Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls it quits, to retire within a year

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  • Reply 221 of 330

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    I know that's seen as their only hope but several other companies have the same idea, even, Dell I think under one plan, HP maybe? I suspect that market is already well served and the sudden rush to escape their failures in the consumer market by these companies will be the beginning of the end for them as they fail to make the move and get caught in-between with no market.



    IBM is one of a hell a company, really the Apple of the enterprise world, making hardware and software as well as bleeding edge supercomputers. Microsoft become like that? In this dimension? Really … image


     


    I agree and made some revisions before I saw your reply.


     


    ... and Microsoft in their own way agrees with you as well. If you see the interview (link above), Microsoft wants to be all things to all people. A fools game that can only lead to confusion and failure, imo. Microsoft will end up chasing smoke.

  • Reply 222 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member



    * addendum - IBM is actually doing quite well... not a shadow of its former self at all. Maybe they will buy Microsoft in 10 years.  8-)

    nah, it will just be let go … Apple and IBM (and probably Google and Facebook) will have fight to share out the Microsoft patent portfolio … I can just image the posts on AI :D
  • Reply 223 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I agree and made some revisions before I saw your reply.

    ... and Microsoft in their own way agrees with you as well. If you see the interview (link above), Microsoft wants to be all things to all people. A fools game that can only lead to confusion and failure, imo. Microsoft will end up chasing smoke.

    That interview is a great example of how to say absolutely nothing isn't it? It is a stark contrast to the laser focus you hear from Tim, even allowing for the 'we don't comment on ….' interjections. The difference between someone with zero idea what the hell to do and someone knowing exactly what he is doing with a long term plan well in place.
  • Reply 224 of 330
    nikon133 wrote: »

    I hate to disagree with such a well written and argued post but I think you vastly over estimate Microsofts staying power as well as, and probably more importantly, the speed things can change. It was seemingly only months ago (in fact years now) folks were arguing on this very forum about Apple entering the phone market … tectonic shifts have occurred since. They can occur any time and do so more often these days, especially in technology.

    Entire countries can undergo vast changes in what seems like the blink of an eye, look at Germany in 1930's or Russia before that and more recently, South Africa, Eastern Europe and so on … the world economy can be tanked by one country's political decisions, just check out America 2001 - 2009.

    To believe one company is somehow so solid, even without taking into account its drastic demise in so many ways over the last decade, is 'head in the sand' thinking. Microsoft can become TWA, Pan Am or Kodak faster than you can say Vista or Zune and it will, my guess 10 years or so.

    p.s. I was a Nikon guy, now solidly Canon … no wonder we disagree … ;)



    "Entire countries can undergo vast changes in what seems like the blink of an eye"

    True. Within hours of this news, Microsoft gained $20b approx from 7% stock gain! Blink of eye indeed.

    "Microsoft can become TWA, Pan Am or Kodak faster than you can say Vista or Zune and it will, my guess 10 years or so"

    When he actually retires in next 12 months, Microsoft will gain another $40b or so!

    It is actually hard for Microsoft to achieve oblivion! Somehow, they will keep bizarrely afloat while the world blinks around them.
  • Reply 225 of 330

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    That interview is a great example of how to say absolutely nothing isn't it? It is a stark contrast to the laser focus you hear from Tim, even allowing for the 'we don't comment on ….' interjections. The difference between someone with zero idea what the hell to do and someone knowing exactly what he is doing with a long term plan well in place.




    Ballmer might as well have said,


     


    "I kinda look at that and I say, well, I like our strategy. I like it a lot."

  • Reply 226 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    abhitalks wrote: »
    "Entire countries can undergo vast changes in what seems like the blink of an eye"

    True. Within hours of this news, Microsoft gained $20b approx from 7% stock gain! Blink of eye indeed.

    "Microsoft can become TWA, Pan Am or Kodak faster than you can say Vista or Zune and it will, my guess 10 years or so"

    When he actually retires in next 12 months, Microsoft will gain another $40b or so!

    It is actually hard for Microsoft to achieve oblivion! Somehow, they will keep bizarrely afloat while the world blinks around them.

    The Ballmer Bounce is kind of funny when you think of the hit APPL took when Steve's illness was first disclosed. Like Steve's health eventually got factored in to the price, I am sure Ballmer's departure will be too, albeit inversely. Steve's tragic death had less impact on AAPL than his initial illness reports as it had been factored in as will Ballmer's leaving. Share price and performance don't go together as we see in AAPL so I wouldn't take the Ballmer Bounce as a sign for extrapolated growth.

    Wall Street will want to see some pretty amazing results from the next in line to the Gates' seat and I seriously doubt there will be much to show in a few years and that Ballmer Bounce will be fondly remembered. If I owned MSFT I'd sell now and buy AAPL :)
  • Reply 227 of 330

    The Ballmer Bounce is kind of funny
    ...

