Ballmer disses Android as cheap and complex
Steve Ballmer has predicted that the new line of Windows Phones coming out this Christmas can establish the company’s operating system and beat Apple and Android devices. Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, an ebullient Ballmer enthused about the forthcoming phones, saying that the new handsets would be as well …
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History repeats itself
In 2006, Ballmer told us all that the Zune would beat the iPod. I wonder if history will be kinder to WinPho than it was to his music player.
Also...
He ridiculed the iPhone price and mocked the fact that Apple believed people would pay $500 for a phone at the same time as predicting the Zune's imminent success.
His time is up - there are other talented people at Microsoft... they need some real inspiring leadership...
The problem is IMO
...the fact that Ballmer has always been occupied with running the financials and business side of the company. The man has no feeling what so ever with regards to the technology itself. And quite frankly I also heavily doubt his commercial skills.
At least he did see some things for what they were. "The cheapest phones will be android". Doesn't sound too flattering for Android huh? Well, you can also easily translate this into: "Our phones will be more expensive than those running on Android", yet that won't go too well with his audience.
"A good defense if a good offense", you got to grant him that. The big issue here is how smart such a statement really was; esp. when considering the market share which both OS's hold.
Couldn't agree more.
He is a COMPLETE ar$shole, who only opens his mouth to change feet.
Gates must shudder everytime this moron speaks.
my jaw hurts
... from laughing at your very true statement...
"only opens his mouth to change feet"... you are going to get me fired
This guy is truly an ass... I could not believe they have kept this clown as long as they have
Alan Sugar dismissed the iPod as well
OK - he's nearly as bad as Balmer (perhaps more arrogant) but has a title. Oh, and he loves publicity.
February 2005: "Next Christmas, the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput."
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/the-ipod-its-bound-to-fail-and-the-other-predictions-the-experts-would-rather-forget-1061286.html
1) The more Ballmer is under pressure, the more he looses his grip on reality.
2) The "move to the cloud" isn't just going to take years, its not going to happen at all with our looming global economic collapse. And the U.S. is doing everything in its power to make sure its not going to collapse by itself, or possibly hold the short end of the stick afterwards.
So, who will seriously move their shit into the cloud, when you can't even tell if the vendor will still be in business next year??
Is the title optional now!
“The biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone,”
Yep and if your track record on Windows for PC is anything to go by, you won't need to be a computer scientist to hack, crash, hang and mangle the file system on the phone either.
Thanks, but no thanks
+1
I think there is some truth in Balrog's remark, taken in isolation.
But the biggest disadvantage they have is that theirs was written by microsoft. It just won't work the same way 2 days running.
Here we go again...
Why are Microsoft always saying "This new thing we've got coming out sometime in the future? It's really great ." They seems to completely redesign everything every few years whilst implying that the last redesign wasn't very good, making you wonder why this iteration of the cycle should be any different.
They need to come up with some coherent stretegy, keeping a similar look-and-feel, which wwoul dgive out the message that they are confident in the product, even if redesigning things under the covers, and then say "Here's the new version of X; it's familiar but better and it's available now."
You Canna Teach An Auld Dawg New Tricks
"Why are Microsoft always saying "This new thing we've got coming out sometime in the future? It's really great ."
Well, that strategy worked well for them in the '80's and right through the '90's.
More recently people seem to have glommed on to the fact that the rhetoric coming out of Redmond does not often match up to the reality, so it works less and less now.
Ballmer has always been a bit behind the curve so he has yet to realise this.
P.S. What does the "windows user" icon represent?
"P.S. What does the "windows user" icon represent?"
Foul Ole Ron? Buggerit Millenium Hand and Shrimp (which incidentally makes more sense than some of the error messages that MS products seem to enjoy putting out)
RE: Here we go again...
They've got a coherent strategy: writing an OS that crashes all the time, has a bloated registry and which no-one really wants any more.
@Goat Jam
"P.S. What does the "windows user" icon represent?"
