Apple not doing so well?

According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Apple ain't doing so well! And this after 5,000 poor folk lost their jobs at MS?


Steve Ballmer: "Tides Have Turned" Against Apple & the Mac - The Mac Observer

Ballmer was bound to do something like that at the slightest sign of trouble at Apple. I really wish the "politics" between leaders of businesses would stop. Ballmer and other corporate leaders should be more focused on their own corporations right now and not others.

In the words of the editors of MacDailyNews.... "May Steve Ballmer remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes".

If I posted here what I really feel about Steve Balmer I would be banned as both a Mod and user. Let me just say I have NO RESPECT for the man at all. He makes a fool out of himself every time he opens that mouth of his. I have a LOT more respect for Bill Gates.

Apple only went up 1 point? Where did you get that info from Balmer? Why did you have to lay off 5k employes if things are going so well for you?

Ballmer has been doing an excellent job of running Microsoft and its reputation into the ground. So, I'd say although he's doing MS a disservice, at least he's giving back to the rest of the industry.

Guess he could take a page from Apple one price for a new os that works
instead of the proposed 5 with substantial price increase as you move up
the ladder for ultimate.

The man is monumentally inept and short-sighted. It just BLOWS my mind that the shareholders aren't up in arms demanding his resignation.

dtravis7 said:

He makes a fool out of himself every time he opens that mouth of his.

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These are for you (you have probably seen these though):
YouTube - Steve Ballmer going crazy
YouTube - Steve Ballmer - Developers
YouTube - Steve Ballmer

The last one is the best. How could you be so unprofessional in a commercial? My question is who promoted him to CEO?

cwa107 said:

In the words of the editors of MacDailyNews.... "May Steve Ballmer remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes".

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Classic

I watched those videos.... I thought I was a psycho!

I like this one also.

YouTube - Steve Ballmer on Vista and MacBook Air @ MIX08

What a jerk!

To Steve Ballmer's credit I've tried to find something he's good at. A valid reason as to why he deserves to be the new CEO at MS. And I have to admit his keynotes are really funny. He's so unpredictable up on the stage. But that's it really. I'd get a better structured report about MS from a PC magazine. Mind you many of the PC magazines of recent have been praising the Apple lines as we all know.

Is Steve Ballmer CEOship of MS the slow beginning signs that MS might actually lose the computer OS race and have to pull out one day?

the8thark said:

Is Steve Ballmer CEOship of MS the slow beginning signs that MS might actually lose the computer OS race and have to pull out one day?

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I doubt it. He's been there for quite a while and most people don't buy Windows directly - they get it when they buy a new PC. Therefore, most people either do have a choice or don't make a conscious decision.

I worked in IT for a few summers during undergrad and many people don't know of any alternatives to Windows on PCs let alone alternatives to PCs. Many people assume that Windows is required for a PC to work - Windows is like an engine in a car. These people though don't know that you can buy different "engines" or "cars". This just goes to illustrate the hegemony MS has over the OS market.

vansmith said:

I worked in IT for a few summers during undergrad and many people don't know of any alternatives to Windows on PCs let alone alternatives to PCs. Many people assume that Windows is required for a PC to work - Windows is like an engine in a car. These people though don't know that you can buy different "engines" or "cars". This just goes to illustrate the hegemony MS has over the OS market.

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Exactly. It absolutely amazing to see how the general public is completely ignorant of anything other than Windows. So many people see my Mac on my desk at work and upon asking me what it is, simply can't wrap their brains around it. So often I get "well, what's the difference - what does it do?".

CWA, when they ask what it does turn it around and show them the Apple Logo all lit up! Maybe that will impress them!!

Too bad you don't have the latest trackpad, that might get their attention!

cwa107 said:

Exactly. It absolutely amazing to see how the general public is completely ignorant of anything other than Windows. So many people see my Mac on my desk at work and upon asking me what it is, simply can't wrap their brains around it. So often I get "well, what's the difference - what does it do?".

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It's amazing that for these individuals a Mac has to be so completely different and do some things not possible with a PC to justify owning one. You should ask these people what kind of car they have (to go back to my car analogy) and upon hearing that they have a different car (hopefully), ask them "well, what's the difference - what does it do?"

As a designer I use Macs at work, in a large corporation where everybody else uses PCs. People there definitely know about the Mac and are impressed, many would buy one but are usually held back by some vague impression that it cannot run the software they need.

As for Linux, outside a few tech heads people have simply not heard of it, or even the whole open source movement. A student working there was simply incredulous that you you get free anti-virus and an office suite, it took some explaining that the software was 1) not pirated and 2) very good software

Perhaps the open source movement needs a marketing budget, that would really threaten Microsoft's position.

It's really just part of a general public ignorance of computers. The public conscious really just understands Windows to be synonymous with computers, exactly as Vansmith explained it previously. And I'm not referring to savvy consumers or those with a long history of computer use. The car analogy is a great one - people see Windows as the engine - and that's exactly the way Microsoft has marketed it. Now, if they could just convince everyone that their engine is shot, every time a new version of Windows is released, Microsoft would be overjoyed.

That's likely the reason Microsoft took so long to address the problem of spyware/adware in a meaningful way. They waited until it went from a small nuisance to a major problem that ended up extorting users and contributing to identity theft and essentially giving them a black eye. And of course, they've done all they can with paid shills in the form of journalists to dissuade that perception that they had any fault in the propagation of these now severe security problems.

I agree with CWA, it's the same reason your grandma calls every video game system "Nintendo." Windows is just so prevalent that it's all people know. Not to mention for kids growing up there comes a negative stigma (read: nerd) with researching and actually knowing about computers beyond how to use them, so most will stick with Windows until a more mature age. The tide is turning on the negative nerd stigma; however, and as people become more informed I believe more switchers will emerge.

I think it makes sense that people will buy less Apple Products as you really do pay a premium and we are in hard economic times.

The sales of netbooks seems to go along with this thought as well...