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CE-Oh no he didn't!: Sony's Sir Howard says 'when you beat Apple, you're dominating'
Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer has always been delightfully direct, and he didn't hold back at Google's I/O conference: talking about Sony Ericsson with Eric Schmidt during the Google TV launch, Sir Howard noted that the Xperia X10 is the best-selling handset in Japan, and that "when you beat Apple, you're dominating -- it's the new definition." Strong words from a gadget titan -- we'll leave it to you to debate their veracity.
CE-oh no he didn't!: Reggie Fils-Aime says the iPhone OS isn't a 'viable profit platform for game development'
We can't say we'd expect Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime to lavish praise on iPhone OS gaming and the abilities of the iPad, but we figured everyone had to at least acknowledge the effect of Apple's handhelds on the market and the potential of its tablet, you know? Nope -- ol' Reg just told Kotaku that Apple "is not having an impact on Nintendo when you look at our business, our volume, our hardware, our software," and that "clearly it doesn't look like their platform is a viable profit platform for game development because so many of the games are free versus paid downloads." Snap -- although we'd bet plenty of top-tier iPhone game devs like ngmoco would argue that their "freemium" model is working plenty okay. That's not all, though, as Reggie also had some choice words about depth: "If our games represent a range between snacks of entertainment and full meals depending on the type of game, (Apple's) aren't even a mouthful, in terms of the gaming experience you get." Double snap -- we'll leave it to you to argue that one out.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXVIII: Only Apple and dope smokers claim to know the future of tablets, says Dell VP
What we'd normally brush off as pretty standard mainstream tech piece became comedy gold thanks to the acerbic wit of Dell's John Thode. The VP of mobile devices was discussing its companies entry into the tablet industry (all the while promoting the Mini 5, of course) and seemed to downplay Apple's iPad momentum. "It's really hard to kind of do the same thing over again twice or three times... [Apple] is going to have more competition here." A rational statement, but here's where it gets interesting: "If anybody tells you they know exactly what's going to happen here, they're either Apple, or they're smoking dope." Don't tell John, but we hear Gartner just hired the entire cast and crew of Dazed and Confused for a special analytics department.
CE-Oh no he didn't? Part LXVII: Steve Jobs lashes out at Google, calls Adobe 'lazy'
According to a report in Wired (and a source whom the publication says "could not be named"), Steve Jobs spoke to an audience of Apple employees at a town hall in Cupertino and... pulled zero punches. If you believe what you read, Jobs tackled a handful of major issues that have been buzzing the company lately, namely its run-ins with Google on a number of topics, and the lack of Flash support in its mobile devices (most notably in the upcoming iPad). On Google, Jobs had this to say: "We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them." According to the attendee, another topic was brought up but Steve wouldn't let the Google issue go, stating his thoughts on the company's famous 'Don't be evil' line. In Steve's words? "It's bullshit." Furthermore Jobs had a handful of choice words for Adobe, calling the company "lazy" and claiming that "Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5." Of course, these amazing nuggets of wisdom come from a source which Engadget cannot verify, so it's possible there are misquotes or items taken out of context, though from the sounds of things, this kind of talk falls right in line with what we'd expect from the man who said Microsoft "had no taste" and makes "really third-rate products." We eagerly await Eric Schmidt's response.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLV: Symbian's Lee Williams rips into Android, implies Google is evil (video)
Strap yourselves in, folks, we're about to launch the Mudslinger 3000 again and figure out if any of it sticks. Lee Williams of Symbian starts off with a few attack volleys relating to Google's "fragmentation" of UI elements, and the resultant closed APIs being a nightmare to code for. With so many divergent UI elements and styles, he argues, developers would suffer, and the consequence would be a less vibrant app ecosystem. His major gripe with Google's mobile OS, though, has to do with the pervasive "cookie-ing" of customers, which raises the specter of privacy concerns. When asked directly by our buddy Om Malik whether he considers Android "more evil" than Apple's iPhone OS, Williams replied: "I don't view Apple as evil, they're just greedy... Google, come on! When you have to say in your motto that we're not evil, right away the first question in my mind is, 'why do you have to tell me that?'" All this must be tempered by the knowledge that Android is set to overtake large swathes of the mobile OS space, and some retaliatory trash talking is probably to be expected from the incumbent smartphone leader. Om does ask another sage question, in querying why Williams thinks companies are making such large investments into Android, and you'll find the answer to that and much more in the video past the break. [Via MobileTechWorld; Thanks, fido] Read - Lee Williams interview with GigaOM Read - New York Times: 'Big Cellphone Makers Shifting to Android System' Read - PCWorld: 'Android, Symbian Will Own Smartphones in 2012'
