http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
fixed it for you]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.dysonairblade.com/homepage.asp
]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
So now FNG is the first post instead of the second, but his comment makes no sense because he was replying to the "one ugly man" comment.]]>Sep 25th 2009 3:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Also note he said it would be ok for M$ to build their own phone because smart phones are still currently niche markets.

I wonder how long it will take before Bill Gates returns to give M$ some strategic direction or has he seen the writing on the wall.....]]>Sep 25th 2009 10:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
hilarity link: http://pinoytutorial.com/bestandworst/steve-ballmer-wears-a-halloween-costume

"just for laughs" guys]]>Oct 29th 2009 11:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://i34.tinypic.com/35arr85.jpg

couldn't help myself]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
This does not bode well for future humanity.]]>Sep 25th 2009 4:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 4:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
1.3 billion smartphones and WinMo might only grab five percent of that market if it's lucky.]]>Sep 25th 2009 11:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Touch screens and FM radios both existed before Apple was incorporated.]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
I have to wonder if you were downranked for not being funny, or because people shut off their brains and thought you were serious?]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Gosh, now everyone thinks your a troll for being misinformed.]]>Sep 25th 2009 3:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 28th 2009 3:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Really liking Microsoft's strategy and can't wait to see some of the nice R&D that comes out this year.]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Really? Because your software (on phones) is getting less popular while the number of smartphones sold is increasing dramatically. Funny how his tune has changed since claiming that there was no chance the iPhone would ever get any decent market share. I guess now the plan is to wait until all phones sold are smartphones and then somehow get all the handset manufacturers to switch from Symbian, Android, and WebOS back to WM. And hope that people stop buying iPhones in droves. Good luck there sparky.]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
That said, given how antiquated WM seems today it is actually somewhat a testement that they haven't hemoraged anywhere near as much as they deserve. HTC, while playing around with Android is still a thoroughly WM shop (their product pipeline does have more android phones than any other OEM, but it doesn't compare to their output of WM phones), Samsung is plugging away at competent WM phones, LG is dedicating their upper end smartphones entirely to WM (Samsung and LG are big wins for MS, as the korean manufacturers have a pretty sizable impact on the phone market), and even some of the niche players remain very WM centric (toshiba and HP for example). Honestly it is surprising that the only real losses MS has suffered were Motorola (who is teatering towards deathbed status) and Sony Erikkson (similarly not healthy) - one has completely given up on WM and the other pretty much scrapped the majority of their plans and only pays lip service to supporting the product.

That isn't to say that MS isn't in seriously trouble if they can't turn things around, but the picture is rather less bleak than they argueably deserve at this point.]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Have I not had enough coffee, or is the above incoherent nonsense?]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
With so many phones being sold, a company cannot expect to have the vast majority of that market if they do both the phone and the software, something will suffer because the cost will be too high to maintain both. If you allow others to spend the money on the hardware, and you do the software, then you have a better chance of being on top.

It really isnt that hard to understand if your intention wasn't to try to find something to blast him on.]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Also incoherent nonsense. The amount a company spends to develop a phone only affects their profitability, not the chance of success in the market. If anything, Microsoft's approach makes it harder to end up on top, a lesson they clearly learned in the mp3 player market. If you're only developing software and relying on others to develop hardware, you are now at the mercy of those other companies to deliver decent products. It's kind of like Ferrari saying, "since there are so many cars being sold, we're just going to develop engines and let GM and Ford build the cars." You don't have a better chance of being on top, you now have a better chance of ending up with a shitty product, with no power to control it.]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/... If you're lookinf for an analogy for mass production, Ferrari might not be your best choice.]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Now your just defending MS, are you sure your not employed by them?]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Well, Ferrari's a pretty poor analogy for Microsoft too, if you want to split hairs ;)]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Now your just defending MS, are you sure your not employed by them?

#1 are you seriously trying to compare a RAZOR from 2003 to a full smart-phone in 2009?

#2 Yes those companies make both, but again, what's the better route, making the software and having it on dozens of models that you don't have to spend money manufacturing or on a handful that you do.?

#3 I'm sorry if you cant handle me tying to explain this to you, and you seeing it as the equivalent of "working for MS".

Do I have to ask permission from you to do this?]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
If they were in the motor making business, then it makes perfect sense. Why would they spend money they dont have to on making a full car, when GM (ugh) or Ford is willing to do that just to have their motor running it?]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Yes that's arrant nonsense. Typical bloviation by the great bloviator. But a little editing makes the statement more sensible:

"when 1.3 billion phones a year are all smart, the software that's gonna be most popular in those phones is gonna be software that's given away for free by somebody who doesn't make their own phone."]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
That isn't at all true - the software with the lowest total cost to put on a phone while providing the greatest incentive to the customers to purchase the product will be the most popular. Or, to put it another way, the software that will lead to greatest profitability of the product will be the most popular, and that is not at all the same as saying the software that is free.