    If I owned MSFT I'd sell now and buy AAPL :)

    "The Ballmer Bounce" :D LOL! Love that phrase.

    Absolutely invest in MSFT, and sell when "The Ballmer Rebounds" when he actually exits within the next 12 months. :)
  • Reply 228 of 330
    murmanmurman Posts: 159member


    Microsoft won't end up closing shop unless there is a viable alternative to Windows, Apple can't fill that gap because Apple won't do cheap computers and they won't license OSX, so for MS to truly die, something else must take its place, problem is nothing can (at the moment). Linux doesn't have mainstream commercial software or even MS Office, there are many who only will use Office and don't really care about alternatives.

  • Reply 229 of 330
  • Reply 230 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    murman wrote: »
    Microsoft won't end up closing shop unless there is a viable alternative to Windows, Apple can't fill that gap because Apple won't do cheap computers and they won't license OSX, so for MS to truly die, something else must take its place, problem is nothing can (at the moment). Linux doesn't have mainstream commercial software or even MS Office, there are many who only will use Office and don't really care about alternatives.

    I've always felt Apple should produce an iWorks Pro to help with one of the things you refer to.
  • Reply 231 of 330
    blackbookblackbook Posts: 1,361member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    I agree, people couldn't really care less what the application is called if it opens their legacy files and works well. Put that on vastly superior and more flexible hardware with mobile and cloud, all working seamlessly and you have a winner. Apple should consider a version of iWorks for pros as with Garage Band and Logic Pro.


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    I've always felt Apple should produce an iWorks Pro to help with one of the things you refer to.


     


    That's an excellent idea, but it doesn't seem like it's something Apple would do.


     


    Well I should say it's not something Apple would have done in the past. In the past they seemed more interested in the creative types, like Adobe, and less interested in the enterprise types like Microsoft and IBM.


     


    But I have a feeling Tim Cook would see this differently than Steve would have.


     


    I don't want to bring up the whole "Steve wouldn't have done it" rubbish, but Steve by his own words wasn't interested in corporate or enterprise and toward the end considered killing all Pro computers and software.


     


    Tim on the other hand has revived the Mac Pro and seems to be bulking up Apple's Pro apps again. Tim probably would see the value of an enterprise suite with a powerful mail and spreadsheet software. 


     


    That right there could be game changing and could change this whole conversation we're having about the relevance of Office for the upcoming decades.

  • Reply 232 of 330
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rayz View Post



    Stop trying to copy Apple's strategy and instead copy Apple's philosophy: Don't be afraid to burn everything you've built in exchange for a better future.




    [...]


     


    They are already limiting themselves in order to hang on to a legacy.



    Well to be fair, at the time, Apple could afford to burn everything and start over because there were only a handful of people whose careers depended on Macintosh, and, by in large they were not in enterprise. Then look at Windows. 90%+ of the world's businesses, utilities, military, governments, scientific research, banking, and education depend on legacy Windows. When you think back, Microsoft did burn almost everything when they switched from DOS to Windows but the computing install base was much smaller then and they left in the ability to run DOS, much like Apple did with Mac OS classic in OS X. Microsoft has to keep legacy compatibility because so much of the modern world depends on it. To ditch Windows legacy compatibility would be suicide for Microsoft and plunge the business computing world into chaos for years.

  • Reply 233 of 330
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by blackbook View Post




    Tim probably would see the value of an enterprise suite with a powerful mail and spreadsheet software. 


     


    That right there could be game changing and could change this whole conversation we're having about the relevance of Office for the upcoming decades.



    There is a difference between Office applications and Windows as a platform. Apple, or anyone can write an app that opens and saves Office file formats but the Windows server applications are another matter altogether. There are millions of person hours invested in proprietary Windows applications in enterprise, built on .Net, C# and VB Script. That is difficult or impossible to replicate with another platform even if the Office documents used by cubical drones could be made compatible across different operating systems.

  • Reply 234 of 330
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post





    The highlighted points are valid.



    I did not say "project" I said "AirPlay" -- and I did not call it a "new version"... it was a feature an update that allows iPad and iPhone (and now Macs) to display iWork documents on another Mac or an HDTV.



    I use Bezier Shapes and Curves all the time and in 30 plus years of using word processors have never used ligatures or needed to use hyphenation -- though I've demoed both. Pages is an excellent tool for storyboarding and with it's Bezier feature and masking capability is my go to tool for creating collages... even though I have a specialty app costing several hundred dollars.





    We have different use cases and needs -- I respect that.





    Based on your posts on the iCloud thread, you appear to be having performance problems * that are frustrating you (and apparently are unique to you).





    * Performance problems with beta software -- are some of the issues that that beta testing is supposed to detect.


     


    You specifically positioned the AirPlay thing as one of three versions of iWork, even though it's true that you did not use those specific words.  


