I feel for the guy but I'm not so sure he's doing a BAD job. He's made some mistakes, but so have dozens of other CEOs; their replacements haven't always been much better. Microsoft is a monstrosity of a ship and it's slow to change course. Nevertheless, earnings look pretty damned good to me. Ballmer is not without his flaws and he is a victim of the times, but I doubt a changeup in CEO will do much for them. Better to stick with continuity with someone who understands the company. Anyone else coming in will be so overwhelmed that I imagine they'd divest most of the company before they make their investors happy. Yet IDK if that's what MS should be doing at this point. From where I'm sitting, you need as much vertical integration as possible to go up against Apple.
He's doing a horrible job, actually. Microsoft is making money from their established Windows monopoly, Office, Exchange, XBox, etc. Think about what's happened on Ballmer's watch:
>Windows Vista=Disaster
>Zune=good product, horrible marketing, inferior to iPod. Product now dead.
>Smoked by the original and subsequent iPhones. Ballmer acts as if no one will buy the original iPhone, stating (while laughing) "it's the most expensive phone in the world.
>Complete failure to launch in the tablet market. iOS and Android are destroying them.
>Failed retail initiative.
>Apple, the company that was partially saved by M$ 15 years ago, is now the world's most valuable tech company.
Baller's leadership has been a disaster by almost any measure. Microsoft is doing a few things well right now, none of which are new: Windows 7 (what Vista should have been), Office, Exchange and the now long-in-the-tooth Xbox. These are from established user bases. They are rapidly losing the battle for consumers/home users. Not only is the Mac better and more in tune with what they want, Apple has a solid retail presence. Been in an Apple store lately? The one at my local mall always at least 50 customers inside, with nearly as many employees. Apple is booming beyond belief. And Baller is complaining about how many iPads they're selling.
I also disagree that they can't really do anything. M$ should get back to what M$ does. They should stop trying to compete where they cannot, and start making software for the devices that are selling while maintaing their current anchor products. Example: Where the hell is Office for iPad? They could sell that software for 10 times what other developers are getting. Where are their iOS efforts? Where are their efforts to make Apple's consumer products more compatible with their own systems?
My how the mighty have fallen. If this p***k hadn't displayed so much arrogance over his tenure, I wonder if I would have felt so much glee in reading this article.
EXACTLY!!!!!! I have listened and read this man's arrogance for decades and it is heart warming to read about him failing miserably.
On the other hand, may he stay in power for as long as it takes for MicroShaft to die!
One other thing to point out, while Balmer gets the heat, Microsoft's stock price has been flat for the last 10 years, extending back well into the Bill Gates era.
Good point. Perhaps the real problem is a bit different. History shows the real problem. If you look at the progression of a company from start to finish MS is falling right into the pattern. As you get larger and larger you become less adaptive and more entrenched. Some companies just fade and others manage to transform but it is not an easy process. IBM comes to mind as a company that seems to have finally found its way back.
Anyway, MS is at the crossroads right now. They really need a visionary and, unfortunately for them, Ballmer seems to be lacking in that respect. But it is a bit too early to count them out.
Pllleeeeaaaaassseee let him stay, just one or two more product flops! Pllleeeaaaaasseeee!!!!
Exactly. +1 We Apple fans should be rooting for Ballmer not wishing for his firing. Be careful what you ask for as you might be moving from the frying pan into the fire. The thought of Bill Gates actually returning gives me a chill. Gates is a true business genius.
That means that bubbles is NO LONGER running Microshaft.. So.. will he turn up in Espoo running Nokiasoft?? Gets COLD in Finland in the winters Steve... Got enough wodka? OR, is he going to pop up at MicroSkype trying to BE a new client.... Or is he 'broad'band....
Time for Stevie to step away... When Bill left - Steve was exposed and highly radiated.. NOW - he's cooked - well done...
I went to a baseball game the other day! There was this big clumsy bald guy, jumpin' around, sweating, between second and third -- obviously trying to play shortstop.
Clearly none of you saying things like "crummy products" and "crappy OS" have used Microsoft's offerings lately. If you had, you would be praising what is on offer:
Windows 7
Office 2010
Office 2011 for Mac
Internet Explorer 9
Windows Phone 7
Zune
Xbox
All of these are truly excellent products, most of them worthy of being the market leader.
Windows 7 - better than Vista, still as clunky and hard to use and maintain as ever. Not worthy of being the market leader.
Office 2010 - continues the awful ribbon interface because MS could never design a good set of pull down menus. People who like the ribbon only like it because MS had a confusing set of menus. Word also crashes on 500+ page documents with Track Changes turned on.
