Steve Ballmer laughs off the iPhone, deems it "most expensive" in the marketplace
By Darren Murph 
posted January 18th 2007 2:41PM
posted January 18th 2007 2:41PM
We'll be the first to give props to Steve Ballmer for accomplishing what he has at Microsoft, and we will agree that the iPhone is one expensive (and probably overpriced) little machine, but during a recent interview where he was questioned about the iPhone, he proceeded to not only compare Apple's forthcoming handset with the "$99 Motorola Q," but insisted that the iPhone was "by far the most expensive phone in the marketplace," which couldn't be further from the truth. Sure, most of the long, long list of mobile phones priced above (sometimes well above) the $500 price point aren't exactly mainstream handsets, but as the luxury phone market continues to bloom, Apple is looking to take advantage of those willing to shell out half a grand to have the hottest gizmo out. Additionally, Steve did mention that the iPhone was absolutely "not suitable for business purposes" due to its complete lack of a keyboard, but considering its half-hearted attempt at Push mail and lack of 3G, we doubt Mr. Jobs is out fighting for the corporate market just yet anyway. Nevertheless, it's always entertaining to see one head honcho completely mock another company's product, so click on through for the YouTube'd interview.[Via Digg]
If that dork doesn't like the iPhone then that's all the more reason to buy one! ;-)......Just my opinion of course! ;-)
If you are stupid enough to
1) Go with Cingular and their redonkulous data packages (they WILL tell you that you must go with the $39.99 package as the$19.99 package is for less capable smartphones... I KNOW this to be true)
2) Buy a 4 gig or even 8 gig MP3/Video player with no upgradable memory
3) Get a non 3G phone in the hopes of finding a hotspot that doesnt cost $$ ('bucks are now T-Mobile hot spots)
4) Spend $600 AND sign a 2 year contract with the craptacular Cingular
Then by all means, drink the Apple flavored kool-aid
Oh, I am going to buy an iPhone. Oh, no, you think I am stupid. Who the F**k are you?
Vista is more than OS X...
I watched the video. Two words came to mind...
Uncle Fester
I can't get over the picture. What a goofy liking guy.
Oh, uh, Steve, btw, the iPhone will not be the most expensive phone in the market place. There are WM phones out there that are around $600 and $700 USD right now. Some in the past, like the HTC Universal ran over $1000 USD. Granted, they're unlocked and don't demand you sign a contract, but they're still very expensive.
Looks like not many people understand what Microsoft OEM XP really means. It's not just about the box that it ships in.
1. You must purchase a qualifying "non-peripheral" piece of hardware (generally this would be a computer). Also, when you send in the Vista upgrade coupon you have to actually prove this by submitting your receipt and serial number of the qualifying PC.
2. There is no free support from Microsoft at all for the OEM license.
Yeah I know we're basically all geeks here and would never need the support, but you still should not compare this to OS X which does come with support (not sure for how long).
OSX is a full retail copy, so make sure you're comparing the price to the XP Pro full retail copy.
The picture really fits him
Re: all this pedantic nonsense comparing the prices of OSX / XP, etc.
You're all forgetting one thing- "officially", the only way to run OSX is on a Mac, while XP can run on either. This means that in order to use OSX, one must own a Mac computer! XP does not have this requirement. Therefore by choosing OSX you've already paid more than you'd otherwise need to for hardware, making the overall system more expensive.
I suppose it is easy to forget when discussing upgrading a pre-existing system that it was paid for at some point!
[Also, I am aware that OSX can run on PCs a la OSx86. However, this isn't officially supported by the manufacturers so can't come into a discussion about their pricing. In any case, anyone who chose to go down this route would surely be comfortable enough with computers that they'd buy an OEM version of XP, thus negating the price difference)
Way to show off your journalistic integrity by digging up a terrible picture of Ballmer. Not that I am claiming he's a looker, but honestly, that particular picture has nothing to do with the story. I just google imaged half a dozen "less-then-flattering" pictures of Steve Jobs if you would like to include them in the next fifty iPhone stories you do today.
