Ballmer says Windows will shame iPad

Missing the point

Ballmer misses the point completely. The iPad is desirable and attractive to millions exactly because it's NOT a PC. No boot-up time; no DLLs; no anti-virus; no defragging; no patching; pretty much no configuration, apart from joining your wifi network and moving the icons around.

You just turn it on like a TV or a toaster and use it, without having to think. And the users don't care that it doesn't run full-blown Excel, because if they need that they'll have a desktop or laptop already.

Ballmer is a twat!

Clearly Ballmer is an idiot. Under his leadership, Microsoft is continuously chasing the real innovators. He is wrong again about the iPad, as he was the iPhone. The sooner the rest of the board realize what a fool he is, and kick him out, the better - bring back Gates (never thought I'd say that!).

On the Tablet PC front, I have a 2006 era HP TC4400 convertible (2GHz Core Duo). I use it mostly as a Tablet but can flip it, when proper keyboard is required. OK it's nowhere near as thin as an iPad, but function wins over form for me every time for me. I still manage to take it with me on holidays - even abroad*.

It runs Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, Office, FLASH and ANY other Windows software I like. - no walled garden. - Jobs can go fuck himself.

* For US audiences - ABROAD is any other country not part of the USA - Yes, they really do exist - just look harder. When you spot one, resist the urge to make war with it.

Bubble? Yes.

On the bubble, he's right. The iPhoad is a buble device, a big bubble I grant you, but it'll lose the buzz after a while. The new toy smell disappears pretty fast.

MS won't be there to fill the void though. I don't think it's possible to predict who will, though I'm starting to believe it won't be any one player (there's room for a few), and it definitely won't be Windows on these tablet device thingies as long as Ballmer is in charge.

That's me thripney bit.

Um...

"sleeker, smaller, and faster" - that'll be a smartphone, then. Only that is exactly what tablets aren't. microsoft heading for yet another fail.

The 2 Steves

While Jobs is annoying and dislikable, Balmer comes across as stupid. What is he on about, this guy?

Now which icon, which icon... I know, feck'em both, I choose you, Paris Hilton.

Yes we can't!

Ballmer for President!

Well, it would have worked in Bush's time. Even a chair-throwing monkey would do better!

YouTube reminder of Steve's last gaff.

Just incase you forgot how wrong this guy was before......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

Enjoy

:)

The PC <> MS Windows !

Pity that the author of this article (Galvin Clarke) faithfully prescribes the brain-fog of equating "the PC" with Microsoft Windows.

My PC is liberated and turbocharged by Ubuntu Linux. No fiddling. No fooling.

www.ubuntu.com

Awww poor "chair" Ballmer

Awwww there there stevie It's ok diddums, you don't need to be jealous of of Apple and the iPad. I'm sure the windows tablet will be just as "successful" as the zune.

Fail icon cus after all it IS a windows tablet and Ballmer's ego were talking about here.

Whilst I have no particular love for Apple...

They do seem to be several steps ahead of MS in the useability and mobile O/S reliability stakes as my experiences of using Windows mobile have been awful, even when it is layered over by custom widgets added by the phone makers and 3rd party vendors.

I won't be buying an iPad though simply as I cannot see any functional use for it, but I would in theory welcome a reliable Windows based pad. None the less though, MS really must try harder at producing an easy to use mobile platform that actually works and that doesn't have to be constantly restarted due to crashes.

Microsoft already has Tablet Computing

Been using it for years -- I use a Motion 1400 tablet. Very nice machine, well made.

Played with an iPad. Chalk and Cheese. In theory there's nothing to stop a tablet doing things exactly like an iPad but in practice there's Microsoft. Upgrading from SP2 to SP3 nearly cost me the system -- had to quadruple the amount of memory in it just to get the thing to boot. Microsoft don't do "small" and "slick" -- its all big and corporate.

Its the same in the Mobile space. MSFT had Windows CE on phones a decade ago. They never did anything with it.

Disclaimer -- Not A Fanboi.

What is it with all the truck-bashing?