Office 2011 - ditto for Office 2010, and now the formatting palette in Word is gone.
IE 9 - oh please.
WP7 - no.
Zune - compared to an iPod? Don't even try.
XBox - agreed - this is a truly excellent product worthy of being a market leader.
Should I really be surprised that people here seem to be passing judgement on Microsoft's products without even using them?
Clearly none of you saying things like "crummy products" and "crappy OS" have used Microsoft's offerings lately. If you had, you would be praising what is on offer:
Windows 7
Office 2010
Office 2011 for Mac
Internet Explorer 9
Windows Phone 7
Zune
Xbox
All of these are truly excellent products, most of them worthy of being the market leader. Certainly the Windows of today is the best ever and I now have far more confidence in the reliability and stability of Windows than I do in Mac OS X.
Microsoft also offers incredibly good support for previous versions, continuing to release updates long after a new version is on sale. This means that Windows XP and Windows Vista are now rock solid (a long way from where they were 6 or 7 years ago).
OK this is a Troll post, and I know we should not feed a Troll but let me do some exception here and let me tell about M$ product.
?*Windows 7: Small head medusa, go check the mess in your Winsxs folder that contain more than 7Gb of replicated stuffs from all previous Windows for all previous hardware architecture that is use to run software in "compatibility mode" for preserving stability. stable maybe, bloated yes.
? Office 2010 and 2011: 0 new features only UI reorganized, sames awful bugs with core features
?*IE9: what a joke from Microsoft to push Web standard after so many years of crippling the internet with IE6 only compatible web site with active X, Silverlight crap.
? Windows7Phone: Back to square one from WM 6.5, recycled Zune UI and not a fully fledge OS like iOS is.
? Zune: Dead, Micorsoft kill it.
?*Xbox360: The game console with the highest failing rate of all time.
To this day Windows is still the only non-fully posix OS on the market. Windows never been a cutting edge OS, Windows was made with "get the job done" in mind, and still cripple with too many runtime environment making it nearly impossible to track all way to install things without users consent or knowledge.
In a way I would hate to see Balder go. I always like doing MS jokes and cartoons and all the cut and paste work on him and MS products. When he leaves he should do movies, like a rework of the three stooges series along with _ _ _ _ _ _ l _ _ _ l and _ l _ _ _ e .
Pretty homogenous looking top 10 there. If the bald guy didn't shave, it'd be 9 outta 10.
Probably is time for Ballmer to go. I don't dislike him as a CEO completely, but when's the last time he said something more intuitive and market-related than, "Developers, developers, developers, developers"?
I also disagree that they can't really do anything. M$ should get back to what M$ does. They should stop trying to compete where they cannot, and start making software for the devices that are selling while maintaing their current anchor products. Example: Where the hell is Office for iPad? They could sell that software for 10 times what other developers are getting. Where are their iOS efforts? Where are their efforts to make Apple's consumer products more compatible with their own systems?
Agreed. Office for mac 2011 is wonderful, even better than the Windows counterpart.
Wasn't "embrace enhance extinguish" once their slogan? They could at least try to do something like that with the iPad.
1. They really have to release Office for iOS. Right now they are loosing a lot of money potential money here. (Embrace the iPad)
2. By the time they release their own Tablet OS/Windows 8 they could ad some exclusive features for that so people would buy Windows tablets (think Sharepoint support, full compatibility (VBA support) etc). They could even blame missing support on the "flawed" AppStore. (Enhance your products so that they will become partially incompatible with the rest)
3. Drive lots of sales for Windows tablets, (Extinguish the iPad)
Seriously Balmer! This is what you are good at. At least try to do it.
The boring business company (Office, Windows, Exchange, etc) which does really well.
The cool technology side (Xbox, Zune, Bing, Courier, WP7, etc) which does really badly.
If you are on the "business" side you roll your eyes and wait for the latest thing the "cool" side is trying to either be cancelled before it is released or to flop.
Should I really be surprised that people here seem to be passing judgment on Microsoft's products without even using them?
For what it's worth you could add to your list .NET/VS2010, Azure, Office Web Apps and SharePoint.
In any case you've probably noticed by now that Microsoft has something of a perception problem...
Every successful company is going to have their haters, and they are always going to actively avoid learning anything that will compromise their prejudices.
The biggest issue for Microsoft is that the negative sentiment has leaked beyond the hardcore anti-Microsoft crew. Microsoft products are increasingly seen as something to be used (or suffered through, for the huge amount of people still on a bloated, locked down, underpowered machine running XP) at work.
