Steve Ballmer: We don't need to be cool! (Or maybe we do)
In a clear sign that Steve Ballmer has lost touch with reality, at a recent partner event Q&A the Microsoft CEO addressed the issue of "coolness" and how Microsoft competes in coolness.
On one hand, Ballmer recognizes that Microsoft is not cool and that the enterprise buyer wants safety, not necessarily coolness. But on the other hand his comments reveal an earnest desire to be cool...yet he clearly doesn't recognize what will get his company there.
The way we [will] be newsworthy, if we're successful, in and out, every day, all the time for the next 10, 20, 30 years, we're not going to make it on, hey they're brand new, we've never seen them before. We're going to have to surprise people. And I think we will. I think we'll surprise people with the quality of new PCs people see, where we've worked really hard with Vista, and people say, wow, these things are actually lighter, they actually have better battery life, they're cheaper, they're more affordable, they're more flexible, they come in more sizes, wow, that's cool.
I think you'll find people, as we get to our next generation of Windows Mobile devices, people will stop and say, not everybody gets by well without a keyboard. I don't know about the rest of you, I actually find it easier to have one when I'm typing a piece of e-mail. So what we need to do is have products that surprise people, that delight people, and particularly on the consumer side....[W]e haven't surprised people quite as much as we need to, to surf the cool wave. But, man, you take a look at where Vista is going, you take a look at Windows Mobile, and watch us watch this space for news on search.
No, Mr. Ballmer, Vista really doesn't inspire "Wow!" at least not in a positive sense. Nor is it lighter/etc. What Ballmer is actually describing is the Linux experience in ultra-portables, but that's another matter....
Microsoft's stunted mobile experience is not cool or innovative. Microsoft's consumer experience is particularly abysmal, contrary to the claim made above: Just ask the Live team, which continues to struggle to find any consumers that actually want to use Microsoft's web properties.
This is precisely why Apple is getting rave reviews and market share. It's innovative. It's cool. It's breaking new ground rather than trying to monopolize the old ground.
It's not about cool so much as about building things that people actually want to use. Microsoft may continue to do well in the enterprise where people are forced to use its products, but even that is starting to change with consumers demanding their Macs inside the firewall.
This isn't going unnoticed. Developers are following the cool crowd, with 92 percent taking a pass this year on Microsoft's not-so-cool Vista. Microsoft may well find that by shuffling down its road of "tried-and-true" may well translate into "tried-that-but-want-something-new."
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is chief operating officer at Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Prior to Canonical, Matt was general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, an open-source applications company. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 





- by mlhader July 10, 2008 12:49 PM PDT
- I am surely relieved that you care more about a couple of accidental typos and that you actually care less about the content of what was said. Perhaps you value style over substance? <br /><br />True, you did not name Ballmer, but reference to "a fifty-something, fat, bald technological-know-nothing" certainly implies that you were taking a free shot at Microsoft's CEO. If not, you were certainly generalizing about some group of males that you find annoying. Of that point, I can agree though it is a cheap shot. (By the way, Ballmer actually talks like that. With his millions, I'm sure he could care less what any of us think about his speech, appearance or supposed, lack of technical prowess).
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- by MSSlayer July 10, 2008 4:39 PM PDT
- Wow, so he is rich that must mean he is smart or something. <br /><br />At least we know that you drink from the cesspool of greed.<br /><br />Ballmer is an idiot with no tech or business skills. Just a blowhard working as hard as he can to throttle MS and keep everyone in IT down.
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