What a jack ass. He is just made that MS did come up with the iphone, the can up the that shit brick called the zune. All MS makes are half-assed products that suckers buy into. I'd like to kick him in the nuts for making shit.
you have to feel sorry for the guy - not only does OS X Tiger completely crush Vista which has been under development 6 years and cost billions. Not only is OS X Leopard going to be even better than the Vista-crushing Tiger.
No, Leopard is also going to run on the most sexy phone on the planet, completely obliterating Win Mobile along the way. Poof!
Steve Ballmer tells a big fat lie about iPhone being the most expensive phone on the market, then MS fanboys and Apple haters take it as if it were true. Reminds me of how Bush said we were going to invade Irap because it has WMD.
At least the Windows CE based-Pocket PC Phones can run all that nice Windows CE software that has been available for the ARM processor builds of consumer WinCE OSes since 1998/1999 or so. AFAIK, the first consumer WinCE device with an ARM processor was the HP Jornada 820 Handheld PC Professional device that was released in 1998. For those that didn't know or never realized, Windows CE is a VERY backwards compatible OS (far more than Symbian/Epoc based on what I have read about them) and as long as the program you wish to use did not use some crazy undocumented API that was broken/changed/depreciated in newer versions of the OS, most older software should run fine even on the latest Windwows CE 5.01 based WM5/WM6 Pocket PCs. Even the newest devices will still run most of the software made for that very first ARM Handheld PC from all those years ago. Not to mention PalmOS apps via the amazing PalmOS simulator Styletap ( www.styletap.com )as well as all those silly Java phone Midlets via one of the many MIDP-compliant VM's for CE.
For those that are curious, here are 2 examples of what a Windows CE 2.11 for Handheld PC Professional program would look like on a modern WM5 Pocket PC. As you can see, the Pocket PC shell will even move the taskbar to the bottom to better accomodate the application. If Windows CE 1.0 supported ARM, I'm sure such old programs would still run fine on a Pocket PC. I bet many CE 1.0 MIPS programs run fine on all of these new MIPS WinCE 5.0 PMPs that are popping up left and right from Korea. :)
http://www.geocities.com/giant_bootleg_defensor/CE/MenuFixedWM5.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/giant_bootleg_defensor/CE/pnotepadHPC.jpg
What does this iPhone have? Based on everything we have heard, it seems to actually be closed to any kind of 3rd party software?! Does it even have a Java VM for crappy cellphone games and apps like GMail Mobile? (Though, I must admit that MultiTouch sounds kinda interesting and I doubt its something CE will be supporting anytime soon even if it is more or just a novelty than anything too useful. Even though this thing claims to be based on OSX, which of course has much more desktop-level software than Windows CE, none of it is compiled for ARM. And if Apple won't allow 3rd party developers near it, none of it will be, either! :P Sure, it may be based on a BSD kernel and will obviously be hacked... but in all honesty, I'd rather have TomTom Navigator on WinCE ( www.tomtom.com ) than Roadmap on UNIX ( http://roadmap.digitalomaha.net/ ) if you get my drift. ;)
Gee, comments from a fat sweaty guy whose crappy products litter the landscape. Yawn
Actually the iPhone is a bit on the expensive side. You also have to consider the mandatory contract it comes with so you can add a bit more to its actual price. But hey, in a market economy a product has the price people are willing to pay. If people pay 1000 $ for an iLighter ( and 2000$ for the 8 GB version ) then that's what an iLighter is worth.
I for one think this phone is cool also. It only costs 350 $ without a contract. It runs Linux and is fully customizable:
http://www.openmoko.com/press/index.html
Now if you'll excuse me I just remembered I have something urgent to do ... ( runs off to see if iLighter and iToothpick are registered :) ). I might get to sue Apple soon :) .
Wow looks sweet!Any info on when it will be out?
"That is for an upgrade only. You can't buy a full version of OS X retail, because it only comes on new Apple computers."
Huh? What a bizarre assertion.
