Zach SpearBallmer told the Financial Times (registration required) that the iPhone and BlackBerry have "clear market momentum" in the smartphone business.
Shortly after the iPhone was announced at Macworld 2007, Ballmer lambasted the Apple handset as the "most expensive phone in the world" while noting that Microsoft sells "millions and millions and millions of phones a year" while "Apple sells zero."
"I'd prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of [mobile phones], than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get," he said. And just this past September, the Microsoft headman predicted that the iPhone's tight integration with all things Apple would cause it to "lose out" in the long run.
As for the Zune, Ballmer said this week that consumers "should not anticipate" a Zune phone. Instead of persisting as a Microsoft-built hardware product, the device's core could eventually be integrated into other Windows-powered mobile devices, he explained.
Ballmer reacts the to unveiling of iPhone in 2007.
Ballmer also said he believes the market for portable media players is in decline and will be replaced with general purpose devices like the iPhone and iPod touch.
Malcolm Owen
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
107 Comments
I just read the entire FT article and Steve Ballmer sounds down/discouraged/defeated.
I read it as him saying that he thrown in the towel vis Ã* vis phones and music players.
I just read the entire FT article and Steve Ballmer sounds down/discouraged/defeated.
I read it as him saying that he thrown in the towel vis Ã* vis phones and music players.
His focus seems to be on Google for the moment. I'm sure he's torn between all the fronts his company is battling against.
At least the Xbox is beating the pants off of the Playstation 3 so far.
I just read the entire FT article and Steve Ballmer sounds down/discouraged/defeated.
I read it as him saying that he thrown in the towel vis Ã* vis phones and music players.
They weren't likely losing money on windows media players before; but now that everyone is going DRM free, they have less incentive because nothing ties you to a platform or codec. I think the death of DRM has killed Microsoft's interest in the market.
I despise Ballmer and Microsoft. But I wish they would make a Zune phone, I need something more to laugh at.
Instead of introducing an awkward piece of hardware built by another company using a slightly copycatted version of software/GUI after competitors beat you to the market by years (Ipod/Zune), Microsoft will instead continue writing code as usual. If anything this will save them money on R&D and hopefully let them focus on having a good competitor to OS 10.6 with Win7, and to OSX iPhone with Win7 Mobile.
I only want MS to create something amazing so that Apple will create something even more amazing. I want healthy competition!