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXIV: Microsoft's Greenberg says Xbox will outsell PS3 for 'entire generation'
Didn't think Microsoft exec Aaron Greenberg could top himself after saying that Hulu on 360 was like "asking out a really hot chick on a date?" Well, think again, 'cause Greenberg recently sat down with GameInformer for a fairly wide ranging interview, and he took the opportunity to toss a few bombs in Sony's direction. The biggest of those is that he's "confident" that the Xbox 360 will "not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation" -- adding that it's "similar to a game of baseball, it is not about just winning one inning, but instead being able to win the game by consistently delivering across all nine innings." Greenberg also went on to say that Sony's expected good showing in the September sales numbers is merely a "short term bump," and that "it is not a real concern to us." Hit up the link below for the complete interview, which also includes talk of the Zune HD, Xbox Live, and Microsoft's plans for the holiday season.[Via PC World]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXIII: Bobby Kotick says Guitar Hero going plug-and-play, developers kept in state of 'skepticism, pessimism, and fear'
You know those Atari controllers that let you play Atari games without actually having an Atari? That, it seems, is the future of the Guitar Hero franchise, with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick indicating that new titles from the company will be playable "independent of a console." It's perhaps a natural step, as the franchise's developers must surely spend half their time frantically porting games from PS3 to Xbox 360 to Nintendo DS to graphic calculator to... well, you get the picture. Kotick also said some wondrous things that will make those Activision coders slouch even further into their chairs, developers who already were surely fearing for their jobs, indicating that they live within a corporate environment of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" with the hope of "keeping people focused on the deep depression," and that he wants to take "all the fun out of making video games." So, then, that My Chemical Romance edition of the series should be announced any time now. [Via Joystiq]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXII: Steve Ballmer publicly ridicules Microsoft employee with iPhone, threatens to smash it
Not every man was born with common sense. And anyone who's ever seen Steve Ballmer take a stage knows that you don't want to get in the way of the emotionally-charged big man when the curtain opens. So we're not terribly surprised to learn that Steve grabbed an iPhone he saw during his big entrance to a private Microsoft company meeting held at Seattle's Safeco Field. Apparently, the hapless employee (allegedly from the Windows group) was trying to snap a photo of his boss when Ballmer grabbed the device and made some "funny comments" met by boos and jeers from Microsoft's employees. Steve then set it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it before walking away -- later teasing the employee during his presentation by noting that he hadn't forgotten him. Good times, we're sure, and nothing rallies the troops like a common enemy... except perhaps the camaraderie that comes in knowing that you've created a game-changing device. We even have a photograph from the actual iPhone supposedly snapped while Steve Ballmer was brandishing it overhead. We can't say for sure if it's real, in fact, that could be the guy from Lost. See it after the break.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXI: Acer chief says Japanese PC companies "the weakest today"
We're pretty sure we've heard Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci say PC industry consolidation resulting in fewer players and lower component prices would be a good thing before, but he dressed it with a side of smackdown today: speaking to the New York Times, he said that Toshiba and Sony's PC businesses would be the first targets, since "the Japanese for sure are the weakest today." Ouch. It's especially harsh since Sony just broke down and released its first netbook this morning after claiming that the low-cost machines were a downward spiral, but that wasn't enough blood for Gianfranco: he also said that ASUS and Lenovo need to "think long and hard" about remaining independent companies. Yow -- sounds like someone's planning to do a little shopping, don't you think?
