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Microsoft

phandroid

Admin News Bot
Apr 12, 2008
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Microsoft’s CEO – Steve Ballmer – is right back on his Android hate campaign, again. This time, he speaks out on the soon-to-be-exploding Android-based tablet market expressing distaste for the inevitable introduction of our “weird [looking]*collection of Android machines.” Speaking on Apple, he is careful to not underestimate them as Apple still beautifully holds their [...]

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I just don't get the rationale of attacking competitors openly, particularly ones that have momentum. If I was gonna take a swing, it would be the big boy on the block (Apple).

Just seems interesting. Businesses have changed the way they approach the enemy. In some ways, all he has done is to give the enemy some valuable press, and shown fear at the same time.
 
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Steve (Barmy) Ballmer is an embarrassment to MS. This is the guy that ridiculed the iPhone and the iPad and then recently had to admit that Apple had sold a lot more of those devices than he would have liked.

MS spend too much time trashing their competitors when they should be working on their own stuff. As far as I'm concerned MS are in their death throes, they have a few years to go yet but as the world goes portable and cloud based, MS will find themselves having to survive without their two big cashcows; OS and Office.

This kind of attack at competitors might once have worried businesses into sticking with MS, but not anymore, there are plently of alternatives to MS now. I am 99% certain that the device that replaces my laptop will be a Chrome or Android powered tablet/slab.

No one needs MS anymore. I've started trying out Google's cloud based tools and you know what, they work great and I can access them on my phone too :)

I don't need Office to write a document or make a spreadsheet, there are online photo and video editors (hell, my PS3 allows me to edit video and upload to Youtube). So why do I need their OS and software to run on it? Simple: I don't.

MS is the past and Ballmer is the perfect representation of the state they are in; he's a dinosaur.
 
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Steve (Barmy) Ballmer is an embarrassment to MS. This is the guy that ridiculed the iPhone and the iPad and then recently had to admit that Apple had sold a lot more of those devices than he would have liked.

MS spend too much time trashing their competitors when they should be working on their own stuff. As far as I'm concerned MS are in their death throes, they have a few years to go yet but as the world goes portable and cloud based, MS will find themselves having to survive without their two big cashcows; OS and Office.

This kind of attack at competitors might once have worried businesses into sticking with MS, but not anymore, there are plently of alternatives to MS now. I am 99% certain that the device that replaces my laptop will be a Chrome or Android powered tablet/slab.

No one needs MS anymore. I've started trying out Google's cloud based tools and you know what, they work great and I can access them on my phone too :)

I don't need Office to write a document or make a spreadsheet, there are online photo and video editors (hell, my PS3 allows me to edit video and upload to Youtube). So why do I need their OS and software to run on it? Simple: I don't.

MS is the past and Ballmer is the perfect representation of the state they are in; he's a dinosaur.

No offense, but you're crazy. MS has a 95% share of the market place with Windows. They have no challengers at all in that department right now. If you look at the Enterprise market (which is really where the money is) I'd bet they have a higher than 95% share. Whether you think that's good or bad or not, the fact is, it is. What is going to replace that? I've looked at OpenOffice and I've looked at Google Apps. None of them come close to Office. Besides, MS is moving Office to the cloud right now anyway so they can offer the cloud stuff that Google can offer and the feature rich products they already offer. There is no way MS is going away anytime soon. They're a hugely profitable company right now.
 
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Yeah, whatever, you just watch MS lose market share across the board as the next few years roll by.

Without OS and Office they have very little to offer and people are wising up to the fact that they don't need Office or Windows.

Many, if not all, pc and laptop manufacturers are looking at Chrome/Android as well as Windows. Google will do what Linux never could; offer consumers a genuine alternative to Windows.

If you have an Android phone then why not, next year, pick up an Android tablet? It works for Apple, but Chrome/Android products will be cheaper.

The empire MS have is slipping through their fingers and they know it. They are too slow to adapt and have always been poor at predicting what consumers want.

Without their Office and OS licences they'd already be history.
 
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Apple had a great idea with the ipad. For us hehe!
It means that everyone (traditional PC OEMs) will make android devices and not just phone OEMs. Most would've been skeptical about android in a laptop or netbook but the android tablet could lead the way towards android on the netbook or even the PC
 
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^^ Have you ever worked in a corporate/educational IT dept? Yeah...MS is not going anywhere anytime soon...

Yes I have, and believe it or not, there are countries out there (mine for example) where there are laws specifiying mandatory preference (i.e. must use unless absolutely impossible) for F/OS software and inproving interoperability with same, or risk losing IT funding alltogether.

Most 'office' type software can be replaced by OpenOffice.org, what remains are very specialized things like modeling software, CASE tools and such, and even for those there are more and more alternatives, either running natively on F/OSS or running under Wine and such.

