Steve Ballmer Reacts to the Apple iPhone
Steve Ballmer Reacts to the Apple iPhone
by , 2:35 PM EST, January 19th, 2007
Steve Ballmer provided his blunt assessment of the Apple iPhone in remarks posted in a video at YouTube Thursday.
The first reaction by Mr. Ballmer was that the iPhone is very expensive and would not be well accepted in the business community because it "doesn't have a keyboard." Later in the interview, he noted that Microsoft is selling millions of phones a year, but Apple is selling zero and offered, "Let's see how the competition goes..."
Later, on the subject of the iPod and music, Mr. Ballmer admitted that Apple is in a preeminent position, but added that "At the end of the day, he [Mr. Jobs] is going to have to keep up with an agenda that we're going to drive as well."
Some of that possible agenda has been analyzed here at TMO in recent editorials.
Observer Comments
John Gruber from Daring fireball covers it quite well:
Quote"Here’s how it’s going to go. Starting now, Microsoft will mock the iPhone. They will mock the price, they will mock the closed software platform, and they will say that phone users demand and crave the wide variety of products in the Windows Mobile market.
But behind the scenes, they’ve already started working on a Zune clone of the iPhone. Remember their old party line on music players?"
Apple are doing no more with the iPhone than Microsoft is trying to do with the Zune. (but Balmer has one of THE most annoying voices)
Quotestuartea wrote:
(but Balmer has one of THE most annoying voices)
I'd say he has one of the most disturbing - if not disturbed - faces as well! I would be scared to meet him in a dark alley! Not to think of being a woman in such a situation...
I was reminded of my son's reaction when we chatted about the iPhone the other day. He is a rising star on the Norwegian hiphop-scene so I guess he should be counted among the hip and cool. Well, I mentioned Zune in our conversation and he replied: Zune?
Sorry, Ballmer, but I am afraid your laughter doesn't ring true. Somewhat desperate, if you ask me...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6304687408656696643
Warning, not for the feint hearted.
QuoteBiff wrote:QuoteSay what now?SiloMunke wrote:
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Quotestuartea wrote:
Balmer has one of THE most annoying voices
He and Gates have a monopoly on that market too!
QuoteGuest wrote:
I'd say he has one of the most disturbing - if not disturbed - faces as well! I would be scared to meet him in a dark alley! Not to think of being a woman in such a situation...
Uncle Fester scares a lot of people.
Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:00 am Subject: After watching the video
I just watched the video of the Ballmer interview. My impression is that he is either lying or incredibly stupid, or more likely some combination of the two. In any event, it was just dripping with FUD. Too bad for them it won’t work this time around. Their days of successful FUD are about over, methinks.
Apple iPhone - wow, an MP3 player, a communicator, a phone. Incredible breakthrough! LOL Once again, Apple does something that others have already done and makes the ignorant masses think it's some great breakthrough when this product has been around for some time. "Under the hood", it's just the same product as many others out there. However, the design team deserves some credit as they are very good designers and with usability, and making things *look* cool, which is a good thing. It's just that those in the know, know that it's nothing new -- it just appears to be and they are trying to convince those technically challenged that it is. Same issue with their other products like laptop. Love the laptops, but the essence of Apple is long gone (they use standard hardware, Intel, the operating system was abandoned for OS X which was a good move, but they just copied from UNIX/Linux, no great innovation). The only thing that really remains is the cool design. But in my opinion, the essence of Apple has been abandonded or sold out. I like the iPod, I like their laptops, this phone is nice too, but nothing new as they want people to believe.
I'm not a huge Microsoft fan, but let's face it, they had this stuff way back...
If you had an apple back in the 80's it was one thing, nowadays, there really is no apple left. It's all standard hardware, standard operating systems (OS X) + windows (if you can get it to work), Intel, software from Microsoft, etc. etc. -My advice: don't judge a book by it's cover.
Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:36 pm Subject: Why the iPhone is different, and long needed
With Dell having Walmartted computers into commodity crap, and cell phone makers having done the same with mobile handsets, it's about time somebody came up with a well designed, premium unit that can reinvigorate a flat market. Apple has maintained a higher standard of quality AND price structure much to the chagrin of critics and media pundits, yet they're sitting on $10B in the bank. Not too shabby.
Ballmer hasn't got a clue. Name a single cell phone Microsoft has ever created. One. Anybody, Bueler?
The stuff that comes out of his mouth is what we describe as a "feart". Same principal, just a different orifice.
Sun Jan 21, 2007 6:19 pm Subject: Re: Apple and the Lemmings
Watch the keynote and all will become clear.
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Apple iPhone - wow, an MP3 player, a communicator, a phone. Incredible breakthrough! LOL Once again, Apple does something that others have already done and makes the ignorant masses think it's some great breakthrough when this product has been around for some time. "Under the hood", it's just the same product as many others out there. However, the design team deserves some credit as they are very good designers and with usability, and making things *look* cool, which is a good thing. It's just that those in the know, know that it's nothing new -- it just appears to be and they are trying to convince those technically challenged that it is. Same issue with their other products like laptop. Love the laptops, but the essence of Apple is long gone (they use standard hardware, Intel, the operating system was abandoned for OS X which was a good move, but they just copied from UNIX/Linux, no great innovation). The only thing that really remains is the cool design. But in my opinion, the essence of Apple has been abandonded or sold out. I like the iPod, I like their laptops, this phone is nice too, but nothing new as they want people to believe.