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LX: NVIDIA calls Intel's single-chip Atom pricing "pretty unfair"
Now that Intel's been slapped with a record $1.45b antitrust fine in Europe, it seems like the claws are coming out -- AMD just put up that "Break Free" site, and today we've got NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang calling Chipzilla's Atom pricing "unfair." It seems that Intel sells the standard Atom chip for $45 on its own, but bundles the diminutive CPU into the oh-so-familiar netbook configuration for just $25, meaning NVIDIA's Ion chipset isn't price-competitive. Of course, this is just another twist in the endless argument about Ion, but despite the denials, this isn't the first time we've heard whispers that Intel pretty much forces manufacturers to buy complete Atom chipsets -- the dearth of Ion-powered netbooks in the market is fairly suspicious considering the GeForce 9400M at the heart of the platform is a well-known quantity. On the other hand, we've also heard this is all going to change and change dramatically at Computex next month, so we'll see -- either way, things are bound to get interesting.[Via TrustedReviews]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LIX: Elevation's McNamee predicts death to iPhone on June 29
Roger McNamee, founding partner of the Palm-rescuing investment firm Elevation Partners, has had some interesting things to say about what to expect from the Pre. Now, though, he's really out done himself with what he has to say about the iPhone. In an interview with Bloomberg, McNamee (aka "Chubby Wombat Moonalice" when playing bass) predicted that the Pre will bring the downfall of Apple's wunder-handset, saying:June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. Think about it -- if you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they're going to buy.We don't know the future, but we can sure tell you what we're not buying right now. And besides, we don't know too many early adopter types that could resist the siren call of 3G halfway through their existing iPhone contract, thereby re-upping their contract for another few millenia. That should be plenty enough time for Apple to whip up something new... or at least for Roger to get a haircut. [Via Daring Fireball]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LVIII: NVIDIA CEO doesn't know what Larrabee is, doesn't care
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang just can't resist throwing more jabs at Intel, distracting the inaugural NVISION crowd from Battlestar Galactica star Tricia Helfer with the claim that "Larrabee hasn't shipped so you don't know what it is and I don't know what it is." The fact that we do know what it is -- a next-gen hybrid CPU / GPU -- shouldn't be a concern according to Huang, because "By the time it does ship, Nvidia's technology will be so far advanced it won't matter." Besides stuffing Usain Bolt-type speed into a GPU the company will keep busy working on its WinMo smartphone hardware, and software for the not-exactly-Atom-killing VIA Nano, but forget about that rumored x86-compatible hardware 'cuz, as Jen-Hsun reminds us, "the Internet doesn't run on x86." For a company that lacks innovation, is "a joke," and at least four years behind, Intel must be doing something right, because the competition can't keep its name out of their mouths.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LVII: Howard Stringer says the Wii is not 'a competitor'
Further confirming his utter disconnect from reality, Sony head Howard Stringer referred to Nintendo's market-dominating Wii as an "expensive niche game device." Previous to making that statement, Stringer bafflingly said, "I've played a Nintendo Wii, I don't see it as a competitor." Now look -- we're not saying you're in some kind of CEO super-denial, but all signs point to the possibility that you should probably consider the Wii a competitor (since it is... well... a competing system and platform), and perhaps recognize that "niche" is typically not synonymous with "best selling." Of course, you're the guy running Sony, we're just watching the crackup from the sidelines.[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LV: NVIDIA boss says "We're going to open a can of whoop-ass" on Intel
Looks like Intel's plans to enter the graphics space in a big way with its Nehalem and Larrabee lines strike NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun-Huang as being rather foolish -- in a conference call with analysts today, Huang said Intel's integrated graphics offerings were "a joke," and that even a tenfold increase in performance would put them behind NVIDIA's current products. Huang didn't stop there, saying that NVIDIA was "going to open a can of whoop-ass," and that while Intel's graphics chips were fine for running Office, they would never cut it for gamers and other demanding users. Huang kept going, responding to questions about all those driver-related Vista crashes by saying that NVIDIA had to support new games weekly while Intel's chips aren't ever put to the test. Actually, that's toning it down a bit -- what Huang actually said was "You already have the right machine to run Excel. You bought it four years ago... How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?" Yeah, them's fightin' words -- you going to sit there and take it, Intel? [Thanks, Mike A.]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LIV: Stringer on flip-flop bender