     


    AirPlay is "projection." It is the wireless projection of a screen image.  Mirroring is projection. 


     


    You use ligatures (the ellipsis) in this very post and AppleInsider's commenting system supports them as does HTML and every other word processor I've ever heard of.  The lack of the ellipsis in particular really screws with the auto capitalisation feature in Pages.  


     


    I know that the online version is a beta, I can't imagine they will launch it without supporting the main English language and I will be shocked (and very complainy) if they do.  My main fears about it, revolve around the horrible scrolling/cacheing performance and a few really foolish design decisions (like having documents open at a default resolution instead of "fit to width" without letting the user set or alter that default resolution).


     


    I'm worried about the poor performance with scrolling as it seems to be something that might be impossible to fix given that we are talking about document editing on the web.  This means that the web version will be useless except for spot edits and that you can't effectively work with any documents over a couple or three pages.  I'm worried about some of the crazy design decisions, because Apple tends to really believe that they get that stuff right, so when they get it wrong, it often takes multiple versions before they will come down off the high horse and admit they designed something wrong.  So I might have to deal with this weird and irritating default resolution issue for years before they finally give me a choice to display my documents in a sane way. 


     


    Overall, I'm just disappointed in the disrespect Apple has shown for what is for me, a central and very important application.  The lack of any significant updates or effort on their part, and the lack of attention to detail is atrocious.  The idea that they actually think their work is "done" or "good enough" and are thinking of making the whole thing free as part of a loss leader package to sell hardware infuriates me.  I've got a lot invested, so that's why I might come across as angry or disrespectful of your spirited defence of them.  I don't mean anything personal and if it came across that way I'm sorry. 


     


    A lot of users like me *believed* them when they said they were serious about making the iWork apps serious competitors.  I think they've let down all those people who actually took them at their word and moved all their creation away from Office to iWork.  I think they owe the people like me who have been suffering all this time, a far bigger apology than the one they gave to the few users who lost data on MobileMe.  


     


    If the team leader for iWork apps was in front of me at this moment I'd step on his/her foot and slap them on the face.  And I say that as a lifelong Apple supporter and someone who has never actually hit anyone in their life. 

  • Reply 235 of 330
    Microsoft without Ballmer seems to have a chance as niche player. With Ballmer - No future.
  • Reply 236 of 330
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member


    Quote:


    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    You use ligatures (the ellipsis) in this very post and AppleInsider's commenting system supports them as does HTML and every other word processor I've ever heard of.  


     



     


     …  (ellipsis with space on either side to denote deleted text)

     


    A lot of users like me *believed* them when they said they were serious about making the iWork apps serious competitors.  I think they've let down all those people who actually took them at their word and moved all their creation away from Office to iWork. 




    I think I learned back in 1984 that word processors could not reliably represent professional typography. If that is is important to you then you should be using a desktop publishing program.

  • Reply 237 of 330

    Personally, I think Microsoft will become a company like IBM. A large company that is a shadow of its former self* but still relevant in the corporate world because of its services.

    [ ... but Ballmer doesn't want Microsoft to be IBM... or Apple ]
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57599909-75/ballmer-microsoft-doesnt-want-to-be-ibm-or-apple/

    * addendum - IBM is actually doing quite well... not a shadow of its former self at all. Maybe they will buy Microsoft in 10 years.  8-)

    My thoughts exactly. IBM is still around, but it has completely retreated from consumer computing products. They are still a force in mainframes, research, and consultancy, and they own a shit ton of patents, but they are exclusively a B2B entity. That is a possible outcome if they fail repeatedly in the consumer space, and new management is under pressure to reduce the drain on profits from fighting the war.
  • Reply 238 of 330
    joshajosha Posts: 901member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    I'll always remember the good times: stomping on iPhones, throwing chairs, sweaty armpits, and competing directly against their hardware partners.


    Darn I'll miss his rants against Apple.   They were my chuckle of the day, even the week sometimes.


    He was so ridiculous he actually helped Apple's sales.


     


    Now MS will be very dull, until they find a manager willing risk the sinking ship.


     Oh well; there will  always be someone willing to take the short term risk for the BIG bucks they'll pay.

  • Reply 239 of 330
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    My thoughts exactly. IBM is still around, but it has completely retreated from consumer computing products. They are still a force in mainframes, research, and consultancy, and they own a shit ton of patents, but they are exclusively a B2B entity. That is a possible outcome if they fail repeatedly in the consumer space, and new management is under pressure to reduce the drain on profits from fighting the war.


    I think that is their only option. Agree. Their sever products, although rather proprietary are very robust. Unlike IBM who settled on Linux as their OS, I think MS may have to isolate itself to .Net in order to survive.

  • Reply 240 of 330

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by m0c0s0 View Post



    Scott Forstall anyone?


     


    Ha!  Also, I hear that Leo Apothekar is available.  ;)

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