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Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

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Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#51

Post by actionfromafar »

throw0101c wrote: post #6

"Steve Ballmer played a powerful part in Microsoft’s comeback" (2019): * https://qz.com/1551842/steve-ballmer-played-a-powerful-part-... "Satya Nadella credits Steve Ballmer for pushing Microsoft into the cloud": * https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/16/satya-nadella-credits-ballme... I think the biggest knock against Ballmer was not being able to figure out a (smart)phone strategy that ended up working. Having more than ju…

Mobile 8 was not compatible with Mobile 7. You can't go around and change interfaces when companies are betting the barn on you.

For Windows proper you can release and deprecate a GUI every 20 minutes because there is always Win32 to fall back to.

But when you are bootstrapping an entire eco-system you can't muck around like that. Also strategic blunder to buy Nokia and then do exactly nothing with it.

Linux was still toxic to Microsoft. Nokia had a Linux computer which was also a phone which sold incredibly well despite Microsoft almost denying its existance, definitely not marketing it. They had to stop making it because to stop selling it. (No not "Linux" like Android is "Linux". A real Linux PC in your pocket. Imagine a Raspberry with data connection and phone.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#52

Post by _7acn »

During his tenure, Windows 8 was released... Just as W8, the server version also lacked the START button, which was particularly noticeable when working through RDP. Also, the whole "Metro" design was a disaster. I also remember the acquisition of Skype for an astronomical amount. Where is Skype now? Indeed, an underrated CEO...

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#53

Post by thaumasiotes »

throw0101c wrote: post #6

"Steve Ballmer played a powerful part in Microsoft’s comeback" (2019): * https://qz.com/1551842/steve-ballmer-played-a-powerful-part-... "Satya Nadella credits Steve Ballmer for pushing Microsoft into the cloud": * https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/16/satya-nadella-credits-ballme... I think the biggest knock against Ballmer was not being able to figure out a (smart)phone strategy that ended up working. Having more than ju…

People on HN still remark on how much they liked their Windows Phone. Other than making a product so great that, decades later, people are still saying how much they miss it, what did you want him to do?

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#54

Post by alephnerd »

scosman wrote: post #30

Having worked on mobile there 2008-2011: no, I would say he’s properly rated. Had years head start on the Android model (hackable OS+vendors+wide HW support), and threw it away. Chased iPhone model briefly without the commitment to actually win. Took smartphone market share from 20-30% to 0% when it mattered most. Invested more in XBox and Business intelligence platforms.

> Invested more in XBox and Business intelligence platforms.

Both of which turned out to be the right move long term.

Mobile is a commoditized winner takes all market, and there's no guarantee MS would have won even if they concentrated entirely on it.

Concentrating on BI platforms helped spawn M365, and the Enterprise focus helped spawn MS Azure which had very early Product-Market Fit at the Fed because they became FedRAMP authorized well before AWS.

There's way more money in Enterprise B2B than there is in B2C.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#55

Post by ThrowawayB7 »

scosman wrote: post #30

Having worked on mobile there 2008-2011: no, I would say he’s properly rated. Had years head start on the Android model (hackable OS+vendors+wide HW support), and threw it away. Chased iPhone model briefly without the commitment to actually win. Took smartphone market share from 20-30% to 0% when it mattered most. Invested more in XBox and Business intelligence platforms.

That was more directly on Terry Myerson, VP of Mobile and Embedded Devices or whatever it was called at the time, than Ballmer.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#56

Post by Rinzler89 »

paxys wrote: post #43

During Ballmer's tenure, the Office division spent a lot of resources building apps for iOS. Ballmer saw a demo, realized that they were better than the Office apps available on Microsoft's own phones and tablets, and so blocked the release. The company sat on the apps for multiple years . When Nadella came on, one of his first decisions as CEO was to release them to the public. This single incident perfectly demonst…

>During Ballmer's tenure, the Office division spent a lot of resources building apps for iOS. Ballmer saw a demo, realized that they were better than the Office apps available on Microsoft's own phones and tablets, and so blocked the release.

Is there a source for this?

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#57

Post by vanjajaja1 »

paxys wrote: post #43

During Ballmer's tenure, the Office division spent a lot of resources building apps for iOS. Ballmer saw a demo, realized that they were better than the Office apps available on Microsoft's own phones and tablets, and so blocked the release. The company sat on the apps for multiple years . When Nadella came on, one of his first decisions as CEO was to release them to the public. This single incident perfectly demonst…

ok it was obviously a bad move in hindsight, but at that point in time, was it not a gutsy high risk move to try give windows phone a small advantage? its obvious once you cancel winphone, but canceling winphone was a big concession

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#58

Post by filoleg »

_7acn wrote: post #52

During his tenure, Windows 8 was released... Just as W8, the server version also lacked the START button, which was particularly noticeable when working through RDP. Also, the whole "Metro" design was a disaster. I also remember the acquisition of Skype for an astronomical amount. Where is Skype now? Indeed, an underrated CEO...

> Where is Skype now?

A good chunk of Teams’ backend is built on top of Skype. Not sure about the present day, but just a few years ago, you could see tons of references to Skype in the Teams’ codebase.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#59

Post by mulletbum »

_7acn wrote: post #52

During his tenure, Windows 8 was released... Just as W8, the server version also lacked the START button, which was particularly noticeable when working through RDP. Also, the whole "Metro" design was a disaster. I also remember the acquisition of Skype for an astronomical amount. Where is Skype now? Indeed, an underrated CEO...

Skype is now the backbone of O365 and what evolved into Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Phone System, and Microsoft Team Room Systems. It's literally gobbling up the market as we speak, forcing long time AV vendors to have to build distinctly Microsoft products. Poly, Logitech, Crestron, all massive players in the space, have to bow to Microsoft's requirements and build hardware carefully sized for Microsoft Teams Room interfaces. They are basically removing almost all the software from these companies and making them only hardware, they will eventually produce the hardware themselves as well.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#60

Post by mulletbum »

filoleg wrote: post #58
_7acn wrote: post #52

During his tenure, Windows 8 was released... Just as W8, the server version also lacked the START button, which was particularly noticeable when working through RDP. Also, the whole "Metro" design was a disaster. I also remember the acquisition of Skype for an astronomical amount. Where is Skype now? Indeed, an underrated CEO...

> Where is Skype now? A good chunk of Teams’ backend is built on top of Skype. Not sure about the present day, but just a few years ago, you could see tons of references to Skype in the Teams’ codebase.

Still can, Skype was rebranded into a more successful product, but the backend has ton of legacy Skype work inside it still.
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