Microsoft CEO Shrugs Off Apple Rise

Yahoo! News:

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday said he was unconcerned that his company had been overtaken by rival Apple as the world's biggest technology firm in terms of market value.

Read the whole story: Yahoo! News

Comments

[SatiricalGenius]

07:03 PM on 05/31/2010

Steve Ballmer, Jeff Zucker??? What level of incompetency does a CEO have to reach in this country before he or she gets fired. Just curious.

[AmigaMan]

02:41 PM on 05/31/2010

Ballmer is probably throwing chairs around his office while yelling, "I want Apple dead!"

[Steelsil]

07:53 PM on 05/28/2010

Speaking of Micro$oft, I can't log onto Huffingtonpost.com without using Explorer? I prefer Firefox! Why has this site sold out to Micro$oft, the prime deliverer of trojans and viruses? This sucks!

[wilray]

01:37 AM on 05/29/2010

Not being able to sign on to HP with Firefox must be something wrong with your system. I was using Chrome, but I switched over to FF to check. I was able to logon to HP without a problem and I am posting this using FF. Now, I'll go back to Chrome.

[bernusdellus]

08:55 AM on 05/31/2010

Try Safari. Works 100% of the time.

[philp71]

09:32 PM on 05/31/2010

i love my mac but not true at all safari crashes all the time

[crayola 08b]

01:28 PM on 05/28/2010

puttin on the ritz.

http://www.cryosites.com/shared/tmb/p/peter_boyle_23htw.jpeg

[ChaSim]

11:57 AM on 05/28/2010

The irony is that it was Microsoft, as Apple's earliest and biggest outside developer houses, that tried to get Apple to license the Mac OS, which Apple refused to do, thus compelling Microsoft to develop Windows. Now Microsoft is stuck in the PC past, while Apple is moving to define the PC future, which is in mobile devices.

Oh, and to all you conservative tech-heads here; it must really make you cringe to know that the world's most innovative, profitable tech company is run by a bunch of pinko, tree-hugging, pot-smoking liberals! ;-)

[Doyaun De Valda-Martinez]

02:04 PM on 05/28/2010

Umm nope. Apple stock is over 4 times the price of MS. Meaning there are more shares of MS than Apple. Apple is boutique. Buy their phones. Not like there are no others that can match it. How many phones run Apple's Mobile OS? Now add all the phones runniing windows Mobile...add those stock prices. So Apple is one awesome looking tech maker. Doesn't show me very much on value on the dollar. If you are buying stock maybe this is cool. But if I am buying tech...what does the price of Apple's shares got to do with it?

[philp71]

09:34 PM on 05/31/2010

yeah i love saving money buying products that crash on me i love microsoft to

[wilray]

02:04 AM on 05/29/2010

Actually, Apple is having its fun in the sun at the moment but things are about to shift dramatically and we may see the continued rise of MS. BTW. it may be hard to tell but I don't actually care about MS. A lot of the things that MS did in the past were annoying. Interestingly, Apple is doing those same things and it is also annoying. Right now Apple. MS, and Google are all signalling a march to the cloud, and Apple is the least poised to take advantage of that shift. If they uncrippled devices like the iPad and built real functionality, it would be a different story. MS is poised to take advantage of it because the cloud will not require expensive machines - the power will be in the clouds, not on your desktop. Google is actually ahead of everyone in cloud computing; the rest will have to catch up. Google is using their dark fiber to speed up the cloud. Apple makes expensive computers and crippled devices.

[philp71]

09:36 PM on 05/31/2010

microsoft makes products that don't work. and then expect you to buy the updated version that doesn't work either so they make you but the updated version of that and they all come with a virus pre packaged isn't it great

[bluguy8]

11:43 AM on 05/28/2010

Microsoft was the past - its time for the future and that.s Apple . The evil empire is gone. Balmer is like the captain of the Titanic. He'll be clinging to that iceberg any day now

[Lowell Thompson]

09:00 AM on 05/28/2010

"Let's see what happens as I am still pleased that 94 times out of a 100 somebody picks a Windows PC,' he said."

