Ballmer says Microsoft will struggle to top Vista’s success
Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer says Vista could be one of the company’s all-time most successful products. While his explanation of the claim makes sense, it’s another case of a Ballmer statement which won’t strike a chord with many analysts or computer users.
The comments came in a recent speech in Brazil. Asked about the impact of Vista’s poor reception on company morale, he replied:
Vista is our best selling product ever. So, if that takes too much getting over — we’re not going to have products that are much more successful than Vista has been. We sold over 180 million copies in the first 18 months, quite successful.
Technically speaking, the point about sales figures is true. However, even leaving aside the question of how many Vista ‘buyers’ are actively using the system (as opposed to downgrading to XP), the raw numbers don’t take account of the fact that there are simply far more PCs in the world today than for previous Windows editions.
It’s also a strange comment in terms of publicity. Whether true or not, the idea that Microsoft judges success solely on sales figures doesn’t come across very positively.
There’s an unfortunate pattern developing with Ballmer in which he says things which are perfectly reasonable on paper but poorly received. In the ‘Vista Capable’ case he rejected a call for him to testify by saying he wasn’t involved in any of the decisions about the marketing scheme. Given the size of Microsoft’s operations that may well be the case, but it certainly sounded like buck-passing and raised questions about his management.
And just last week he said that if businesses wanted to skip Vista and go straight to Windows 7, they could. Clearly that’s entirely true –- to the point that there’s no need to even say it — but Ballmer didn’t seem to realize critics would immediately pounce on the statement and produce headlines such as “Ballmer says skip Vista”.
Ballmer did make some other interesting points in the Brazil speech. He said that, although Microsoft will always fundamentally be a software firm, it’s getting revenue from a wider range of activity: for example, it’s the 8th largest seller of advertising in the US.
He also said that, although he doesn’t want to copy Apple’s business model of producing both software and hardware, he’d like Microsoft to work more closely with the likes of HP and Dell to reproduce the ‘elegance’ of Apple’s integrated products.
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October 22nd, 2008
Quote: “Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer says Vista could be one of the company’s all-time most successful products.”
Mr Ballmer is right for once, and you just have to have the correct perspective here. Vista has been (and continues to be) successful because it is encouraging people to explore their options, with the consequent growth in market share for Linux and Apple. Vista is the straw that broke the camel’s back, and no doubt Mr Ballmer is well aware of the fact that around one third of the “180 million copies sold” have in fact been “downgraded” to XP, and many others have been overwritten with Linux.
Quote: “It’s also a strange comment in terms of publicity. Whether true or not, the idea that Microsoft judges success solely on sales figures doesn’t come across very positively.”
Quite so. Anyone who does their homework knows that Microsoft is a rapacious blood-sucking leech, and that Mr Ballmer is nothing more than a boorish salesman with a penchant for bizarre behaviour.
Quote: “In the ‘Vista Capable’ case he rejected a call for him to testify … it certainly sounded like buck-passing and raised questions about his management.”
Masterful understatement. Mr Ballmer’s comments made him appear to be either an incompetent fool, a barefaced liar, or (most likely) both.
Quote: “[Mr Ballmer would] like Microsoft to work more closely with the likes of HP and Dell to reproduce the ‘elegance’ of Apple’s integrated products.
Absolutely priceless! This is an explicit admission that Microsoft’s products on PCs built by whomever are *inelegant*. Maybe Mr Ballmer is on a retainer from Apple to spruik their products.
I have read a number of times now that Mr Ballmer has a “high IQ”. I’m seriously beginning to wonder if his test results got mixed up with someone else’s. Perhaps the pressure is getting to him, given that Microsoft is getting squeezed from so many directions at once. Maybe he is a mole on the open source payroll, and has been given the task of taking down Microsoft. Whatever it is that is going on, I would guess that his days as CEO are numbered, and he must be very nervous about the looming prospect of Windows 7 (AKA “Vista II”).
November 1st, 2008
Hugh: all I can say is: wow. You hit the nail on the head – repeatedly. Best comment ever! Would definitely read again.
November 5th, 2008
to be quite honest
he doesnt know what he is saying
vista is only sucsessful because its preinstalled on all new computers.
i am using vista i actually dont mind it
the only bad things i can think are that it is slow and hogs memory and that playing some games on it is very bad
good luck with windows 7