This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 22:33 and is filed under Analysis & Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Tuesday, May 1, 2007
You’ve really got to wonder what’s going on up in Redmond when you hear Bill Gates say he doesn’t “get” the I’m a Mac commercials and Ballmer saying the iPhone won’t get, “Any significant market share. No chance.” Odd how he pointed out to USA Today’s David Lieberman that how he’d rather have 96% of the market than essentially be cool. “Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market?” to which he laughs at his own question. Of course Ballmer answered an iPod question (which by the way Steve, the iPod owns about 90% of the DAP market) with an operating system answer. But the best part is he follows it up with, “I want to have products that appeal to everybody.” Steve, let me repeat Lieberman’s question: “People get passionate when Apple comes out with something new — the iPhone; of course, the iPod. Is that something that you’d want them to feel about Microsoft?” Passionate is a much higher step above appeal.
Ironically, Ballmer basically admits that he wants to be like Apple. No matter how much spin he puts on numbers and applies apples to oranges (forgive the pun, but I had to,) the fact is Microsoft is not doing anything that really does appeal to everyone. Apple is. Sure, Microsoft owns the OS market but does that make it appealing? Heck no! Windows is a love-hate relationship for IT professionals like myself. It keeps us in business but we hate how crappy it is. I tell my customers daily how I work on PCs all day and go home and relax on my Mac at night. It gets great laughs, but man, it’s true! My Mac appeals to me. My PC running Windows of any sort never has. It has been a tool and only a tool. Nothing more. Ever. Tools are something you have to have but you can get stuck with a crappy tool that does the job but man, those Snap On tools — now that’s appealing!
Again, it is funny how Ballmer basically describes all the desireable qaulities of Apple in his dream of Microsoft. I think the top brass is so delusional in Redmond that they really do believe this. The ivory towers have kept them far above the chatter of the serfs and they no longer know what the peasants want. Of course, if they continue to point their deaf ear to the public below, every man, woman, and child will scale those walls and bring Ballmer and his crownies to the same fate that very well known queen in France suffered hundreds of years ago. Microsoft will find itself declining in what it once soared at. Look at Sony. Once the standard in portable music. Who owns a Walkman anymore? Or how ’bout TVs? I once wouldn’t even consider anything but a Sony TV. Now? I won’t even look at its offerings anymore. “Who cares?” I think as I look at the Sharps and other gorgeous plasmas before me at Best Buy.
That day is coming for you, Ballmer. But you know what, with those tongue tricks of yours you posses, Kiss may have an opening for you in its band line up. Well, if you don’t mind some make up and a wig.
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:30
I beg to differ with you. They surely do know what the peasants want. Thats why they copied OSX in Vista, and the iPod in the Zune. And there’s only one reason why they are at 90, and Apple is at 6. Cost! The peasants will always buy what’s cheapest. Wal-Mart is proof of that. I hear people everyday saying, “I would love to have a Mac, but I only have a few dollars.” If Apple put a really low-cost alternative out there, that 90/6 would fluxuate quickly–and I’m not so sure that it would kill the high end as much as they think. There are millions of us who don’t want a cheap (or stipped down) computer. And 16% market share would more than compensate for any short term losses.
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:57
You make some good points, and I am a big mac guy. But you have to realize that buying a TV does not cause you to buy all new shows or have to wait longer for new shows to be available and you don’t need new speakers etc etc.
Having intel in the Mac has been the biggest win ever as that is what will allow windows users to switch to the Mac and not have to start buying all new software right away. What MS does not realise is that people are switching and they are doing it fast, cost is not as much of an issue right now for a lot of people, I know not everyone but what MS does not know is that right now they are still making money as people are buying XP with there new Mac’s but they will never buy an OS from MS again as more and more software is available for the Mac and users see how great it is. Now if only Codeweavers would get better faster (eg Apple buy it out and build it into 10.5) then MS would not be making money off so many new Apple users and they will begin to fall (or so I hope).
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:16
Not only has Ballmer lost his marbles, but also the others who can not distinguish between Initial Cost vs Total Cost of Ownership.
Macs by a wide margin provide a better rate of return when Total Cost of Ownership is considered. I have a Mac Cube from 2000 that still works and allows me to do all the daily audio, video, internet, e-mail etc. tasks with degradation in response!!!
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:03
If Ballmer had a three digit IQ he would be embarrassed and humiliated reading or watching his public displays of utter ignorance. However he is FAR from this realization let only to simpleton FUD and transparent lies. This is the world Ballmer lives in and is the culture that Makes Microsoft. At every critical stage of development Microsoft has moved forward based on theft and lies. They see this as their secret ingredient and it saturates all they do.
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:08
Trevor, the analysis in your first paragraph would have been more relevant five years ago. The new TVs people are buying today are HD sets and, yes, by and large people ARE buying new movies (Blu-ray or HD-DVD), they ARE buying new sound systems (HDMI or Toslink capable) and in some cases, people DO have to wait longer for new shows to be available (at least on Blu-ray or HD-DVD) and if they want to enjoy the true HD experience via cable or whatever, they have to subscribe to HD stations.
Of course I’m willing to wager that most of these early adopters (of HD and all the componentry) are also Mac users.
May 2nd, 2007 at 19:08
MS doesn’t own 90% of the cell phone market. it’s about 7%. So WTF is he talking about?