Ballmer keeps close watch on Apple and Android
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows not to blink.
On the desktop front, Microsoft is not discounting the approximately 1 percent market share gain Apple has garnered in the past year, bolstering its position as the No. 4 player in operating systems behind Linux, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, during a midyear update with analysts Tuesday.
"We're very focused on both Apple as a competitor and Linux as a competitor," Ballmer said.
And concerns regarding Google's open-source mobile operating system Android are not far behind.
"I think the dynamics with Linux is changing somewhat," Ballmer said. "I assume we'll see Android-based, Linux-based laptops, in addition to phones, and we'll see Google more and more as a competitor in the desktop operating system business than we ever have before."
Last month, for example, a report surfaced that raised the question of whether the Android operating system had recently been successfully ported over to a Netbook.
"The seams between what is a phone operating system and a PC operating system will change, so we have ramped our investment in the client operating system," Ballmer said.
And on the mobile operating system front, Windows Mobile ranks third, with Apple's iPhone fourth and Google's Android currently a blip on the radar, but nonetheless a concern for the Redmond giant, Ballmer said.
"The truth of the matter is all the consumer market mojo is with Apple and to a lesser extent BlackBerry. And yet, the real market momentum with operators and the real market momentum with device manufacturers seems to primarily be with Windows Mobile and Android," Ballmer said.
He added he sees competition in the mobile arena occurring on two fronts: one is selling mobile-related software independently from the hardware, which may explain the software giant's reported interest in launching a Windows Mobile online applications store. The other front is a combination of software, hardware, and services bundled together, similar to Apple's iPhone or Research In Motion's popular BlackBerry.
Dawn Kawamoto covers enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News. E-mail Dawn. 
Windows Vista - pre-loaded on 20 million PC's per month
OS X - 25 million machines.
Apple has the luxury to completely abandom an infrastructure (OS 9 - PowerPC) and recreate a whole new OS (OS X running on Intel). The reality in today's capitalistic society is, corporations trumps consumers which forces MSFT to limit anything new. MSFT tried it with Vista to start from the beginning and everyone knows what the outcome was.
Apple was, is, and will always be only for the niche market whereas everyone (including Apple users) will at some point use Windows (whether at home, or work, or friend's house, or relative, or public place...).
To give an example, MSFT is like the $25K Toyota as compared to Apple which is like the $250K Ferrari. No doubt Ferrari will always win but how many people will buy a Ferrari as compared to a Toyota. Secondly, how many companies would be willing to manufacture out of factory parts for Toyota where they can make more money by volume as compared to making parts for Ferrari. And finally you can upgrade your Toyota for 10 yrs and still end up paying the same price as what the other guy did buying a Ferrari but now your Toyota has all the latest gadgets because you upgraded and I don't have to mention 10 yrs in technology years is like a century in human life.
MSFT is actually helping the economy because if it wasn't for Windows, the third party vendors would be out of business. For every one app on Mac there are at least 2 equivalent apps for Windows and unlike Apple, MSFT doesn't force you to buy hardware only from HP or DELL. You are free to buy it from ANYONE - EVEN BUILD IT YOURSELF.
I am not saying Windows is the best OS, and neither is OS X. The best OS in the market today is Linux not because it's Linux but because it's OPEN SOURCE. You can do whatever you want and IT'S FREE. However, Linux inspite of being the best OS - it's just not practical to distribute Linux to everyone because except for the geeks or the programmers an Avg Joe has no clue what's the command to install or run when he can just click on Windows or Mac to do it. Granted alot of apps you can click and run/install on Linux but everyone would agree with me on this, it's not as User friendly as Windows or OS X.
It will also be interesting to see how Open Source Android does against it's competitors given that Open Source hasn't had such a big brand promoting it like we see with Android.
Also, the future PC is a phone. Just dock it when you want a bigger screen and keyboard etc. This fits with an OS that is Internet centric more than an OS that gives you Internet capability.
- by shelloil February 25, 2009 4:12 AM PST
- 10 years from now Linux and Mac will be standard kit.
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- by Gorbag February 25, 2009 7:03 AM PST
- I pretty much agree with this sentiment - I think of OS X as a kind of higher end unix, and linux on the lower end in the same terms one might discuss BMW and honda - yes there are engineering differences, but in principle they are more similar then different - they just go after different segments of the market. Windows is more and more the odd man out; makes less and less sense for science, engineering, etc. at best it's a ubiquitous platform for email and office productivity programs, and that market is going to web services and browsers. Why bother with M$?
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(18 Comments)Ballmer and Microsoft lost the plot after XP.
Apple runs on a UNIX platform and Linux is cheap and dynamic.
Windows suffers heavy excess baggage coding and is doomed to be a follower.
I don't know what the "code monkeys" drink in Redmond but regardless they need to start over and hire Apple staff..not that Linux or Apple coders want anything to do with Microsoft.
Microsoft is yesterdays legacy tech at tomorrows prices....
Windows mobile.please don't get me started how c£$p that is..anyone remember HP Jornada.rubbish