My personal opinion? MS software in the classroom or lab is going the way of the dodo. It's simply too expensive, too unreliable, unmaintainable (no source to quickly dive into and actually FIX bugs) and too cumbersome to exchange data with.
 
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Yeah, whatever, you just watch MS lose market share across the board as the next few years roll by.

Without OS and Office they have very little to offer and people are wising up to the fact that they don't need Office or Windows.

And without iOS and OS X Apple has very little to offer. What's your point? And if people are wising up to the fact that they don't need Office or Windows then how come Windows 7 has been so successful? And why are so many people buying Office 2010? Why does MS have a 95% market share when people are "wising up"? You may think this, but the facts don't seem to back you up.

Many, if not all, pc and laptop manufacturers are looking at Chrome/Android as well as Windows. Google will do what Linux never could; offer consumers a genuine alternative to Windows.
A bold prediction. You're missing several things though. 1. Chrome is targeted at netbooks which is a niche market by definition. 2. Android is targeted at the mobile market where MS admittedly is getting their ass kicked right now. MS is not making money in the mobile market right now. Predicting that Android will beat them in that market in the near future isn't exactly going out on a limb. People aren't trampling each other to use WinMo right now. It remains to be seen what happens with Windows Phone 7 though.

If you have an Android phone then why not, next year, pick up an Android tablet? It works for Apple, but Chrome/Android products will be cheaper.
MS doesn't have to succeed in the tablet market to succeed long term. Tablets/netbooks/smartphones are all niche markets. Would MS love to succeed in those markets? Absolutely. Will they long term? Who knows. The fact is they are the 900 lb gorilla of the desktop and server world though and no one is anywhere close to challenging them. As long as they maintain that stranglehold (and there's no reason to predict they won't since there aren't any viable alternatives there anywhere in the near future) they don't need to succeed in the tablet/netbook/smartphone area. Besides, they've already got a stranglehold on the netbook market as it is. 96% of netbooks run Windows. It's a niche market, but they're still ruling it.

The empire MS have is slipping through their fingers and they know it. They are too slow to adapt and have always been poor at predicting what consumers want.

Without their Office and OS licences they'd already be history.

Well, they have a very highly successful OS that controls 95% of the desktop and netbook market. I wish I could run a company that struggled like that.
 
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Yes I have, and believe it or not, there are countries out there (mine for example) where there are laws specifiying mandatory preference (i.e. must use unless absolutely impossible) for F/OS software and inproving interoperability with same, or risk losing IT funding alltogether.

Most 'office' type software can be replaced by OpenOffice.org, what remains are very specialized things like modeling software, CASE tools and such, and even for those there are more and more alternatives, either running natively on F/OSS or running under Wine and such.

My personal opinion? MS software in the classroom or lab is going the way of the dodo. It's simply too expensive, too unreliable, unmaintainable (no source to quickly dive into and actually FIX bugs) and too cumbersome to exchange data with.

OpenOffice is not a viable alternative to Office. I'm sorry, but clearly, you've never worked in a corporate IT department. OpenOffice does not provide an Exchange client for starters. What company do you work for where e-mail is not a big deal? Many companies host their own Exchange server in some fashion and Outlook is vital right there. Even programs like Access or Excel offer some advanced functions that there will always be users in any organization who will need them. It's one thing to run Open Office at home where one doesn't necessarily need a robust program. It's another thing to run it in an enterprise environment.
 
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OpenOffice is not a viable alternative to Office. I'm sorry, but clearly, you've never worked in a corporate IT department. OpenOffice does not provide an Exchange client for starters. What company do you work for where e-mail is not a big deal? Many companies host their own Exchange server in some fashion and Outlook is vital right there. Even programs like Access or Excel offer some advanced functions that there will always be users in any organization who will need them. It's one thing to run Open Office at home where one doesn't necessarily need a robust program. It's another thing to run it in an enterprise environment.

I agree, there is no way in hell the University I work for would consider switching from MS Office to any other solution because as much as you may hate MS...nothing compares to Office. It's not unreliable and works very well...2010 is very nice. I'm not preaching MS (at least not trying to) but in a corporate world open source doesn't matter...companies don't want to "dive into the source code" to fix issues. They want a support contract so they can just give MS a call and get stuff taken care of. There is also no way I'd switch totally away from a MS OS...mainly because of all the apps and games I have.
 
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Everyone likes to slam on sweaty Steve but I got to say, he is correct in his assertions about CURRENT shipping Android tablets.

Have you seen the chinese knock-offs. All running 1.6, slow as hell, 1 hour battery life with resistive screens.

I'm afraid those devices will have an adverse effect on consumers. The 1st time someone goes and buys a $150 Augen Tablet from K-mart, they will have a big distaste in their mouth. That will be their first exposure to Android and that will be the impression they get and they will tell their friend and families.

Can you imagine if the 1st T-Mobile G1 was laggy, had 2 hour battery life? That is the implication of these Chinese 'epad,apad,iRobot' knock-offs.
 