First Jobs says his tablet is a car replacing trucks, now Ballmer says the Windows tablets will be like cars shoving aside the truck of the iPad. And all this in the US, which really loves its trucks.

Uhhh, no?

The part where Ballmer says that PCs will still have a use once tablets become readily affordable and integrated in the market is a bit blind for such a celebrated mind IMO.

The way I see it, eventually we all will have a "universal" personal computing and communications device. (Lets not worry about how that comes about and who is made by it for now. It is just an inevitability, the direction of things.) If you wanted to use something at a desk, it'd more likely be like a docking station than a more expensive additional computing device that would require the same peripherals as a docking station anyways. Though, it'd probably be less docking and more like a bunch of paired Bluetooth devices working in concert with your tablet or "smart phone". We already have the tech, its just a matter of making it readily available to the masses.

Not surprising Ballmer got it wrong though. This is the typical MS shortsightedness that Apple and Google have been taking advantage of and has had MS playing catch-up for years.

Steve Balmer is Not Double Fail but Multiple Fail for Microsoft

Steve Jobs = Looks Scary, But has Vision, Executes said Vision and Actually Delivers, Good for Shareholders

Steve Balmer = Looks Scary, Acts Scary on Stage, Speaks Scary, Has no Vision and Does NOT Actually Deliver to Market, Is Scary for Shareholders

This man has to go now!

Microsoft = floundering

Yep, it's confirmed for me now - MS is definitely floundering after this little tirade by the chair thrower. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt until now, but it just appears that they're simply deluding themselves and anyone else who'll listen.

Just means we're relying on Google now to keep Apple on it's toes in this market..but that's merely the lesser of two evils, so i'm not holding my breath there. C'mon MS...we need a game changer from you, and now...not more vapourware bollocks from the loud sweaty one. That HP slate thing isn't the best of starts.

The comforting oblivion of a plateaued existence.

The current generations hate icons: apple, google are on a growth path and most hated by the register community (& other arm chair techies).

They've knocked MS, IBM and intel out of preferred hate list. And lack of attention has been good for MS middle managers. By now they know how to make money out of their monopolistic cash cow. They know MS shareholders like to throw money without expecting any great results. So guaranteed cash cow + no real accountability for future growth = a comfort life. Plus, they have learned the blame game for failures.

What SteveB is trying to do is get some of that limelight back.. even if it is hate. He hopes if he puts the MS in a tough spot, it will probably wake up from the slumber to prove the haters wrong. But how wrong he is!! MS has developed a tough hide. They are not gonna learn new tricks to avoid a mild embarrassment. They've been socially outcast for so long that a few more mud slings are not gonna count. They are comfortable in milking the windoze customer base and will continue to do so.

Google is trying very hard to avoid the MS future. They want to stay creative and sexy past their 40s. But unlike Apple, they seem to have developed an aversion to public hate(ie the pseudo techies' hate) . So my prediction is that google will go down the MS path sooner than they'ld want. But as long as Jobs (or some prick like him) is at the helm of affairs of Apple, Apple would be able to hold out the inevitable.

Cheers to mediocrity!

Al.

Paris, coz she will eventually stop leaning new tricks as well.

I'll get you next time, Gadget! Next time!

A computer controlled by a touch screen. Flat and portable. A tablet.

Apple launched the iPad and it took off.

Now Ballmer is saying MS will outdo them. I don't understand. I've looked it up. Microsoft has been working on touch screen technology (together with HP) since before 1985. That's a quarter of a century of development(!!!) Microsoft should be the leading authority on touch screen technology, including UI design. And partnered with HP they should have the best hardware in the market.

Ballmer can laugh at the shortcomings of the iPad all he wants. But he has a 25 year head start in this field, and all he has to offer is that they will make a better iPad than the iPad /in the future/

- - -

My personal analyses...

What's the appeal of those special purpose devices anyway? It's just wrong. Does Ballmer really think the market needs more devices that can do this but not that, or that but not this?

No, and this will FAIL before he can say 'market saturation'.