I think it is a down-and-out with a can of cheap lager, but maybe I know nothing and am simply talking through the wrong orifice.
Paris - choice of orifice...
The strategy isn't so bad nowadays
Windows Phone 7 is an extension of the Zune interface, so we're five years into it. Windows 8 takes essentially the same interface and ports it to the desktop. So Microsoft have seemingly settled on Metro as the strategy, and did so several years ago. And for my money the interface is distinctive and works very well on phones, though I'm not sold on scaling it up to the desktop.
In this light, Apple's Soviet-like secrecy policy seems to make sense.
In Soviet Cupertino, iPhone calls YOU!
(...particularly if it's got Siri)
Computer Scientist
Speaking as a Computer Scientist, you don't have to be a dork to use a Windows Mobile phone. But it helps.
So you believe complexity and exposing as much of the workings of a device is key to producing a good product?
I'm guessing you're running a text browser from the command line then? why use a mouse and GUI when it's just dumbing down the command line.
Why use ASCII when you can just enter 1s and 0s. Why program websites in PHP, .NET and JSP when you can use an exe written in x86 machine code.
At the end of the day, a phone is a tool to do a job and if you think phone ownership is some sort of hobby where you spend hours tweaking and customising ROMs then you really need to get a life. Or do you think it's cool to have your phone crash out and miss an important call?
You buy a product from a company and expect them to do a good job at creating the software. If the software sucks you shouldn't be required to waste your time correcting their mistakes.
It just works
It doesn't - what Apple do well is provide great support, training and assistance via the iStores that makes people know that they will never be left on their own struggling to work out how to fix their phone/computer.
Buy a windows machine and your chance of getting support without forking out a call out fee or getting patrionised by the bloke in PC world is very small.
@Giles
Whoa there
I'm guessing from your faulty logic that you aren't a computer scientist but you are a WinPho7 user, by the look of things.
All the more reason to get a sense of humour, I would have thought.
apps
you dont buy a phone and expect that one company to write 'the software', nowadays one expects apps written by 3rd parties to work, so yes exposing as much as possible is important. it all depends if you want to do something with your phone or if you are happy to let someone else tell you what you want to do.
p.s. I do use lynx and wget from time to time IE's scripting apis are somewhat lacking.
I'm guessing your primarily a windows user?
@Giles "FUD" Jones
Astonishing, Giles! Who knew that 40%+ of worldwide smartphone users love hacking their phone from the CLI and re-coding the apps?? And that less than 5% of smartphone users have the good sense to buy a WinMo phone that "is a tool to do a job"?
You and Mr Ballmer are whistling in the market share wind, becoming a gale as WinMo rises without trace.
Open eyes --> yawn --> nose --> coffee cup --> sniff. 'Nuff sed.
@ Giles Jones
You don't need to be a computer scientist to use Android. It just works. There is nothing else to it. It doesn't suck otherwise 10's of millions of people would not be buying it, and Android phones wouldn't also be outselling Apples iPhones.
Ballmer is just being a dick. Stop protecting Microsoft.
@Giles Jones
"Or do you think it's cool to have your phone crash out and miss an important call?"
No I most certainly don't but then I don't use a WinPho so that will never be a problem!
All or nothing Giles
Hey Giles, the world is not black or white.
I'm an Android user, I've never dipped into the command line on my phone other than to ping. But you know what? It's not a requirement to use the CLI.
The world works this way, Android is great in that it /lets/ you do more.
Are you one of these people who says the system cannot change, if we don't have Capitalism we have to have Communism? F-off to the Evening Standard or the Daily Mail would yer. :P
Does anybody still believe the crap that's coming out of Ballmer's mouth?
Yes...
...but only one. The idiot spouting it in the first place.
Everyone within chair range at least professes to believe it.
Does any body give a damm...
about what Ballmer/MS says, or RIM/Lazaridisfor that regard...
Meanwhile back in the real world..
Windows phone will never be as being as 'sexy' as the iProducts in the eyes of the average consumer.
Personally I'm sad the Nokia went the WinPho route. An android phone with Nokia's build quality would be perfect!
