Steve Ballmer talks Apple pricing, Yahoo! deal, Zune, and more
Steve Ballmer is the CEO of Microsoft, the head honcho of one of the largest companies in the world, especially now that Bill Gates has retired from the day-to-day running of Microsoft. He recently spoke at the McGraw-Hill media conference, and he had things to say on many different issues.
His most outspoken comments were reserved for Microsoft’s arch-rival Apple, and Ballmer made reference to the pricing of Steve Jobs’ company’s products. Alluding to all Apple products, he paid special attention to the iPhone, and explained why Microsoft is still very much in the race to have a huge say in the emerging market.
According to The Register, Ballmer told a shocked audience:
No one’s going to pay $500 more for a logo. We want to provide vendors with the ability to make Windows phones up and down the price scale. Windows Mobile 6.4 has touch on it. The way Apple does touch drives costs. The way they do it on the iPhone is not an inexpensive component. We’ll do it in a way that you can afford to do it on most phones.
Ballmer further stated that the sweet spot for selling smart phones is between $150 and $200, which is obviously a long way from the cost of an Apple iPhone. It seems Microsoft is determined to keep the costs of Windows Mobile down so that the cost of alternative smartphones to the iPhone also stay low.
Ballmer also spoke about the continuing chances of a Microsoft and Yahoo! deal taking place. According to eWeek, he said:
I’m sure when it’s appropriate, we will have a chance to sit down and talk. Unless I’m fooling myself, over time I would expect [that] there’s a good opportunity for a deal. We’re going to negotiate as companies negotiate, privately.
So don’t expect to hear about negotiations taking place anytime soon, even if they are indeed doing so behind the scenes. The new CEO of Yahoo!, Carol Bartz will at least be pleased to see shares of her company rise 4 percent immediately after these overtures from Ballmer.
Ballmer also discussed various other issues with BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler. Peter Kafka of MediaMemo paraphrased the whole interview, and you can read his notes on the meeting of the minds here.
Ballmer dismissed the excitement circling the blogosphere about Kumo, Microsoft’s new search product. It’s merely a new name and that’s about it. He again took a snide dig at Apple when he answered the question of whether he owned any Apple products with the line, “No. I don’t. My sons don’t. My wife doesn’t.”
As for the Zune, it looks as though Microsoft is looking at a long-term future for the portable media player, despite disappointing sales of late. Ballmer states that the hardware will continue to improve and that the current investment is going to be sustained.
Lastly, Ballmer stated that the company misses Bill Gates, but that everyone appreciates what he’s doing with his non-profit organization, and that the company is growing and moving forward without him.
Related Posts:
March 19th, 2009
Maybe this guy should stop talking so much smack and start making better products. Microsoft always seems to be one step behind Apple in innovation and I can tell you as a windows user all my life and recent Mac convert that Mac OS X is much better than Windows Vista. I haven’t had one crash or freeze or the blue screen of death since I purchased my Mac. I use windows for business and it’s so frustrating that we are looking at converting to Mac. How is that for some trash talk Mr. Ballmer?
March 20th, 2009
Yes, Mr Ballmer seems to know everything about everything. It’s a shame that his knowledge and business savvy haven’t made one whit of difference to Microsoft’s ever-worsening position as they continue their slide into irrelevance and eventual oblivion. One assumes that having failed abysmally in markets where they couldn’t engineer a monopoly, Microsoft are looking to morph into a patent troll outfit, with the lawsuit against TomTom being a straw in the wind in this regard.
March 28th, 2009
Why is it when Apple talks smack about Microsoft, its okay? When Microsoft talks smack or defends itself in the marketplace, they’re given hell? With an Apple, we all know you’re paying for the name/logo.
How many Mac applications do you know convert well with Windows? Not many. So why complain about Microsoft not converting well to Apple? When is it their obligation to make 100% compatibility? Obviously many who believe this nonsense is not in the software industry to understand these complex challenges. Microsoft does an outstanding job, if you don’t believe me, do more ‘technical’ research and get the facts about both platforms. Does Microsoft do everything right? No, but nor does Apple.
If you want to complain about a monopoly, let’s look at Google for a change.