Of COURSE you can buy a full, boxed version of OS X. Anywhere they sell Apple products. What you can't buy is an "upgrade." Whenever you buy OS X in a box it is always the full version. Upgrades come free over the net via the Mac Software Update system.
tyler @ Jan 18th 2007 3:38PM
"microsoft, just watch how vista will fail and they will be no more, they were smart to own some of apple"
That doesnt even make sense. The world relies on Microsoft and Unix distros to even RUN. Vista really cant fail. Thats the most ignorant comment i have ever heard. Seriously.
Plus i have no real opinion on the iphone. At least not until it comes out and i touch it. Im a NEUTRAL!?!? Hear that guys, a neutral!!!! I dont care wether the phone fails or succeeds, but ill base my opinion when it actually comes out, of its worth it or not compared to other phones of the like.
My favorite part of this clip is the smirk on Ballmer's face when the interviewer says the word "iPhone" for the first time. The look on Ballmers face is as if he's saying "oh f**k, he's asking me about the iPhone!"
eek! I'll take the other steve any day.
I have a phone with touch-sensitive buttons. Each individually inscribed with codes indicating what each is for. It's brill.
Steve Ballmer is a handsome man. He's brill. I would very much like to play his "developers, developers, developers" sweaty video on my phone. Perhaps one day I'll get it on there.
Windows Mobile is F---ing crap! And I own/use it extensively! If I didn't have a 2-year contract, I'd be rid of it in a heartbeat to get even a Palm system, or soon the iPhone. Screw Steve Ballmer and his MS POS OS.
It's quite obvious the USA is quite slow on phone technology. I believe Japan and Korea already have streaming tv to their phones, running on hi-speed networks, and all of their phones have wonderful features such as 3.2MP+ cameras w/xenon flash, autofocus, VGA+ screens and all are very compact - design wise it's fantastic. You can google up a crap load if you'd like.
Let me tell you about the iPhone - the thing is basically a super iPod. Two hands is required to operate the phone and seriously, it's all marketing hype. Windows Mobile really sucks as well due to the fact it requires so much juice to run it smoothly. Smartphones are just handicapped PPC versions and the entire interface is just Microsoft - which is a good thing depends on your taste.
No one has mentioned the battery like on this iPhone - the screen resolution is ok from the specs (some 1.5 AR). Is this a revolutionary phone? Fcuk that. It's not. It's a super iPod with a big screen that also can work as a phone. Big deal. There are tons of other phones from real cell phone companies that have mp3, wma, ogg, aac format players built into their phones that work flawlessly. If you mention that hey, it's not an iPod because it does not have that interface, then you must be super stupid like the rest of the rich blooded fools that can afford to buy this iPhone.
I'm not knocking on the new iPhone - I like the pinch/pull interface...but seriously, it's not the bomb like it's hyped up to be. Of course steve balmer will lash at it - it's competition. Apple products are 100% hype and if it was really that great, why does it only penterate 5% of the desktop market? Because like every Apple product, it's expensive. I'm not suprised they switched over to PC hardware to run their OSX operating system ;-)
I will wait until this brick comes out - I'm sure it's not as expensive as other cell phones but $500 can get you alot of stuff...
What I don't get is his comment about the device not being for business because it does not have a keyboard. I thought that was the point, it has a touch screen keyboard so you can get a device with a larger screen and keyboard without having to buy a bigger device.
Additionally, my sense is that Apple wants to push adoption with new cellphone providers, i.e. college students. They are very technically savvy and will eat this up. Though a lot of challenges still exist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLo1USJIkgY
this video was excellent. Everyone seems to be raving about how great the phone will be but really think for a moment all the problems people will have with it, 1)Its big, i don't know how many of you know this but its freakin brick compared to what people are used to having today. 2)All touchscreen, yes its cool but constantly having to wipe the screen off to see all your pictures and video's clearly but oh wait whenever you touch it you'll effect what your looking at. 3)i say by mid-day your going to need a second charge, it supposedly has 4-5 hour talk time or video play but if its going to replace your ipod wont it be playing music all the time as well. 4) most people wont be able to take advantage of all its functions because its tied to cingulars network which yes is advanced but how is the iphone going to download and search the web at "great" speeds when it's not in one of the few places cingular provides 3G network.