Michal Ždanský Steve Ballmer is truly a person devoted to Microsoft, as evidenced by his numerous comments on competitors, where he made it clear that Microsoft has the best strategy and does everything best. Many of his comments turned out to be short-sighted, and that short-sightedness led Microsoft to miss the train in important markets. Server All Things Digital compiled a list of the most interesting Steve Ballmer quotes of all time 13 years of his position as the chief executive of Microsoft. We have selected from them those related to Apple.
- 2004: The most common music format on the iPod is "stolen".
- 2006: No, I don't have an iPod. Not even my kids. My kids—they don't listen in many ways, like a lot of other kids, but at least I've brainwashed my kids in that way—they can't use Google and they can't use iPods.
- 2007: The iPhone has no chance of gaining any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized phone.
- 2007: $500, fully subsidized with tariff? This is the most expensive phone in the world, and it doesn't say anything to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which doesn't make it a very good emailing machine.
- 2008: In the PC vs. Mac competition, we outnumber Apple 30 to 1. But there's no doubt that Apple is doing well. Why? Because they're good at providing something that's narrowly focused but thorough, while we're moving towards choice, which comes with some compromises in the end. Today, we're changing the way we work with hardware manufacturers to ensure we offer the best without any compromises. We will do the same with phones - we will provide choice to create a great package for the end customer.
- 2010 (on iPads): We've had Windows 7 on tablets and desktops for a few years, and Apple has interestingly managed to put together a whole, get a product to market where they've sold definitely more devices than I'd like them to, to be clear.
- 2010: Apple is Apple. It's always harder for them to compete. They are good competitors and tend to be high priced competitors. People are a little worried about our lowest prices. They have a high margin on their devices, which gives them a lot of room to maneuver. Okay. We already competed with Apple.
- 2010: But we're not going to let them [Apple] down without a fight. Not in the customer cloud. Not in innovation in hardware. We're not going to let Apple keep any of this to themselves. It will not happen. Not while we're here.
- 2010 (on the post-PC era): Windows machines won't be trucks. [Response to Apple's analogy of PCs and tablets to trucks and cars.]
- 2012: In every category where Apple competes, it is a low-volume player, except for tablets.
And finally, a compilation of Steve Ballmer's best moments:
[youtube id=f3TrRJ_r-8g width=”620″ height=”360″]
I always disliked Steve Ballmer as CEO. A sweaty, aggressively hyping bald and uncharismatic gentleman who jumps around the stage and pushes it into everyone's heads like the coach of a hockey team. This is not how it should be done and I hope that the next CEO of Microsoft will improve and finally steer the company in the right direction.
Jobs, in turn, programmatically raised a cult.
I don't know what a horsie is.
That is a question. It's about people with their own heads.
Apple is a poor product for iOves. Price/Performance is definitely not in place here. Windows was unlucky to fall asleep and its mobile OS is terrible. For tablets, it's great for those who want to work, but probably not much for those who want to have fun. I'm not talking about W8 RTs which are unusable.
Apple is a poor product….. Windows was unlucky… its OS is horrible…etc. What is this nonsense?! What the hell are you talking about?!
“Apple is a pathetic product…” let me educate you. Apple is not a product, but a company (unless you're talking about their first Apple I computer, which I doubt from the context). :-)
oh another sheep chasing after catalog data.. please think for yourself before you say something aimed at price/performance..
It is clear that android looks 4x better on paper according to HW. In practice it is 50% better. If we count on good optimization, it beats Apple products in almost all aspects.
What are all the considerations? :O)
display size and uncontrollability with one hand..
sup sup go to bed and take your dementia pills... that you trolls enjoy spamming apple forums and chasing your quill :/
It has been a long time since I ran the company and had Ballmer on the team. Such mistakes, one after another. Steps aside, how much dust fell into the channel of the bullet to him. And the comments down here? Regarding OS and HW, etc. I don't understand. But I'm guessing they'll be kids from Facebook or crazy gamers and they don't know what they're talking about. In the Czech Republic, there will always be only a community of people who understand Apple. The others are riding on the general wave of arrogance and cursing because the crowd is cursing too, otherwise they don't even know why. And they can't afford to try apple. I used to ride that wave here too. I hated apple. And today I have nothing else, it's called an epiphany :-D thank God!!!!!
Steve Ballmer no longer!!!!!!!! He did Mrkvosoft a disservice. He looked like that anyway. For God's sake, how can the top representative of a leading company jump around the stage sweaty like a pig?????????????
DISGUST!!!