they run on a lot of different hardware, but rather what they are running software wise is crap. Or at least people have the perception that Windows is crap. Linux on the other hand runs on vastly more hardware but can be tailored specifically for that hardware. Frankly some installations of Linux run better than MS could ever hope to run.

So I don't see hardware, in all the possible types, as being the issue. There is a perfectly good example of an OS that can work well on all sorts of hardware. MS is rather a good example of an American corporation run by un-skilled managers that don't grasp the technology.

I look at MS this way: there are a lot of very bright people there but that alone does not build a team focused on a common goal. That is what a good manager should be doing, frankly as part of a team. Windows is a good example of something that grew without control and thoughtful structuring. I expect that in ten years time they will either have gone thru a bunch of managers to find a good one or will have ended up as a business schools textbook example of how not to manage technology.

Dave

[Steve's son]

Am I the only one thinking Microsoft is getting scared? See that the iPhone has sold sum 9 millions phones so far. O_o

[edmonal]

Originally Posted by BHoughton

I never liked Apple.

Ever.

I've used Windows since 3.1 and was blindly fanboyish towards them.

But when I bought an iPhone and actually saw the quality and attention to detail that Apple puts into their products, it made me go out an buy a brand new MacBook Pro for school.

It's been about 3 months now and since I have transferred any important files from my Windows PC, I no longer use it. In fact, I actually packed it up and stuck it out in the garage today.

The point to this post is that he is claiming that Apple is going to eventually fail with the iPhone. But from my experience, the iPhone is what made me an avid Apple fan.

I doubt that I'm the only one who has done this.

I agree. I took a course in Mac OS X and because we were trying to run the OS on antiquated equipment, and that I had nothing but contempt for the instructor I filed my experience away as "Not bad, but not for me" When I bought a MP3 player I went with Sansa and not Apple, but I bought an iPhone and it is a very nice piece of technology. So I bought a MacBook and after two days packed it up and I am going to give it to my parents for Christmas, I bought a iBook G4 off Ebay and I'll use that till I can buy a Mac Pro. I have used Windows since MSDOS and currently do server support in a Windows environment, I have lived and breathed Windows for a very long time. I have used AIX, Linux of a variety of flavours, however I'm now an Apple convert and over the next year will have only Linux and OS X boxes in my household. It's when developers and back end support staff start looking seriously at OS X as a desktop option, it's the start of the wedge. VMWare is also contributing to it as you can reduce Windows to where it belongs, at the application layer.

[epdreher]

Originally Posted by minderbinder

Ballmer: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

You'd think this guy would have learned from this humiliating mistake.

His mistake parallels that of many media outlets. They report the news they way they WANT it to be, rather than the way it IS.

He's living proof that you only need a sub-par intellect to work at MS, or be a CEO for that matter.

[wheelhot]

my old phone, the tro650, was my navigation device... i don't understand why apple is not coming thur with a good navigation app on their own or allowing one or all of the navigation comapnies, like tomtom or garmin, to release an app ASAP.... people want it, so give it to them...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup Yup, I want GPS for my MountainBike, but I dont want to use Windows App. There is not many proper mac GPS software and hardware compatible. I havent find any, but im sure there is some out there.

Mac use Intel and REAL Virtualization softwares is really one of the best things that come for OS X.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by monstrosity

Absolutely. Android could potentially be the death of microsoft as we know it. Actually not 'could', 'will' be the death of msft.

How again? MS mobile stuff really isn't of any significance as it is. Cut off an opponent's pinky and most of the opponent is still there.

[drblank]

Originally Posted by Ireland

Ballmer's like a fish out of water. He looks and acts like a car salesman trying to run a large tech corporation.



Yeah, over 100,000,000 apps sold in 60 days and 20 Million phones sold by the end of this calendar year I can see where he'd get that opinion. I wouldn't like to see what he'd have said if they iPhone wasn't a runaway success. Also, what he fails to realize is the it's not just a phone, a mini computer, or a smartphone, but the groundwork for the markingting and technology that will help sell the world the Mac touch and its user interface when it makes a splash next year with Snow Leopard. Ballmer has no clue what's coming.

Fat, Angry men don't influence me. Ballmer like Microsoft has become stale, predictable and boring.

I am trying to figure out if Steve Ballmer is an idiot or just plain dumb. I know he is rich, but that doesn't mean anything. Hey Ballmer, can you help me out here? Yeah, like Microsoft is in the game with the Zune. They sell 1 million units per year and Apple sells that many iPods in a day or two. yeah, Microsoft is in the game. Oh, OK Steve, anything you say. By the time Microsoft figures out how to make something as good as the iPhone, Apple will have a new version with more features. And by that time, Apple's market cap will be as big as Microsofts, but with a lot less employees than Microsoft. Hmmmm... Can you say efficiently run company? I think Ballmer is drunk with ego.