No wonder Apple's eating MS's breakfast, lunch and dinner. Balmer is still milking Windows and PCs while Jobs is inventing the future.

http://buythecover.com

[wilray]

02:06 AM on 05/29/2010

The future is the cloud. The cloud is Google, MS, and Linux.

[StansDad]

03:50 PM on 05/29/2010

that would require our network backbone to grow considerably to push what they are proposing. You can't cloud at an average of 6-9 Mb/s

[philp71]

09:38 PM on 05/31/2010

nobody uses linux, im sure cloud computing is the newest thing and apple wont do anything about it

[bernusdellus]

08:59 AM on 05/31/2010

You should see the the youtube vid that has Jobs and ballmer back-to-back peddling their schtick. With Apple is all 'Awesome', 'great', 'fantastic'. With smallFlaccid [microsoft] its all 'market share', 'market share', 'market share'.

NO contest.

[Roger Thorland]

05:20 AM on 05/28/2010

Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers....

I LOVE THIS COMPANY!!! YEAAAAAAH!

[themasterspeaks]

03:08 AM on 05/28/2010

Watching Morning Joe yesterday and listening to them gush about Apple and Apple stores
and the 'wonder' was awesome, reminding me they were probably almost all shareholders
-- especially when the stock market guru jawed on about it being under valued and head
to 300. The only touch of reality was when Ms. Sidekick intervened.....'Your All just suckin' up'
How true. Isn't the media hype about Apple identical to the dot com bubble mentality of a decade ago? In truth, 99 percent of the world is not going to pay 700 dollars for an ipad
which lacks connectivity to 99 percent of the web, has no USB, can't multitask, and requires
becoming an Apple bot. Morning Joe as Suck Up is really about it.

[bluguy8]

11:46 AM on 05/28/2010

so your a Microbot ? and where is your micorpad? Oh, maybe in two years.

[philp71]

09:40 PM on 05/31/2010

it will come pre loaded with a virus and crash as soon as you touch it

[Swami Salami]

02:19 AM on 05/28/2010

jealous much?

[MrVee]

01:35 AM on 05/28/2010

I'd shrug is off too Balmer, it'll be short lived. Secondly that's the hand held division. They still can't build an operating system or a computer for the masses and their computer division is on life support.

[themasterspeaks]

02:54 AM on 05/28/2010

The idea of life support even is generous. It is widely known that throughout the world where
recent Apple computers are used the discs are partitioned and windows is installed, and used
routinely. It is the only reason these machines survived at all as otherwise the software the world uses would not be available for use. Those machines without Windows are really nothing more than traditional business accounting machines with email and surfing capability, or for video editing. This is common knowledge.

[wilray]

02:14 AM on 05/29/2010

The future is the cloud and Apple is the least poised to take advantage of it. Google. MS, and Linux will take advantage of it. Desktop platforms will be largely irrelevant. A cheap machine will do just about as well as an expensive machine, the real power will be in the cloud. Because of this people will shift to cheap machines, and a lot inexpensive machines run Windows. Because Apple sells crippled mobile devices, people who want to take advantage of the cloud will ditch Apple in favor of machines that allow them to access the full power of the cloud.

[hey0there]

12:07 PM on 05/29/2010

The cloud is another one of those things gates is wrong about

[Cheesedog]

12:02 AM on 05/28/2010

He shrugs it off because it doesn't matter. Nabisco might be top dog next year, so what?
Apple vs. MSFT has been a thing in the media for so long that it seems to mean something, but actually, it doesn't. They aren't really even competitors.
AAPL kicking ass doesn't necessarily mean that it's MSFT's ass being kicked.

[BikeFreak]

08:43 PM on 05/27/2010

Whatever you feel about Apple or Microsoft, one thing is clear:

Balmer is an idi0t.

A CEO of a company that has just been surpassed cannot just "shrug it off". It makes him, and therefore the company, look arrogant and out of touch.

[vibroluxor]

10:49 PM on 05/27/2010

I guess being the CEO of the largest and most successful Software Company in the history of the world will do that to ya....