For home Apple and Google are being seen as "cooler" companies that are more up to date.
I think the next few years (and the release of Windows 8) is going to be a real turning point for Microsoft... they will either turn up as sentiment improves and Microsoft recognizes their three screens post-PC computing platform, or they turn down if Windows 8 bombs.
I feel for the guy but I'm not so sure he's doing a BAD job.
Agreed. Or rather he has done a bad job but it is not all his full fault. A captain is only as good as his crew and frankly I wonder about that crew. I wonder about their skills, particularly in speaking up to their boss.
Jobs is highly involved in all aspects. But he also hand picks his execs and trains them in his way of thinking and doing. They can talk to him in his terms because he taught them. He knows that he can go to them with an idea and say 'how do we make this happen' and they will do it and in a way that he will approve of.
I highly doubt that Ballmer is in the same situation. Or even close to the same.
This is terrible news: I mean WTF I wish these people would shutup about Balmer's incompetance. The longer Balmer remains in charge the faster MS will go away and die. IF they put someone in charge who knows what do - is the day we need to dump our Apple stock arrghhhhh
I feel for the guy but I'm not so sure he's doing a BAD job. He's made some mistakes, but so have dozens of other CEOs; their replacements haven't always been much better. Microsoft is a monstrosity of a ship and it's slow to change course. Nevertheless, earnings look pretty damned good to me. Ballmer is not without his flaws and he is a victim of the times, but I doubt a changeup in CEO will do much for them. Better to stick with continuity with someone who understands the company. Anyone else coming in will be so overwhelmed that I imagine they'd divest most of the company before they make their investors happy. Yet IDK if that's what MS should be doing at this point. From where I'm sitting, you need as much vertical integration as possible to go up against Apple.
You must have missed the $8.5 Billion purchase of Skype. Not to a mention a CEO's job is to increase the stock valuation.
Comments
They ought to try going the RIM way, and go dual CEO's
for a trail run. Let Ballmer take care of the 'Cash Cows'.
And get a good young prospect to run the competitive part.
Maybe they could entice a Scott Forstall or someone like that.
I feel for the guy but I'm not so sure he's doing a BAD job. He's made some mistakes, but so have dozens of other CEOs; their replacements haven't always been much better. Microsoft is a monstrosity of a ship and it's slow to change course. Nevertheless, earnings look pretty damned good to me. Ballmer is not without his flaws and he is a victim of the times, but I doubt a changeup in CEO will do much for them. Better to stick with continuity with someone who understands the company. Anyone else coming in will be so overwhelmed that I imagine they'd divest most of the company before they make their investors happy. Yet IDK if that's what MS should be doing at this point. From where I'm sitting, you need as much vertical integration as possible to go up against Apple.
He's doing a horrible job, actually. Microsoft is making money from their established Windows monopoly, Office, Exchange, XBox, etc. Think about what's happened on Ballmer's watch:
>Windows Vista=Disaster
>Zune=good product, horrible marketing, inferior to iPod. Product now dead.
>Smoked by the original and subsequent iPhones. Ballmer acts as if no one will buy the original iPhone, stating (while laughing) "it's the most expensive phone in the world.
>Complete failure to launch in the tablet market. iOS and Android are destroying them.
>Failed retail initiative.
>Apple, the company that was partially saved by M$ 15 years ago, is now the world's most valuable tech company.
Baller's leadership has been a disaster by almost any measure. Microsoft is doing a few things well right now, none of which are new: Windows 7 (what Vista should have been), Office, Exchange and the now long-in-the-tooth Xbox. These are from established user bases. They are rapidly losing the battle for consumers/home users. Not only is the Mac better and more in tune with what they want, Apple has a solid retail presence. Been in an Apple store lately? The one at my local mall always at least 50 customers inside, with nearly as many employees. Apple is booming beyond belief. And Baller is complaining about how many iPads they're selling.
I also disagree that they can't really do anything. M$ should get back to what M$ does. They should stop trying to compete where they cannot, and start making software for the devices that are selling while maintaing their current anchor products. Example: Where the hell is Office for iPad? They could sell that software for 10 times what other developers are getting. Where are their iOS efforts? Where are their efforts to make Apple's consumer products more compatible with their own systems?
My how the mighty have fallen. If this p***k hadn't displayed so much arrogance over his tenure, I wonder if I would have felt so much glee in reading this article.
EXACTLY!!!!!! I have listened and read this man's arrogance for decades and it is heart warming to read about him failing miserably.
