Steve Ballmer: Safari a 'rounding error,' Mac losing market share

Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer went on the offensive against Apple in a recent interview, stating that Windows has gained market share on OS X, and that the browser Safari is a "rounding error."

In the third part of an interview with TechCrunch, Ballmer said that he believes the higher price of Mac hardware has turned away some consumers. He said the lower price of Windows 7 is meant to meet the current economic climate.

"Weâ€™re gaining share. Apple is expensive," Ballmer said. "And in tough economic environment, people get it. Their model is, by definition, expensive. And weâ€™ve actually held or maybe even gained just a tiny bit of share relative to the Mac in the last 12 months. And itâ€™s not really Snow Leopard. Itâ€™s really Windows PCs versus Mac."

Since the debut of new MacBook Pros with cheaper prices this summer, Apple has seen its sales grow, while the rest of the PC industry has shrunk. In July, Apple was the fourth-largest computer maker in the U.S. Mac sales are expected to continue to expand in the just-concluded September quarter.

And at $29, Snow Leopard, Apple's new operating system, comes at a much cheaper price than Windows 7. Initial sales figures showed that OS has had sales twice as high as Leopard and four times better than Tiger.

However, earlier this year, Mac sales were relatively flat before new products were released. And the popularity of netbooks has been a growing market for PC makers. In his interview, Ballmer said that netbooks are "just the first battleground."

Another fight for Microsoft lies in the world of browsers, where Firefox has made significant inroads on Internet Explorer. Ballmer acknowledged the success that Firefox has had, but also took the opportunity to discredit the market share of Google Chrome and Apple's Safari.

"The most successful by far is Firefox," he said. "Chrome is a rounding error to date. Safari is a rounding error to date. But Firefox is not."

The Microsoft chief executive used similar language in July, when he told financial analysts that the rate of Mac adoption is statistically insignificant. He said quarter-to-quarter market share changes between Windows and OS X amount to a "rounding error."

Two years ago, Apple expanded its Safari browser to Windows. It is also the mobile browser on the iPhone and iPod touch. The latest desktop version, Safari 4, garnered 11 million downloads at launch.

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219 Comments

quadra 610

said about 14 years ago

The most successful by far is Firefox. Chrome is a rounding error to date. Safari is a rounding error to date. But Firefox is not. The fact that there’s a lot of competitors probably is to our advantage. Yeah, we’re right now about 74 percent overall with the browser market, roughly speaking. But we’re having to compete like heck with IE 8, with great new features. The other guys are getting more and more unanticipated competitive attack factors, the thing that Google announced yesterday where they replaced IE but they don’t tell you. I mean that’s how I would say it. For all intents and purposes of what they’re doing IE is not there. It’s their operating system. Instead of now masked as browser, it’s masked as a plug in basically to IE. So, you know, we’re going to have to compete like heck and you know, see where things go. The one thing that’s unclear is what’s the economic play for anybody else competing with us at the browser level. Is this all about kind of controlling the search box or is it about something else? 

Here’s Windows and Windows is a very successful product. How do you attack Windows? Well, you attack with the high end, and hardware. That’s an attack. That’s – I won’t call it the Snow Leopard attack. I’ll call it the Mac attack of which Snow Leopard is a piece. You could attack from the side. That’s the Chrome – Firefox attack. You can attack from cheap, from below. You’re not from the side. You’re one on one, but that’s kind of a Linux, Android, presumably Chrome OS, who knows, attack vector. You can attack through phones that grow up. You know, mama don’t let your phones grow up to be PCs or something. I don’t know. But that’s another attack vector. So, you could say how do I feel about all these attack vectors? Strong, I feel very strong here.  I mean, we’re gaining share. Apple is expensive. And in tough economic environment, people get it. Their model is, by definition, expensive. And we’ve actually held or maybe even gained just a tiny bit of share relative to the Mac in the last 12 months. And it’s not really Snow Leopard. It’s really Windows PCs versus Mac.

You’re not from the side. You’re one on one, but that’s kind of a Linux, Android, presumably Chrome OS, who knows, attack vector. You can attack through phones that grow up. You know, mama don’t let your phones grow up to be PCs or something. I don’t know.

They need to not let this guy communicate with the outside world.

May he run Microsoft for many years to come.

jiminmissouri

said about 14 years ago

I'm afraid I don't understand.

If Apple's market share is "statistically insignificant", why then did Microsoft finally decide to pump millions of dollars into an ad campaign targeting people who might consider buying Apple computers?

For that matter, why are reporters even bothering to raise the issue?

Hmmm.

teckstud

said about 14 years ago

May Apple enable flash on iPhone's Safari so I can actually use it consistently.

i. pod macnut

said about 14 years ago

Oh how I hope they maintain this attitude. Remember when Detroit automakers dismissed Toyota, Honda and Nissan?

mosqueda

said about 14 years ago

Back in the 50's and 60's people thought the Japanese built little junk cars and brushed them away as insignificant. We all know how that turned out. Of course, thankfully, American carmakers are making a comeback, but it's been decades.

Ballmer appears to have the arrogance of Henry Ford II, past GM Chairmen and other American industrialists. Of course Microsoft isn't sitting still, but they need to be a little more humble and recognize the growth and appreciate the serious competition they are facing.

Imagine if just one government agency switches to OSX, just one. Or maybe one large company. Then the dominos begin to fall.