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

...... Apple has such enormous potential in its hands with the iPhone and I do worry that its attitude towards the development community at the moment leaves a lot to be desired and could be its undoing Vs. Android et. al.

+++

Plus while we're at it, can we do away with the niche marketing strategy. Why is ATT the only provider in the USA and how again does this benefit Apple? If all ATT is going to do is partially subsidize the handset cost then Apple should make iPhones that work on other networks and sell them with other providers.

While everyone thought Apple squeezed ATT in the original deal, right now it would appear that ATT has the better terms by far. They are exclusive providers of the iPhone but can and do sell competing products. But is Apple selling iPhones on Verizon or Sprints networks?

Hell, a spokesman for ATT said they may sell Android phones in the future.

[wheelhot]

The reason that I can figure out why Apple have exclusive carrier is because they want a constant amount of cash flow, right now the iPod market is no more as good as last time, sales are getting slower and etc. By Apple having a fixed provider, the provider must pay Apple continuously, regardless if the market has slow down or not.

Im not sure I get it all right, but I think I get part of the reason?

[tundraboy]

The guy is just amazing. He has no understanding at all how his business works. Complexity. Com-Plex-It-Y. It's the enemy of high technology. One software platform to many hardware hosts is way more complex than one platform to one host. That's what's killing Windows. They have an army of programmers just to fine tune Vista's thousands of moving parts to fit all the different motherboard and processor configurations out there.

Windows succeeded not because of its one-to-many model. It succeeded in spite of it because IBM gifted them with a monopoly in the PC market. Gates outmaneuvered IBM by not giving IBM exclusivity over DOS. But to actually wrest control of the PC market from IBM, Microsoft needed the clone industry to grow and grow fast so that MS is not hostage to one PC manufacturer. But Microsoft could not build the machines themselves. First of all because they didn't have any manufacturing skills or capabilities. Secondly, because that's in direct competition to IBM and I don't think they wanted IBM to wise up right away to what they were doing. So the way to undermine IBM was to encourage 3rd party clone makers.

If IBM had acquired the exclusive rights to DOS, there would be no PC clones, IBM probably still dominate the PC market, and MS would not be the industrial hegemonist that it is now. This suboptimal solution of one platform - many hardware manufacturers is an accident of history that arose out of the above-mentioned special circumstances. For Ballmer to claim that it is naturally superior to one platform - one hardware manufacturer only reveals the depth of his misunderstanding.

[Mac-sochist]

Jeebus McRee--could there be a more unsuitable figurehead for a tech company in this day and age? I cringe every time I see this pithecoid buffoon going into one of his tirades. (It's painful for me to say, because except for the fact that I've still got all my hair, I resemble him more than a little.)

Instead of paying Jerry Seinfeld 10 megabucks to change their image, I think they need to hire a front man who won't frighten little children! Ballmer could still run the company into the ground behind the scenes, I hope he does; but if I were them, I'd try to find a little more presentable sock puppet for public appearances. Is Bob still available?

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

Indeed, you're certainly not the only one. As far as I can see, the "iPhone halo effect" has a much greater potential to get people to switch to Macs than the "iPod halo effect". This is a very exciting prospect. I only hope that Apple doesn't fuck it up by pissing off all the iPhone developers. The fact that the NDA prevents discussion about iPhone development really is ridiculous and I hope Apple sorts it out soon.

Besides the Halo Effects mentioned, the Apple Store themselves are,IMO, offering the most powerful hallow effect in that all Macs can be used first-hand before buying and they can be taken home immediately, without some archaic BTO system from Dell kiosks or the old Getaway back-allay stores that forgoes the powerful of instant gratification.


THe NDA issue is s slap in the face, but it appears that the growth and success of the App Store make make these select issues inconsequential in the long run.

[bsenka]

Originally Posted by dasein

Try OpenOffice...it's free and the new beta is written natively for the OS X
http://download.openoffice.org/680/

It reads/writes to the MS Suite.

Does it actually work yet? I tried it a few months ago, and it took 30 minutes just to load, and barely was able to do anything at all on then brand new iMac. I wrote it off as still beta for a reason (not ready yet).

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by BHoughton

I never liked Apple.

Ever.

I've used Windows since 3.1 and was blindly fanboyish towards them.

But when I bought an iPhone and actually saw the quality and attention to detail that Apple puts into their products, it made me go out an buy a brand new MacBook Pro for school.

It's been about 3 months now and since I have transferred any important files from my Windows PC, I no longer use it. In fact, I actually packed it up and stuck it out in the garage today.

The point to this post is that he is claiming that Apple is going to eventually fail with the iPhone. But from my experience, the iPhone is what made me an avid Apple fan.

I doubt that I'm the only one who has done this.

You're right. All previous PC owners I know who turned to Mac owners couldn't be happier. There's no going back.