I'm not a huge Microsoft fan, but let's face it, they had this stuff way back...
If you had an apple back in the 80's it was one thing, nowadays, there really is no apple left. It's all standard hardware, standard operating systems (OS X) + windows (if you can get it to work), Intel, software from Microsoft, etc. etc. -My advice: don't judge a book by it's cover.
Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:33 pm Subject: Not just the keynote ...
QuoteGuest wrote:
Apple iPhone - wow, an MP3 player, a communicator, a phone. Incredible breakthrough! LOL Once again, Apple does something that others have already done and makes the ignorant masses think it's some great breakthrough when this product has been around for some time. "Under the hood", it's just the same product as many others out there. However, the design team deserves some credit as they are very good designers and with usability, and making things *look* cool, which is a good thing. It's just that those in the know, know that it's nothing new -- it just appears to be and they are trying to convince those technically challenged that it is. Same issue with their other products like laptop. Love the laptops, but the essence of Apple is long gone (they use standard hardware, Intel, the operating system was abandoned for OS X which was a good move, but they just copied from UNIX/Linux, no great innovation). The only thing that really remains is the cool design. But in my opinion, the essence of Apple has been abandonded or sold out. I like the iPod, I like their laptops, this phone is nice too, but nothing new as they want people to believe.
I'm not a huge Microsoft fan, but let's face it, they had this stuff way back...
If you had an apple back in the 80's it was one thing, nowadays, there really is no apple left. It's all standard hardware, standard operating systems (OS X) + windows (if you can get it to work), Intel, software from Microsoft, etc. etc. -My advice: don't judge a book by it's cover.
Sounds like the guest has not really used a smartphone and tried to use the web. First, there's the small screen. Then, there's the lame software. As Jobs said, the smartphone "browsers" work best with the "baby Internet"--some sites have special pages for phones. (I have a Palm TX that uses the same browser as the Treo, though it connects through WiFi.)
As for Apple not doing anything "new," check David Pogue's talk at the Technology Entertainment Design conference. You can watch it online or download it (and others) from the Ted Talks page.
QuoteTiger wrote:
Ballmer hasn't got a clue. Name a single cell phone Microsoft has ever created. One. Anybody, Bueler?
The problem with that statement, Microsoft is primarily a software company, that was in fact their greatest innovation: creating the idea that software was a product as well. They aren't primarily a device company, like Apple is. Apple just closes down its hardware to it's own software. Your statement is like saying, name a single computer Microsoft builds. Bueller?
[quote="gslusher]
Sounds like the guest has not really used a smartphone and tried to use the web. First, there's the small screen. Then, there's the lame software. As Jobs said, the smartphone "browsers" work best with the "baby Internet"--some sites have special pages for phones. (I have a Palm TX that uses the same browser as the Treo, though it connects through WiFi.)
[/quote]
Huh, I've been using my smart phone for more than the past three years and have used the web immensely. I don't know that I'd consider the software lame, especially since if I don't like how something works for the default install, I can just go download some applications to supplement the device to whatever I want to do. Design special sites for phones will not suddenly stop because of the iPhone, even this device will requires the use of specially designed mobile website. If a page has a 600 pixel wide image, it simply will not fit on the iPhone without modification. There is a different between a device with a 3.5" 480 pixel wide screen and a 21" screen with 1600 pixels across. I certainly hope people don't start limiting their websites to fit on mobile devices only. But even with my smartphone with a smaller screen (and hence smaller device) I've been able to go to the main page of airlines (not the mobile page) and check the status of flights, login to standard (not a mobile page) Outlook Web Access (which is the only way anyone whose company uses Outlook is going to be able to do any kind of email on this thing). The only thing with the iPhone that I can consider innovative is the multi-touch, but even that has been around for a long time, I just haven't seen it on a phone before.
QuoteGuest wrote:
Design special sites for phones will not suddenly stop because of the iPhone, even this device will requires the use of specially designed mobile website. If a page has a 600 pixel wide image, it simply will not fit on the iPhone without modification. ... I certainly hope people don't start limiting their websites to fit on mobile devices only.
It's not difficult to build a web site that works with small displays — just don't make any assumptions about screen size in the first place. Sure, large images aren't going to fit on the screen, but who cares? Mobile users can just skip past them.
I have a feeling we haven't seen all the capabilities of the iPhone's web browsing capabilities yet, though.
QuoteDirt Road wrote:
It's not difficult to build a web site that works with small displays — just don't make any assumptions about screen size in the first place. Sure, large images aren't going to fit on the screen, but who cares? Mobile users can just skip past them.
I have a feeling we haven't seen all the capabilities of the iPhone's web browsing capabilities yet, though.
Mobile users can just skip past large images. iPhone users will be crippled trying to view any website that contains large images. Now that I think of it, no one is going to want to surf a real website on the iPhone when you have to use the ultra-slow EDGE network. Too bad the iPhone doesn't support a real data network. A large image in a website when viewing on the iPhone would just smack the user's patience around just like the commercials for Sprint's network does to EDGE.
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