On the other hand, may he stay in power for as long as it takes for MicroShaft to die!
One other thing to point out, while Balmer gets the heat, Microsoft's stock price has been flat for the last 10 years, extending back well into the Bill Gates era.
Good point. Perhaps the real problem is a bit different. History shows the real problem. If you look at the progression of a company from start to finish MS is falling right into the pattern. As you get larger and larger you become less adaptive and more entrenched. Some companies just fade and others manage to transform but it is not an easy process. IBM comes to mind as a company that seems to have finally found its way back.
Anyway, MS is at the crossroads right now. They really need a visionary and, unfortunately for them, Ballmer seems to be lacking in that respect. But it is a bit too early to count them out.
Bye Bye Balmer
I'm gonna miss you so;
Bye Bye Balmer,
Why'd you have to go?
No more sunshine,
It's followed you away;
I'll cry Ba-HAL-lmer,
Till you're home to stay.
I'll miss the way you smile,
As tho' it's just for me;
And each and ev'ry night,
I'll write you faithfully!
Bye Bye Ba-HAL-mer,
It's awful hard to bear;
Bye Bye Ba-HA-HA-HAL-mer
Think I'll always care,
Guess I'll always care,
Guess I'll always care!
Bye Bye Balmer
The Army's taken you now
I'll try Balmer
To forget some how
No more sighing
Each time you moved your lips
No more crying
When you twist those hips
Your swivel and your sway
Your super trooper
There's nothing left to say
But Steveie you're a jet
Bye Bye Balmer
Bye Bye
She's GaaJus... and so is the Goog!
Apologies for a quick edit of an old VHS LP recording
Pllleeeeaaaaassseee let him stay, just one or two more product flops! Pllleeeaaaaasseeee!!!!
Exactly. +1 We Apple fans should be rooting for Ballmer not wishing for his firing. Be careful what you ask for as you might be moving from the frying pan into the fire. The thought of Bill Gates actually returning gives me a chill. Gates is a true business genius.
Time for Stevie to step away... When Bill left - Steve was exposed and highly radiated.. NOW - he's cooked - well done...
He made 4 Balmers in a single inning!
Clearly none of you saying things like "crummy products" and "crappy OS" have used Microsoft's offerings lately. If you had, you would be praising what is on offer:
Windows 7
Office 2010
Office 2011 for Mac
Internet Explorer 9
Windows Phone 7
Zune
Xbox
All of these are truly excellent products, most of them worthy of being the market leader.
Windows 7 - better than Vista, still as clunky and hard to use and maintain as ever. Not worthy of being the market leader.
Office 2010 - continues the awful ribbon interface because MS could never design a good set of pull down menus. People who like the ribbon only like it because MS had a confusing set of menus. Word also crashes on 500+ page documents with Track Changes turned on.
Office 2011 - ditto for Office 2010, and now the formatting palette in Word is gone.
IE 9 - oh please.
WP7 - no.
Zune - compared to an iPod? Don't even try.
XBox - agreed - this is a truly excellent product worthy of being a market leader.
Should I really be surprised that people here seem to be passing judgement on Microsoft's products without even using them?
Clearly none of you saying things like "crummy products" and "crappy OS" have used Microsoft's offerings lately. If you had, you would be praising what is on offer:
Windows 7
Office 2010
Office 2011 for Mac
Internet Explorer 9
Windows Phone 7
Zune
Xbox
All of these are truly excellent products, most of them worthy of being the market leader. Certainly the Windows of today is the best ever and I now have far more confidence in the reliability and stability of Windows than I do in Mac OS X.
Microsoft also offers incredibly good support for previous versions, continuing to release updates long after a new version is on sale. This means that Windows XP and Windows Vista are now rock solid (a long way from where they were 6 or 7 years ago).
OK this is a Troll post, and I know we should not feed a Troll but let me do some exception here and let me tell about M$ product.
?*Windows 7: Small head medusa, go check the mess in your Winsxs folder that contain more than 7Gb of replicated stuffs from all previous Windows for all previous hardware architecture that is use to run software in "compatibility mode" for preserving stability. stable maybe, bloated yes.
? Office 2010 and 2011: 0 new features only UI reorganized, sames awful bugs with core features
?*IE9: what a joke from Microsoft to push Web standard after so many years of crippling the internet with IE6 only compatible web site with active X, Silverlight crap.
? Windows7Phone: Back to square one from WM 6.5, recycled Zune UI and not a fully fledge OS like iOS is.
? Zune: Dead, Micorsoft kill it.
?*Xbox360: The game console with the highest failing rate of all time.
