Steve Ballmer at D8: the video highlights (updated)
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 3rd 2010 6:11PM
posted June 3rd 2010 6:11PM
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@DougB541 No, No and No. And neither will the public. But we can wait for the end of 2010 for the data to come in. I'll have my Gen 4 iPhone by then with OS 4.0 in time to see the fourth attempt by MS to a mobile OS that matters.
@jdb80 Developers! (x 3) I chose a Windows laptop for the apps available for the platform. It's the same reason so many people chose iPhone. And MS still makes one of the best IDE's around in Visual Studio.
Really engadget? You can send someone to the Jobs session, why not send someone to the Balmer one also?
@noco37
never mind. I just saw the liveblog. Sorry.....
ballmer = creepy dude
Nice to see him admitting that Microsoft basically fell behind because they got cocky. If it had been Steve Jobs, the pompous windbag would have screamed, "THEY STOLE MY IDEAS! THEY STOLE THEM, THEY SHOULDN'T BE AHEAD! I'M GONNA SUE THEM!"
@Gandalf20000 Nice try, but that's what you get when you have a company that can execute (Apple) and a company that can't (Microsoft). But go ahead and keep spinning yarns about how things would be if only Ballmer had a brain.
@His Shadow
Ballmer's an airhead, but he isn't the one developing anything. I think Bill Gates originally hired him for marketing purposes. He's the CEO now, and he basically just sits around and dictates what he wants the focus to be. Steve Jobs whines, accuses, and sues anyone he thinks has "stolen" one of his ideas. Have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU
By the way, he didn't invent multitouch, the GUI, or the MP3 player. Steve Jobs does not create new technology, he popularizes it. I will admit, he is very good at popularizing technology, although Apple invents very little.
@Gandalf20000 Why, do you hang on to the idea that Steve seems to think that he invented the wheel? Steve specifically uses the word revolutionize, because it implies something that was already there. He revolutionized the MP3 played by giving it a sleek look, a dedicated music source and a name, iPod. Steve uses the GUI in places where GUI is NEGLECTED. Don't be a fool, Apple does GUI like Google does search. Apple is king of GUI in associating products, and it really doesn't matter what you think, because GUI isn't a product, it's an idea. Multitouch, is more or so the same with GUI. It's an idea that Apple implements in areas no one thinks of. It's not the wheel that Apple patents, it's how they use the wheel.
Only two videos?
Someone would think he was the head public figure of a huge computing company in some sort of rivalry with another computing company
he seemed annoyed that he was being asked questions somehow.
>Steve Ballmer's always an entertaining and interesting interview
Always?
Obviously not.
Overall message from Ballmer: we got nothing new to announce with mobile/ idk how to fix it. This is unfortunate :/
Nobody from apple said those things. Are you quoting and equating what someone may have said on a blog as opinion just as well informed as Balmer? Wow! You must think Balmer is really dumb.
His diagnosis of MSFT's mobile troubles is "lack of execution". Man, is that clueless. That's like a doctor seeing an ill patient and diagnosing "lack of health".
Ballmer is not a dumb guy and he is fiercely competitive. However, that said, I disagree that the MS problem is simply a lack of execution. Lotus and WordPerfect did not lose their market dominance because they failed to execute. They had great people (including Ozzie). However, they failed to see or respond properly to the way the market was shifting. At the time, GUI (Mac and Windows) were just emerging and they didn't see these as being a critical change in how people were buying spreadsheets and word processors assuming it was just delivering more function to users. GUI was just a distraction, one that appeared to just suck up the resources and performance of the average PC. They did not see the disruptive nature. iPhone and iPad are the similar examples for Microsoft.
@MrRoboto
An insightful comment on Engadget?! What are you doing here? I agree 100%. The video where Ray Ozzie basically shows up Steve Ballmer demonstrates the true cluelessness of Ballmer. Prediction: one year from now, Ray Ozzie will be running Microsoft.... perhaps with a COO or some other title to save face for Ballmer. First, though, we need need Ballmer's gung ho 'let's fix Mobile like we did Windows 7' approach to fail. I do not anticipate major uptake of WinMo 7, since MSFT has lost major OEM suppport to Android. They need to approach the mobile space as a disruptor, since they have no share to preserve. Execution is not enough.
Did Walt mention the market cap of MSFT competing against Apple? I didn't catch the whole interview and I was just wondering if I could find it.
Questions were crap, answers were crap. I took away from this thinking that there is absolutely no innovation going on at Microsoft whatsoever. The most interesting thing was Ozzie talking about PC's and devices becoming more appliance like. Yet Microsoft has no appliance like anything do they? They have missed the boat. Microsoft's best bet is to ride the sinking PC software ship into the ground and call it good. They'll become the new IBM where their entire business is the business world. Not a bad place to be....they just wont be the big dog any longer.
@bonedog73
Take it easy boy, you must be drinking too much cider juice huh?
Man how I dislike this guy..He's just so disgusting. And apart from that he's MS CEO..
Gotta say:
I'm not really a Microsoft guy at all anymore. For computers I love Apple. For mobile devices, I'm a pretty big fan of Android and Nokia (and to a lesser extent the iPhone).