I'm not sure
I think the pace of Apple's iOS innovation on both UI and core technology side is slowing a bit. There *is* an opportunity for MS to jump in with something that looks really slick and has novelty value., perhaps.
icon chosen pre-emptively.
"The pace of Apple's innovatin is slowing."
Run out of ideas to steal, have they?
Uh huh...
> "I think the pace of Apple's iOS innovation on both UI and core technology side is slowing a bit."
Innovation in the UI? A grid of icons and a slide switch isn't exactly innovation. My Nokia 9210 has a grid of icons representing the programs I could load. And the slide switch thing isn't new either.
They created a brand styled UI though, I'll give you that. But it's not new or innovative.
"an ebullient Ballmer enthused"
how wearyingly predictable
“The biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone,”
"Microsoft was focused on enabling hardware innovation,"
it is hard to believe that anyone could be this deluded - I can only conclude that this imbecile will say anything in order to attempt brainwash the susceptible.
the distance between ....
"Steveworld" and the rest of us seems to increase.... Whilst in the past Microsoft has conquered larger deficits in market share, they had a technologist at the the helm. The late Archeo-engineer, Fred Dibnah, noted that the Victorian equivalents of Microsoft (Armstrong's for one) lost their pre-eminence when the charismatic founder left the company and as corporatism took over form individual leadership, corporatism slowly strangled the organisations. Perhaps the best option for Microsoft would be the the mode lIBM sued when faced with similar levels of corporate torpor. and hive off as separate entities the individual divisions (IBM's printer division lives on as Lexmark and the consumer computing as Lenovo)
Its better to do a few things REALLY well then be in every market as an also-ran.
The option to buy the opposition inst available this time around and i bet he price ticket on Android , even if it was for sale , is not even in the same galaxy as Qdos.
Personally i prefered the pre DOS Microsoft products to the post, I struggled at school with programming , Microsoft basic for the Commodore Pet soon had me flying and then programming in assembler.
I'll get me Gannnex coat....
Yep
And the difference between Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer is that Job's Reality Distortion Field was aimed outwards.
It is their way
It is about the design. Microsoft tries to do everything while UNIX philosophy they stay away is do one thing but do it good.
Hot air
"...the leading smartphone operating system Android."
"The biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone"
I didn't realise there were so many computer scientists out there.
Nothing but hot air from a baffoon.
I think most upvotes are for your quite brilliant neologism/portmanteau of buffoon+balloon. I for one will regularly be using "hot air buffoon" as a putdown from now on.
Balloon, buffoon, baboon, they all mix nicely to spell Balmer, don't they?
shows how much he fears it
In the past, the grunts from Microsoft has shown that they belittle a competitor that they fear, so this is good news for Android.
Seems he tries to put Android in the same corner as the (other) Linuxes, the once so ridiculed Opensource alternative that ate their lunch in almost any market, except (maybe) desktops and some backoffice/
Fucking idiot.
who put this fucking idiot in charge of Microsoft?
"The biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone,”"
My 62 year old mother has no problems with her Android smartphone (a HTC wildfire) and she is not a computer scientist..
Infact, Windows Phone doesn't allow ANY customizations, unlike Android, which if you wanted, you can install something like this: http://www.biglauncher.com/
Balmer is a fucking moron.
Big Launcher
That launcher looks waaaay too complicated for my gran to use. She's not a computer scientist, you know!
My girlfriend's HTC wildfire woke us up at half 2 this morning by deciding to repeatedly notify her about a Words with Friends move received hours earlier. It wouldn't stop until it was turned off. It also has a nasty habit of randomly deciding to resend every single one of her sent and received text messages to everyone in her address book.
It is a piece of junk. If I were a computer scientist I would try and reprogram it to not have so many batshit crazy bugs.
My 7-yo daughter seems to manage, also
I think he's confusing 'Computer Scientist' with 'anyone smarter than a radish'
Which, come to think of it, would explain a lot of other things about MS.
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