Man, talk about being all over the map. One day Sony's Howard Stringer is calling the format war a "stalemate," the next he's claiming Blu-ray is "just a better format." Apparently, having a few weeks to think over that last comment made him realize that his heart was more connected to the first proclamation, as the exec has now come forward and acknowledged that the battle between red and Blu is far from over. Specifically, he stated that "[Blu-ray] had momentum," but he followed up by calling the aforementioned momentum "all it had at the moment." C'mon Mr. Stringer -- pick a line and hold steady, will ya?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LIII: AMD's Hector Ruiz badmouths Intel
In an unsurprising turn of events, AMD honcho Hector Ruiz has taken advantage of a recent interview to verbally smack up competitor (and market kingpin) Intel. In the midst of a sit-down, the chipmaker's CEO claimed that rival Intel was playing a game of catch up to AMD's innovation, stating, "If you look at the last five years, if you look at what major innovations have occurred in computing technology, every single one of them came from AMD. Not a single innovation came from Intel." Ruiz went on to blast the Santa Clara-based company, saying that, "Intel continues... to abuse their monopoly and that's why around the world governments and regulatory agencies continue to go after them." Hey -- at least he doesn't seem to be feeling bitter about the whole thing.[Via The INQUIRER]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part L: Ballmer says Android "just some words on paper"
You can't help but love Steve Ballmer. Besides being the ultra-rich, ultra-faithful CEO of Microsoft, you can always count on him to deliver some choice words -- especially if the competition is in the news. His latest efforts come in the wake of Google's Android announcement, a project which clearly stands to compete with Redmond's ubiquitous Windows Mobile platform. When asked what he thought of the forthcoming phone OS at a news conference in Tokyo, Ballmer noted that, "Their efforts are just some words on paper right now." Okay, let's be perfectly honest: that statement is true -- but don't you think that when a monolithic company like Google aligns itself with other giants such as Intel, T-Mobile, Samsung, and LG (amongst others), Microsoft might take it a little more seriously? Ballmer went on to say that, "They have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they're welcome in our world." Thanks for allowing Google into "your world" Steve, we're sure your subjects will appreciate it.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLIX: Eisner tells striking writers to blame Steve Jobs
Well, it looks like Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner had a fair bit to say about the current Writer's Guild of America strike in a recent interview, with him even going so far as to recommend that the writers point their aim at a familiar foe. According to CNET's The Social, in addition to calling the strike "stupid," Eisner said that the studios "make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners," adding that, "They make all these kinds of things, and who's making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple." Eisner then went on to say that, "If I was a union, I'd be striking up wherever he is."[Photo courtesy of TVNewser]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLVIII: Mandriva CEO slams Ballmer in blog rant
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer is certainly no stranger to our CE-Oh no he didn't! series, but Mandriva's CEO François Bancilhon now looks to have turned the tables, with him targeting Ballmer in an open letter on his blog. Causing all his ire is a recent deal Mandriva made to install its Linux distribution onto 17,000 Classmate PCs sold to the Nigerian Government, which Nigeria says they will follow through on, only to replace the OS with Windows afterwards. Bancilhon, as you might have guessed, is laying the blame for the sudden change of heart squarely on Microsoft, and Ballmer specifically, saying "Wow! I'm impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their mind like this? It's pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone." Bancilhon went on to ask, "How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live?," adding that, "In my place, they give it various names, I'm sure you know them." Bancilhon then busted out the ever-reliable "how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?" line, before closing things off by saying, "You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different sense of ethics you and I, but I believe that hard work, good technology and ethics can win too."[Via Yahoo News/PC Magazine]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLVII: NBC Universal chief says Apple "destroyed" music pricing
NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker clearly did not get enough raisins in his cereal this morning, because dude was not holding anything back during that speech he gave at Syracuse's Newhouse School of Communications -- in addition to saying NBC had made only $15M in iTunes video sales despite being the number one producer of content, he flat-out said that Apple and iTunes had "destroyed the music business" in terms of pricing and that video was next unless "we take control." Of course, seeing as consumers can access Universal's entire music catalog with various subscription services for under $10 a month ($36 a year, in the case of Yahoo Music) and entire NBC shows for free on the web, but still choose to buy songs and shows straight-up on iTunes anyway, it might be fair to say that NBC Universal is still figuring out how to monetize its content effectively, but really, where's the fun in that? Round 7, fight!