But... that was the most reasonable interview I've ever seen Balmer participate in. He seems very humbled compared to just a few months ago. It's like he finally admitted to himself "yeah... the competition is actually really damn good". For Microsoft's sake, I hope his talk about "execution" yields some solid products again. Though, I'm not sure what to expect. Windows 7 is an improvement. But that's pretty much the nicest thing I can say about it. Windows Phone 7 looks decent... but I'm not convinced about how user friendly and efficient their attractive interface actually will be.
What really bothers me, is things like surface computing, and the Courier tablet being ignored. Both of those concepts were pretty amazing. It's like they try to innovate, come up with some great ideas, but then just drop them because following through is just too hard.
That's where Apple does well, I think. They take risks. They realize that sometimes you have to experiment a bit. Sometimes a product needs to be released, and made available for the public, in order to optimize it the next time around, or just to learn what works well and what doesn't. Take the Macbook Air. On its own... it's not that great. But, it's extremely obvious how its design and features influenced the current range of Macbooks and Macbook Pros, which I'd argue benefited hugely from those ideas. The iPad is similar, I think. It's a good foundation, but the market needs to decide where the device will actually go.
@floobie
yeah i agree, msft have had some great ideas and if theyd pulled an apple (actuall took a chance on a product) they probably wouldnt be so dismissed by people
you have to give it to apple, no matter how much i hate them at least they actually get a product finished
the courier would have been great :(
Sure Steve, CEOs take over entire divisions because "one employee is retiring", sure - we believe that. And oh yeah, "Good news for us, there was bad news", is convincing as well. You could tell the truth about what is going on in Redmond, and give us a coherent vision of a plan to fix it, but instead you just stonewall and blather - like a two-bit used car salesman.
@Ed T Have you not seen the WinPho7, Windows EC7 and the seamless integration across ALL msft platforms coming up? They fixed it no worries
@SteveyAyo
No I haven't seen WP7, and neither have you, it won't be released for months. "EC7" is not seamless with W7 or WP7, so what exactly are you trying to say? Redmond is a three-alarm fire, and after pissing on the biggest flames, Ballmer claims that they somehow caught a break -- too funny.
@SteveyAyo
SteveAyo must have a bought a lot of stock in MSFT. I don't understand how someone could continue to keep his head in the sand. Only Mark Zuckerberg is worst at making their company's case than Steve Ballmer. In any case, there are bright points for Microsoft, just none was demonstrated during this interview. They are going to keep riding Silverlight and 'cross platform ubiquity' - even though there has been almost no uptake of Silverlight in the last 3 years. Plus, we are on the verge of HTML5 doing away with the need for browser plug-ins all together. It's like in anime, when the guy is been cut in half, but he doesn't know it yet.
Interesting - Ozzie get's exactly what Google is doing with Android and Chrome OS and why. Monkey boy doesn't have a clue.
MS is in big trouble. Gates should have left his juggernaut in the hands of Ozzie. Monkeyboy is blowing it.
Pick one Microsoft KIn or Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile 6.5.X or Windows CE.
Seriously, Ballmer ( & MS ) really has no idea.
Maybe it was just the few clips that were available, but Ray Ozzie might as well have been sitting with the audience!
I found Ballmer to be pretty unconvincing...by the look on Ozzie's face, I wouldn't be surprised if he felt the same way.
Steve Ballmer is way to serious, boring, and all-around annoying.
The guy should be a politician -_-
My connection is too slow to play this and it's not like youtube, it doesn't load if you pause it.
Ray Ozzie saying "Chrome is the future"!!!! Damn, He should get fired... what a dushbag
This is the most lucid I have ever seen Ballmer. He actually made some sense without shoving his foot in his mouth, or jumping around the stage like a circus clown. I didn't think he had it in him.
But, just to be clear... he's still a freaking goofball.
Wow engadget blue legos in YOUR iPhone app. how ironic
I think this is the best interview I've ever seen with Ballmer.. as a striking contrast, he is comprehensible.
@TerrorX
Wow Ballmer did pretty good in answering the questions, I guess he does have his head clear of what the competition is doing and what they are going to do about it(courier aside).
He noted Android is a worthy competitor
He noted that he doesn't expect to gain market share from Google out of the blue in the search market. Many people think Bing should have done this and claim it's a failure but they been doing pretty good.
It took Google years to get noticed and Bing is getting there at a faster pace. They are definitely innovating and have a great product in place.
He didn't dismiss google in the tablet area but said that they need to prove themselves in that area and to me that's fair enough. There's been a few Adroid tablets for quite sometime and they haven't pick up paced.
He sounds very confident on what MS has in store and their outlook. I believe they shouldn't be taken lightly, after all its Microsoft.
As much as many people want to hate, i am quite impressed with the statement he made and he doesn't seem to have his head up his ass and this is refreshing. Maybe there is hope in Ballmer after all...
Ray really knows his stuff, I think if he was in charge microsoft would be much more powerful in the market right now. Fortunately for their competitors Balmer is a bit crazy and out of touch.
Fucking hell Steve Ballmer pisses me off, he never gives a straight answer or twists the question to be in favor of his answer.
I really don't like this guy...
my two cents about what he said : nothing new, nothing innovative, just the market, the market, the market... when bill gates was around, there were some pretty great visions about how technology should evolve. what ballmer doesn't seem to understand is that m$ should not compete to sell, but create new products to differentiate of others.
Ballmer looks so peaceful on his sketch on the stage's backdrop. Very misleading.
none of this video works for me in chrome (mac), off to firefox.