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But that's the problem. He only sees what's out there today and doesn't realize the future implications. After he saw the g1, it didn't occur to him that android would eventually be on high end phones backed with blockbuster ad campaigns.
We already know that Samsung is coming out with a tablet soon. I don't think people will confuse Augen from k-mart with a Samsung.
 
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I love reading articles that show Ballmer talking nonsense.

- He criticized the Ipod and brought us the Zune. :(
- He criticized the Iphone and brought us Windows mobile. :mad:
- He criticized the Iphone and brought us Windows 7 mobile. :thinking:
- He criticized Android phones and brought us Windows 7 mobile. :thinking:
- He criticized Linux and lost half the worldwide server market and ALL the super computer market. :p
- He criticizes Android Tablets and brings us what? :cool:

At some point Microsoft is going to have to realize that their business models is crippled. Where before they could get away with charging exorbitant fees for locked software, Open source software (and especially Linux and its derivatives) has come such a long way, that they are now more than a valid alternative to microsoft - and not just at a tech geek level, but at as a regular user level. It is no accident that so many companies have embraced the promise of Android, that so many companies have switched their servers to Linux, or that computer makers are starting to offer computers prepackaged with Linux.

Apple does very well because it is a hardware manufacturer and because they tightly control the user experience. When people buy into apple, [people are buying the entire user experience. Microsoft, on the other hand is primarily a software company and one that no longer has a clear lock on the market. I think that users and manufacturers have long resented being stuck having to use microsoft products, and product category by product category both users and manufacturers are starting to reject their offerings.

I doubt Microsoft will ever flounder, but they really need to reconsider their approach to business and perhaps take a page from their X-box success, and start pushing the hardware side of the business.
 
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Yep... I am not a fan of these new, cheapie tablets. However, I think that if anyone buys them and hopes they'll compete with the iPad, they are being a tad optimistic.

When Jobs takes a swipe at competitors, he mostly has some ground to stand on (the antennagate response videos were exceptional in their foolishness, though). Ballmer always seems to be out of touch.
 
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I love reading articles that show Ballmer talking nonsense.

- He criticized the Ipod and brought us the Zune. :(
- He criticized the Iphone and brought us Windows mobile. :mad:
- He criticized the Iphone and brought us Windows 7 mobile. :thinking:
- He criticized Android phones and brought us Windows 7 mobile. :thinking:
- He criticized Linux and lost half the worldwide server market and ALL the super computer market. :p
- He criticizes Android Tablets and brings us what? :cool:

At some point Microsoft is going to have to realize that their business models is crippled. Where before they could get away with charging exorbitant fees for locked software, Open source software (and especially Linux and its derivatives) has come such a long way, that they are now more than a valid alternative to microsoft - and not just at a tech geek level, but at as a regular user level. It is no accident that so many companies have embraced the promise of Android, that so many companies have switched their servers to Linux, or that computer makers are starting to offer computers prepackaged with Linux.

Apple does very well because it is a hardware manufacturer and because they tightly control the user experience. When people buy into apple, [people are buying the entire user experience. Microsoft, on the other hand is primarily a software company and one that no longer has a clear lock on the market. I think that users and manufacturers have long resented being stuck having to use microsoft products, and product category by product category both users and manufacturers are starting to reject their offerings.

I doubt Microsoft will ever flounder, but they really need to reconsider their approach to business and perhaps take a page from their X-box success, and start pushing the hardware side of the business.

To be fair Windows Phone 7 has yet to be released into production so there's no telling how successful it will or won't be. WinMo still has a solid foothold in Enterprise just because of how well it integrates with Exchange. No other mobile device integrates with Exchange as well as WinMo does. Your Linux numbers in the server world aren't accurate either. Windows has a 70% + market share in the server market and that's on top of their 90%+ desktop market share. I'm not sure what definition you're using for "super computer" so I can't tell you what market share Windows has. This is a niche market anyway though.

Your statement that there are open source alternatives that are viable for business users is just incorrect. If a business user has a buggy spreadsheet program on their computer they need fixed, they don't want to dig into the source code to fix it. They also don't want to hire a programmer with the skills to dig into the source code to fix it. They want to call someone and get a patch or a work around for the problem. With MS, they can do this. With open source, they can't. You are your own tech support for open source. Enterprise users don't want that.

I love this quote from you:
Microsoft, on the other hand is primarily a software company and one that no longer has a clear lock on the market

They've got a 90-95% share in the desktop world and a 70-75% share in the server world. They've got a 90%+ share on netbooks. Virtually everyone in the Enterprise world uses some flavor of Office. How does this translate into "no longer has a clear lock"? That's as clear a lock as you can get.
 
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Softmaker is working on an Android version
SoftMaker : Homepage
This is what their Office for WinMo looks like:
ofp10combo.png
 
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