The End of Ballmer?

#1

Post by aneesh » Sun, May 04, 2008, 5:18 PM UTC

The End of Ballmer?
techcrunch.com

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#2

Post by melvinram » Sun, May 04, 2008, 6:26 PM UTC

Doubt it!

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#3

Post by edw519 » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:04 PM UTC

Let's count Ballmer's winners:

- MSN search vs. google?

- hotmail vs. gmail?

- xbox vs. wii?

- zune vs. ipod?

- Silverlight vs. AJAX?

- Windows vs. linux?

- Vista vs. OSX?

- .net vs. anything that works?

At what point do you stop blaming the soldiers and hold the general acountable?

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#4

Post by JohnN » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:11 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #3

Let's count Ballmer's winners: - MSN search vs. google? - hotmail vs. gmail? - xbox vs. wii? - zune vs. ipod? - Silverlight vs. AJAX? - Windows vs. linux? - Vista vs. OSX? - .net vs. anything that works? At what point do you stop blaming the soldiers and hold the general acountable?

Ballmer's performance has been questionable but its not wise to fire a CEO without a ready replacement....I dont think Microsoft have anyone.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#5

Post by aneesh » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:14 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #3

Let's count Ballmer's winners: - MSN search vs. google? - hotmail vs. gmail? - xbox vs. wii? - zune vs. ipod? - Silverlight vs. AJAX? - Windows vs. linux? - Vista vs. OSX? - .net vs. anything that works? At what point do you stop blaming the soldiers and hold the general acountable?

Good points.

But I'm pretty sure hotmail still has higher market share than GMail. And though I use Ubuntu over Windows, but the world is still all about Windows. From a revenue perspective, Windows made more money this year than in any previous year. That's good news for Ballmer.

And Surface is really cool. MS Research does incredible work. Office is still king, and no one has come up with anything close to an Outlook-killer yet.

I don't actually use any of the products you or I mentioned, but MS has plenty of strengths and smart people to balance it's blatant failures.

Edit: Photosynth is yet another highly impressive product from MS Live Labs.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#6

Post by edw519 » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:14 PM UTC

JohnN wrote: post #4

edw519 wrote: post #3

Let's count Ballmer's winners: - MSN search vs. google? - hotmail vs. gmail? - xbox vs. wii? - zune vs. ipod? - Silverlight vs. AJAX? - Windows vs. linux? - Vista vs. OSX? - .net vs. anything that works? At what point do you stop blaming the soldiers and hold the general acountable?

Ballmer's performance has been questionable but its not wise to fire a CEO without a ready replacement....I dont think Microsoft have anyone.

All the more reason to go outside. How many more buses are they willing to miss?

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#7

Post by edw519 » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:16 PM UTC

aneesh wrote: post #5

edw519 wrote: post #3

Let's count Ballmer's winners: - MSN search vs. google? - hotmail vs. gmail? - xbox vs. wii? - zune vs. ipod? - Silverlight vs. AJAX? - Windows vs. linux? - Vista vs. OSX? - .net vs. anything that works? At what point do you stop blaming the soldiers and hold the general acountable?

Good points. But I'm pretty sure hotmail still has higher market share than GMail. And though I use Ubuntu over Windows, but the world is still all about Windows. From a revenue perspective, Windows made more money this year than in any previous year. That's good news for Ballmer. And Surface is really cool. MS Research does incredible work. Office is still king, and no one has come up with anything close to an Outlo…

Now.

Do you think Microsoft's board is smart enough to know how fast the tech world is changing?

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#8

Post by lst » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:37 PM UTC

But I love Ballmer!

He does in fact perfectly fit Minisoft (...and thinking that I wanted to make it BIGGER.)

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#9

Post by Hexstream » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:39 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #7

aneesh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points. But I'm pretty sure hotmail still has higher market share than GMail. And though I use Ubuntu over Windows, but the world is still all about Windows. From a revenue perspective, Windows made more money this year than in any previous year. That's good news for Ballmer. And Surface is really cool. MS Research does incredible work. Office is still king, and no one has come up with anything close to an Outlo…

Now. Do you think Microsoft's board is smart enough to know how fast the tech world is changing?

I think you should ask if they're informed enough. More data (informed) beats better algorithms (smart).

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#10

Post by bluelu » Sun, May 04, 2008, 7:45 PM UTC

He probably does a great job with all those Microsoft haters out there (and here)