Filed under: Cellphones

Steve Ballmer’s whirlwind UK media tour ahead of the Professional Developers Conference just keeps giving us sound bite gems: first it was Windows Cloud, then Zune on Windows Mobile, and now Stevie’s taking shots at Android and the G1. Calling Microsoft David to Google’s search Goliath, Ballms said that he wasn’t worried about Android because it won’t be “attractive” to other handset manufacturers because it’s “version one… and it looks like version one.” Not only that, but he apparently thinks Google’s going to sit still, saying “they’ve got one handset maker, we’ve got 55. They’re available through one operator, we’ve got 175.” True for now, sure, but we know Android isn’t going to languish on a single handset on a single carrier for long — and we’re pretty certain Steve knows that HTC and T-Mobile aren’t exactly minor players, regardless. Still, it’s some masterful bluster from a master of bluster — now if he’d just back it up with Windows Mobile 7, we’d be way more inclined to believe him.

[Via Cool Smart Phones]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Rumors of a Zune phone have floated around forever, but we’ve always thought it would make more sense for Microsoft to start by simply making a Zune player for Windows Mobile — a plan Steve Ballmer casually confirmed today in an interview with CIO Magazine. Sure, Ballmer’s hinted at Zune on WinMo in the past, but those were just hints — not like today’s pronouncement that “the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc.” That’s a pretty solid declaration of things to come, if you ask us — too bad he didn’t give a time frame. Now, about that 360 integration.

[Via WM Power User]

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Filed under: CES

Are you ready to really let loose at this year’s CES? If you said yes, then you’ll be stoked as hell to know that our main man Steve Ballmer will be taking over Bill Gates’ famous keynotes. You read that right, the scariest fratbanger this side of your last toga party will be stepping up to the plate in what we can only hope will be the kind of explosive performance we’ve come to expect from him. Other keynoters will be the handsome Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer and Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford. Here’s hoping Gates at least drops by for a cameo — it just won’t seem like CES without him.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

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Read — Retirement
Read — Conflict

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

6:16PM PT - The joint’s filling up! Clearly no one’s on stage yet, though, so don’t go too far.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Gates and Ballmer are down at the WSJ’s All Things Digital conference to talk tech with Mossberg and Swisher, and it looks like tonight they’ll be unveiling the first (official) glimpses of Vista’s successor, currently known as Windows 7. We’ll be posting live from the event, so be sure to check back at 6:15pm PT (9:15 Eastern) as things kick off.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Continue reading Steve Ballmer dodges eggs at Hungarian University

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Windows XP has a date with destiny scheduled for June 30, but it looks like the plucky OS just isn’t ready to go: Ultraportable OEMs will be able to preload XP until “one year after the general availability of Windows 7,” whenever that is, and now we’re hearing reports that Dell’s telling customers it’ll sell XP on professional systems until 2012. The Dell thing is just a rumor for now, but what’s Steve Ballmer doing telling reporters that although XP is EOL, “if customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter” and extend XP sales? Um, Steve? Customers have been feeding back like crazy and Microsoft has kind of ignored them, remember? Maybe it’s time for a quick nap.

Update: That was pretty funny for a totally unintentional typo, wasn’t it?

Read - CNET article quoting Ballmer
Read - Dell rumors

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Apparently, Steve Ballmer didn’t just take time to respond to the latest iPhone announcements and give that whole Monkey Boy Dance another go during the Mix ‘08 event. Oh no, he most certainly took the opportunity to address Microsoft’s stance on where it was headed now that the format war has concluded. Granted, it’s not like it ever had much choice here but to pick up the pieces and support the Blu camp, but for those who put a great deal of stock in confirmation, Mr. Ballmer did say that it had “already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like.” He also noted that “Toshiba had moved on” and that it too was moving forward, but unfortunately, he didn’t make a peep about the recently rumored Xbox 360 BD add-on. Still, we’re hoping that one thing will lead to another, if you catch our drift.

[Via Gamespot, thanks rooshma]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets

It’s always interesting to hear execs chime in on the competition following big announcements. So it’s no surprise to hear that Steve Ballmer was peppered with questions about the iPhone during yesterday’s Mix ‘08 event with Guy Kawazaki. When asked about Silverlight — Microsoft’s attempt at usurping Adobe’s Flash — on the Flash-less iPhone, Ballmer said, “Silverlight for the iPhone is of course interesting,” adding, “I can’t say there’s been extensive discussion with Guy’s old boss.” He also wondered aloud about Apple possibly digging too deeply into developers pockets with its 30% share of application revenue. Ballmer said, “it’s a good business if you can make it.” A jab at Jobs’ claim that Apple doesn’t plan to make any money off the App Store. The highlight though came with Ballmer’s compliance to recreate his Monkey Boy Dance for Web Developers. Bill, we’re going to miss you.

[Thanks, Bryant]

Read — Q&A on iPhone
Read — Monkey Boy dance, take 2

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Filed under: Cellphones, CES

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.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Laptops

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]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Steve Ballmer has been doing quite a lot of talking lately, and his most recent noteworthy conversation came when he addressed an analyst and mother who was noticeably displeased with Windows Vista. During Mr. Ballmer’s appearance at the Gartner Inc. conference in Orlando, Florida, Yvonne Genovese took the liberty of kvetching to him about her early adopter struggles. She explained that she felt the need to revert back to XP merely two days after caving to her daughter’s request to pick up Vista for those “neat little things called gadgets.” Steve went on to exclaim that he “loved her daughter,” but the mom carried on by asking “what should people be seeing that we’re not seeing?” As the debate unfolded, Ballmer insinuated that while there was “a lot of value in Vista,” it has been more difficult for customers to implement due to heightened system requirements and a less-than-stellar amount of available device drivers at launch. Of course, he also noted that Service Pack 1 would address “a lot of the customer feedback,” but we don’t get the feeling that was what Ms. Genovese was looking to hear.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops

As soon as the salary of a CEO reaches the $1 million a year mark, they should probably hush up about their peer’s ridiculously inflated $74 million ones. Apply those numbers to Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison respectively, and now consider that Ballmer is complaining about the latter’s yearly figure. According to Forbes, Ellison has consistently hit the top ten of CEO compensation list, and is unarguably the most well paid CEO of a technology company, but does that give Ballmer any right to call him out on it? We’re thinking maybe Ballmer should take stock — of which he has 9.6% of Microsoft’s total by the way — and continue to count up his $15 Billion fortune. Sure, over-compensation of CEOs is a problem, but one that probably shouldn’t be outed by a well-compensated CEO that earns double-digit multiples over the average Microsoft salary.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!