To this day Windows is still the only non-fully posix OS on the market. Windows never been a cutting edge OS, Windows was made with "get the job done" in mind, and still cripple with too many runtime environment making it nearly impossible to track all way to install things without users consent or knowledge.
Probably is time for Ballmer to go. I don't dislike him as a CEO completely, but when's the last time he said something more intuitive and market-related than, "Developers, developers, developers, developers"?
"GIVE IT UP FOR MEEEEEEEEEE!" -- Steve Ballmer
I also disagree that they can't really do anything. M$ should get back to what M$ does. They should stop trying to compete where they cannot, and start making software for the devices that are selling while maintaing their current anchor products. Example: Where the hell is Office for iPad? They could sell that software for 10 times what other developers are getting. Where are their iOS efforts? Where are their efforts to make Apple's consumer products more compatible with their own systems?
Agreed. Office for mac 2011 is wonderful, even better than the Windows counterpart.
Wasn't "embrace enhance extinguish" once their slogan? They could at least try to do something like that with the iPad.
1. They really have to release Office for iOS. Right now they are loosing a lot of money potential money here. (Embrace the iPad)
2. By the time they release their own Tablet OS/Windows 8 they could ad some exclusive features for that so people would buy Windows tablets (think Sharepoint support, full compatibility (VBA support) etc). They could even blame missing support on the "flawed" AppStore. (Enhance your products so that they will become partially incompatible with the rest)
3. Drive lots of sales for Windows tablets, (Extinguish the iPad)
Seriously Balmer! This is what you are good at. At least try to do it.
- The boring business company (Office, Windows, Exchange, etc) which does really well.
- The cool technology side (Xbox, Zune, Bing, Courier, WP7, etc) which does really badly.
If you are on the "business" side you roll your eyes and wait for the latest thing the "cool" side is trying to either be cancelled before it is released or to flop.Should I really be surprised that people here seem to be passing judgment on Microsoft's products without even using them?
For what it's worth you could add to your list .NET/VS2010, Azure, Office Web Apps and SharePoint.
In any case you've probably noticed by now that Microsoft has something of a perception problem...
Every successful company is going to have their haters, and they are always going to actively avoid learning anything that will compromise their prejudices.
The biggest issue for Microsoft is that the negative sentiment has leaked beyond the hardcore anti-Microsoft crew. Microsoft products are increasingly seen as something to be used (or suffered through, for the huge amount of people still on a bloated, locked down, underpowered machine running XP) at work.
For home Apple and Google are being seen as "cooler" companies that are more up to date.
I think the next few years (and the release of Windows 8) is going to be a real turning point for Microsoft... they will either turn up as sentiment improves and Microsoft recognizes their three screens post-PC computing platform, or they turn down if Windows 8 bombs.
I'd be more likely to believe something a drunken old hobo said than from the criminals who run hedge funds. They belong in jail.
Well, if that's what it will take for you to believe what is being said then I'll also gladly say that Ballmer has to go.
I feel for the guy but I'm not so sure he's doing a BAD job.
Agreed. Or rather he has done a bad job but it is not all his full fault. A captain is only as good as his crew and frankly I wonder about that crew. I wonder about their skills, particularly in speaking up to their boss.
Jobs is highly involved in all aspects. But he also hand picks his execs and trains them in his way of thinking and doing. They can talk to him in his terms because he taught them. He knows that he can go to them with an idea and say 'how do we make this happen' and they will do it and in a way that he will approve of.
I highly doubt that Ballmer is in the same situation. Or even close to the same.
I feel for the guy but I'm not so sure he's doing a BAD job. He's made some mistakes, but so have dozens of other CEOs; their replacements haven't always been much better. Microsoft is a monstrosity of a ship and it's slow to change course. Nevertheless, earnings look pretty damned good to me. Ballmer is not without his flaws and he is a victim of the times, but I doubt a changeup in CEO will do much for them. Better to stick with continuity with someone who understands the company. Anyone else coming in will be so overwhelmed that I imagine they'd divest most of the company before they make their investors happy. Yet IDK if that's what MS should be doing at this point. From where I'm sitting, you need as much vertical integration as possible to go up against Apple.
You must have missed the $8.5 Billion purchase of Skype. Not to a mention a CEO's job is to increase the stock valuation.
I'd be more likely to believe something a drunken old hobo said than from the criminals who run hedge funds. They belong in jail.
Well, if that's what it will take for you to believe what is being said then I'll also gladly say that Ballmer has to go.
Yeah... I don't think that anyone can un-ring this bell!