Steve Ballmer's Microsoft

Post by aik » Wed, May 16, 2012, 11:13 PM UTC

lawdawg wrote: post #112

aik wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at recent US (and global) adoption rates of Windows Phone [1]. It's increasing, and with Nokia and their Lumia phones it is bound to continue. WP7 is a good OS, and more and more developers are backing it, and consumer satisfaction is excellent, and more and more people are starting to realize all this. "Market research company Kantar WorldPanel has revealed in the last 12 weeks to mid-April Windows Phone has sh…

A couple of things: 1. The "marketshare" that is referenced by Kantar is new sales marketshare, not overall marketshare. Its an important difference to point out. 2. Even with these gains in WP, iOS and Android are seeing similar absolute gains (e.g. in the 2-3% absolute marketshare growth). All WP is currently doing is taking a small piece of the symbian/BB pie 3. Given Microsoft's track record, the problem with WP…

"The "marketshare" that is referenced by Kantar is new sales marketshare, not overall marketshare."

The point is that the number of users of WP is increasing at a fairly decent pace. The most important thing is that people are using the phone.

"All WP is currently doing is taking a small piece of the symbian/BB pie"

That seems very difficult to prove and I don't believe there is anything out there that states this. I know several people who switched from Android to Nokia WP phones, and several more that are intending to make the change. This isn't proof necessarily but I could see it happening.

Concerning #3: It's hard to say what the first version should have been. The iPhone didn't have many of the "standard" features either in version 1. The main question is whether the pre-mango version hurt or has helped Microsoft's cause. The fact that they've had the phone out there for a larger period of time I would think would be a positive thing, being that they've had so much more feedback as a result.

"Overall, I believe WP will not go away, but will stabilize at around 5-6% overall marketshare. "

That's reasonable, however I'm curious why you believe this? You don't believe many Android or iPhone users would be interested in switching?

Post by etrain » Thu, May 17, 2012, 1:16 AM UTC

kevin_morrill wrote: post #120

etrain wrote: post #68

Forbes named "worst CEOs" based on one pretty clear criteria: These CEOs have failed to create value (or stopped creating value) for their shareholders over long periods, yet remain employed, and their companies remain pretty large. GE has underperformed the S&P by 40% since Immelt took over, Microsoft by 30%, Walmart by 40%, and while both Lampert and Chambers created value for a while, their companies have substant…

During Ballmer's tenure as CEO tripled revenues and more than doubled profits. It's one of the 5 most profitable companies in the world.

First - my point was about shareholder value. That has been depressed substantially since he took over, on a market relative basis.

Second, It was the largest company in the world when he took the reigns. He's been the boss for 12 years. 9% annualized revenue growth and 6% annualized earnings growth doesn't strike me as astronomical, particularly when people were calling for 25% annualized growth for MSFT in 99/00.

Again, you can argue that Microsoft was overvalued when Ballmer took over (and you'd be right), but the point is that even on the basis of fundamentals, his performance has not been outstanding.

Re: Steve Ballmer's Microsoft

Re: Steve Ballmer's Microsoft