[stampeder]

Remember all the "market cap" talk in this thread: Apple Now World's Largest Tech Company ? It was painful for MSFT supporters to deal with, and many of them scoffed at the significance. Now Apple has beaten the pants off of Microsoft in quarterly revenues by four billion U.S. dollars!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/28/apple-microsoft-revenue/

Is there any wonder that CNN Money published this scathing article that essentially calls for Steve Balmer's head:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/27/technology/microsoft_pdc/index.htm

 

[99semaj]

That was a great article from CNN Money. Right on the mark, and refreshingly candid. With a damning employee confidence survey and a rapidly vacating executive floor, the noose is tightening.

Before Apple zealots get too happy over the market cap and revenue stats, remember that MS still vastly outperforms in margin contribution and their YOY revenue growth remains very impressive. The growing displeasure with investors (and the driver for plummeting share value) is the way that they vapourize all that Office/Windows profit in non-core competencies such as mobile, search and entertainment.

 

[99semaj]

Looks look the noose is really tightening! Ballmer is liquidating 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS of Microsoft shares.

This is far more than living expenses...to me it's clear that he believes MSFT has peaked and he's getting out while the gettings good. (the irony that the share value has cratered under his watch is not lost on me)

 

[EricReesor]

Where has the Ballmer Ballyhoo about phone7 all gone?

If I remember correctly there was supposed to be a huge launch happening before Christmas. Asus has given them the cold shoulder and so have most other manufactures. Remember Microsoft is almost betting the consumer market farm on this product along with the new movement sensing extension device for the Xbox that they brought out (albeit late) to compete with Wii in the low end home high-tech sports exercise market created by Nintendo.

It seems to me that Microsoft is just reacting to the market and has no real leadership in any segment of the home entertainment market. I would not be surprised if after most of the business end of the market gets on 7 and sticks with it for the next 6-8 years. Microsoft will reach a layoff/downsizing crisis that will put the state of Washington in financial crisis...they just rebuffed a personal tax to pay for services because of gobs of lobby money from Microsoft!

Apple on the other hand will continue to lead and platforms like Android will have a share ....provided Microsoft does not succeed in backing the complete destruction of Google though chicanery and back door money to back Oracle's latest venture to sue Google over their use of java in Android.

Any company that cannot innovate in today's high-tech world is doomed by the corporate culture that made them inflexible in the first place. I am afraid all we are getting from them now is a really bad smell and a fermenting case of metooism!

My prediction is that the gigantic launch of phone7 will wait until the market for symbian ( which is dying ) based devices dry up and Android is pushed out of the market by really ugly and technically shady means.

This is the only way the Iphone and the CrackBerry will ever start to have real competition...and it is what Microsoft is counting on.

 

[99semaj]

It seems to me that Microsoft is just reacting to the market and has no real leadership in any segment of the home entertainment market. I would not be surprised if after most of the business end of the market gets on 7 and sticks with it for the next 6-8 years. Microsoft will reach a layoff/downsizing crisis that will put the state of Washington in financial crisis...they just rebuffed a personal tax to pay for services because of gobs of lobby money from Microsoft!

That's pretty much the case. Microsoft didn't invent Kinect, it was realized by a third party company that shopped the technology around, and it was rejected by companies like Apple.

 

[ScaryBob]

Where has the Ballmer Ballyhoo about phone7 all gone?

In simple terms, it's a case of too little, too late. Add to that consumer dislike and distrust of MS after other recent failed technologies. In the near to mid term, iPhone and Blackberry will retain the high end of the market. Android will reach significant market share due to adoption by cost sensitive phone makers and consumers. MS doesn't stand a chance and will play down Phone 7. They will then abandon and/or relaunch it under a different name at some point in the future.

 

[Jake]

Have you guys gone bonkers?

I think it finally happened. We'd all been expecting it for a while now, but not quite so suddenly or emphatically: Steve Ballmer has gone completely insane.

It happened at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference. Somebody must have asked him why Microsoft waited three years before attempting to take on the iPhone and Android with Windows Phone 7. According to CNN, Ballmer replied: "We're early; there's no question we're early.... I think we kind of nailed it. When you see it, you just go 'ooooh'."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/209291/has_steve_ballmer_gone_bonkers.html target=

 

[stampeder]

Bill Shatner might be interested in playing him in a TV sitcom...

 

[99semaj]

^^^
Yeah, since Werner Klemperer is dead, that might be a good second choice.

 

[EricReesor]

Maybe they are waiting for a supermobile release..

Just imagine a Ford that talks to you remotely through your Phone7 and will sync your Outlook on the road...hmmmm sounds interesting in as much as this could give Rim the jitters. Apple, conversely have cornered the market for portable audio/video and is however in no danger from this point of view.

That said if there is a release of phone7 that is Ford or at least in-dash equipment specific for now, it will signal a major shift in thought from Redmond.

Just think ..I am driving along the road while telling my cell phone to play my WMV content from home directly to my in-dash display...all this as the car in front of me has it's rear end rearranged so my passenger and I can watch some snappy pron.

However, I can easily image corporations running to the phone7 if it syncs seamless with Outlook-Word and Excel through 3g-4g or wifi to the net and then to the local secure business server. So the real target of Phone7 might just be Rim, not the Iphone.

The best strategy would be to include mini versions of the software necessary for the business connections that work right in the phone OS and push secondary communication stuff like Citrix and all the other add on stuff out of the way.

Heck... to the consumer that buys the phone the extra apps will just be a bonus and Microsoft could spread a black cloud everywhere to put a damper on what Google is trying to do with cloud computing through Chrome and Android.

The added bonus for Microsoft is that this could kill Rim and in turn let them completely dominate the business remote communications market. With a little bit of the peon home market thrown in just for good measure.

I am almost willing to bet this is what is really happening and why they are betting the farm on a new "Windows Mobile" platform.

Steve Ballmer might be just acting "crazy like a fox" to keep the competition off guard. I do not think he is stupid or crazy.... just completely unscrupulous. Heck if he fails I will take a .0005% share of his golden hand shake!

I have so far managed to keep Redmond WMV WMA Silverblight software based equipment out of my living room. I am sure as heck going to keep it as far away as possible from my wheels. But I have the feeling that my employer will fall for it hook line and sinker! He hates Blackberries and always complains about the server connection integration costs of using them on the road.

 

[ScaryBob]

The biggest problem with MS products is that they want to leverage everything on Windows technology. Windows on anything but a PC is dead out of the gate due to the hardware it requires to perform adequately. Never mind the time-to-market delays and high costs it creates while developers wait for the next version of Windows and then try to wedge onto a small processor. Apple products succeed because they are light weight platforms using a light weight O/S. That has big benefits for development speed and performance. Android will also succeed because it does the same and because licensing fees are much more reasonable as a result.