It has admittedly been a while since I worked in the embedded space with OEMs, and it was not in the phone market, but it was with embedded software for the likes of Samsung and LG. Software is not their strong suite - they are hardware OEMS. Free software is meaningless to them if it costs them a great deal of money to get on their device. If they can pay a bit to get more approachable software and a good relationship with a company familiar with the software they will, because in the end it will save them money. That is why companies PAY for Windriver linux for embedded devices instead of just grabbing the kernel for free and customizing it themselves.

Likewise free software means nothing if it won't move devices. OEMs could have been dropping linux on phones for years, could even work with Windriver and similar Distro providers to save software costs, but in the smartphone market it was not until Android was available that linux saw any movement onto smartphones (there are feature phones that use it, because the OS is much less a selling point on them - cost and gimmicks sell feature phones) because linux by itself would not move units. Android actually had some hype behind it, some consumer interests, so it made sense. Incidentally, while Android the distro is free I can pretty much guaranty that every OEM is paying google for help (and google isn't sinking money into android just to sell GMail on the phone - they want to make money off the OS as well).

In the end OEMs are going to consider the market attraction of the OS and the actual cost to get the OS on the phone - they will calculate total profits over projected sales as a result and it is a hell of a lot better to move 2 million phones even if they pay $5 per phone for OS/support to get the phone up and running than it is to move 500,000 phones even if the OS/support only costs them $2 per unit to get it running (and even with free OS it will cost them per unit to get the distro running on the phone).

Incidentally, source code "freedom" need not apply - WM ships with sourcecode to OEMs just as Android does. Hence how HTC has managed to make a fairly integrated and less crappy shell for the fugly OS.]]>Sep 25th 2009 1:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
"If they were in the motor making business, then it makes perfect sense. Why would they spend money they dont have to on making a full car, when GM (ugh) or Ford is willing to do that just to have their motor running it?"

I didn't realize Microsoft was so strapped for cash these days. The reason Ferrari wouldn't want GM and Ford building cars for them is that they make crappy cars by comparison, which in turn would hurt the perception of their own brand. I would say it's even worse in Microsoft's case in that there are some decent phones out there running WM but everyone sees them as crappy because WM (currently) sucks.]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
It's the same thing as the computer sector.

Ever figure why MS's profits from PC's is oh, about 400% that of Apple's quarter after quarter, year after year, even during Apple's best times and MS's worst times?

It's because Windows is so ubiquitous, and Apple still remains a niche product.

Ballmer is exactly right, and their long-term business plan makes a lot of sense. They just need to remain focused and execute it. ]]>Sep 25th 2009 2:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
If we accept that there will be multiple companies supplying the world with phones, then when we look at the software that is needed to power these phones, it doesn't make a lot of sense for each company to go out and develop its own kernel, TCP/IP stack, web browser, UI framework, development kit and environment, etc. And I agree with this argument. Apple was able to do this because they leveraged a big chunk of their software from Mac OS X. The cost of developing and maintaining this software would otherwise be a huge cost burden that would put a company at a big disadvantage to its competitors who didn't have to absorb this cost.

Now whether Windows Mobile is going to be the software of choice is yet to be determined. And, right now, Microsoft is playing catch-up with where others are at in terms of user-experience. But below the UI layer, they do have a pretty solid foundation to build upon. Right now, using a Windows Mobile 6.1 phone leaves a lot to be desired. But who knows... if they hit a home run with Windows Mobile 7, people might be talking a different story next year.

One thing for certain is that competition is good. Because if it wasn't for the iPhone OS, Android, and WebOS, Windows Mobile would have remained stagnant. And time and time again we see that if Microsoft doesn't have a competitor to focus on, they just stagnate in that area.]]>Sep 26th 2009 6:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Nope. Just find video, pause it mid pose, so it looks weird. Post and pretend like that was not your intention. Like they do all the time.

Behaving like a bunch of boys.

]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 6:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
"Eeeasssyyy Streeeeat!!!"]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
http://i34.tinypic.com/2yyxbep.jpg]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
There's still time for Microsoft to turn things around and get back into the game, but that window closes a little bit more each day. One day in the not-so-distant future, it will be closed for good. Don't be left standing out in the cold.]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/Sep 25th 2009 12:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/25/steve-ballmer-talks-three-screens-and-a-cloud-and-more-with-te/
Like what, in x amount of time, the general population will refuse to use some product from MS because it didnt come out in some artificial time frame?]]>Sep 25th 2009 12:33PM