Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer Calls Android Tablets A Weird-Looking Collection, Would Be Shamed to Not Be Able to Compete
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 own throughout several markets (even when their market share for personal computers is nothing compared to Microsoft’s).
But when it comes to Android, he just doesn’t see a need to worry. Citing his company’s backlog of tools and their Windows-loving user base, Ballmer said he and his company would be shamed to have to actually compete with Google. I’m sure Microsoft thought the same thing when Google started out as a simple-looking search engine (little did they know it’d explode to become one of the biggest technology companies in history with a wide array of successful revenue-generating products and services).
Microsoft’s stance against Google is undoubtedly a mistake. Their “wait-and-see” approach to most of the markets they have a hand in (namely with Windows Mobile and their slow rate of innovation) has already come back to bite them in the behind as Android’s taken over as a more appealing alternative (both technically and visually). Did Microsoft see no cause to worry after Android – in just a year and a half – surpassed Windows Mobile in overall global smartphone sales? What about loads of third-party hardware manufacturers dumping Windows-based offerings for Android for their own rounds of “weird-looking” tablets and netbooks? (Even if bigger names like HP doubled back due to a very fortunate [for them] circumstance.)
I have one thing to say to Ballmer and Microsoft: try and reclaim your market share before you count Android out. The fact that you let your hold on the market slip is already a great testament to how your once-innovative model quickly became defunct and irrelevant. You wouldn’t know innovation even if it slapped you in the face, replaced your brain with an artificial intelligence chip (that was actually smarter than yours), and cured world hunger. Get over yourselves and get to town on your own products before you find yourself in a position where you would never get the chance to reclaim any glory you think you have left.
Phanboy rant is officially over.