[Cab305]

11:33 PM on 05/27/2010

"I guess being the CEO of the (EX)largest and most successful"

[BikeFreak]

12:49 AM on 05/28/2010

Under his leadership Microsoft has made some major errors, and this article reflects that.

[bluguy8]

11:47 AM on 05/28/2010

since he's been the CEO they have really tanked. He has no vision of the future

[philp71]

09:46 PM on 05/31/2010

exactly they look like apple of the 90's

[Layman23]

08:03 PM on 05/27/2010

Microsofts problem is with the vision. Gates had a vision and he accomplished it. The mission being putting a computer on everyones home.

Problem now is, computers have transitioned to become "appliances". All the common man does is, e-mail, social networking, video and browsing. Apple sees this market and comes out with the ipad. No nonsense appliance that will do all those.

Microsoft on the other hand is busy figuring out, how to stuff the entire Office suite on a phone.

Trust me, i had a samsung blackjack back then and its most important marketing point was that it will run Mobile office. Yeah like i am going to create some spreadsheets in that tiny screen.

Microsoft has to pull itself away from its traditional business and think outside the box to compete in the mobile and appliance market.

[philp71]

09:47 PM on 05/31/2010

yeah gates had a vision, he got to see the original mac and then stole the idea and made windows,

[Layman23]

10:57 PM on 06/01/2010

So how come someone that stole the idea got bigger and the person with the original idea languished?

[SansArc]

04:58 PM on 05/27/2010

"Let's see what happens as I am still pleased that 94 times out of a 100 somebody picks a Windows PC,"

Oh Ballmer. People choose Windows because they have to. Your getting whipped by Apple and Google and everyone else in the mobile market. If only MS had real competition in the OS department for computers. Every retail store and most online custom builds give you 2 options; Windows XP or Windows 7. Apple doesn't even seem to be pushing to chip away at the PC market anymore. Does Google even care about desktop OS's anymore? Better ride that licensing wave while they can. Cause at some point MS is gonna have to get back in gear. The mobile market is rolling right now and MS needs to get with the program.

[poster1122]

05:11 PM on 05/27/2010

"People choose Windows because they have to."

Because these people have never heard of this obscure Apple company? Or they can't figure out how to log onto the Apple site and fill out the order form? Please.

I totally agree that MS has been missing the boat out on the mobile platform. But in terms of the traditional computer market, people clearly have a choice between the two companies, and even also with Linux, if they do even a marginal attempt at searching. And they do choose MS.

The more interesting question is what will be the size of that traditional computer versus the mobile market. I suspect the mobile market is where the next pot of gold is.

[SansArc]

06:56 PM on 05/27/2010

Yeah your right. People have choice between a closed platform. And one that has little 3rd party support. All I'm saying is MS has no viable competition against their money maker. So they are riding it. I am dissing MS laziness towards markets they could be great at. If they had real competition in the os department. They wouldn't be shrugging.

[jsgaetano]

05:17 PM on 05/27/2010

> People choose Windows because they have to.

Haven't you guys been whining about that for decades? If that's the case, why is Apple's market share STILL so low... and why do Linux machines sold in consumer outlets have such an astronomically high return rate?

People choose Windows. They know how to use it... and it's just an OS- it doesn't define who they are as a person, like the OS fnerds claim it does.

I also fail to see how choice would improve the OS market in any way. In fact, I'm old enough to remember that prior to Windows being the dominant force it is today, the fragmented OS market created nothing but problems. History will credit the dominance of Windows 95 as being the sole driving force behind the compter market boom years which followed.

[SansArc]

06:34 PM on 05/27/2010

No one is whining here. Why is Apple's market share still low? It's a closed system. No one other than a somewhat tech savvy person uses Linux. And no one said a os defines a person. I am saying MS pie is still the os. They have the business market because there are no other alternatives. I'm not talking about the past either. Nor am I discrediting MS dominance and influence of the PC. But if MS had competition in the os department Windows would be far superior than it is now. But they sat on it. Watched the money flow in because they knew when a person bought a pc. They got Windows with it.