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Ballmer Calls Android a "Press Release"
Bergkamp10 writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tried to shoot down Google's new mobile platform at a press conference in Tokyo. Ballmer called Android a mere 'press release' at present, and said the mobile platform market is 'Microsoft's world.' Ballmer dodged requests to comment on specifics of the Android software platform, preferring instead to highlight the successes of the Windows Mobile platform which he said is on 150 different handsets and is available from over 100 different mobile operators. 'Well of course their efforts are just some words on paper right now, it's hard to do a very clear comparison [with Windows Mobile],' Ballmer said. 'Right now they have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they're welcome in our world,' he added."
Ballmer called Android a mere 'press release' at present
That's rich, coming from one of the greatest producers of vaporware in the world.
Hilarious. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Palm, in fact all pretty much all american companies I can think of apart from Motorola are currently also-rans in the global mobile OS or hardware arena. Remember, the USA is a true technological backwater (compared to places I've been in AFRICA, ffs!) when it comes to cars or mobile phones.
This is the same guy who at one point ran around a COMDEX crashing OS/2 systems with a custom made application to put the lie to IBM's touting of its "crashproof" nature. He's been Microsoft's attack dog for the last 20 years and that's pretty much been his only role in the industry. What is the reason that I, or anyone else, should care what this professional troll thinks?
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Please don't use "umm" or "err" or "erm".
I've been sorely disappointed by each version of Windows CE/CE.net/Mobile. I've got many gripes including battery life, locking up when the battery runs down, losing everything when the battery runs down, wifi issues, inability to play video despite 400 MHz ARM processors, no upgrades to the OS are available to consumers, features are tied to OS upgrades... Windows PDAs stink for all those reasons!
im afraid for once i have to agree with balmer :(
android is in the realm of vapourware now
did anyone notice google stocks dived after announcements of their facebook killer "open social" and the much buzzed about gphone (which turned out not to be a phone at all!) "android", investors must realise at some stage that google is a marketing company and their market cap is build on clever hype generation
...when the 'press release' takes as much market share from Microsoft as, say, Google's search engine has? Investors try to plan ahead - customers now aren't as important as customers tomorrow. Honestly, if I had my choice I'd picka Google-run mobile simply because I trust them more to be innovative and customer-centered. I think vista has shown us that simply 'owning the market' so-to-speak isn't going to get you incredibly far anymore.
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
Like when he faked laughter at the iPhone. What can you do? The guy has to try to sell his cruft, and when his competitors get a lot of attention, he has to do something.
He obviously can't upstage them with functionality or stability (I have a Windows Mobile lying on a shelf, gathering dust), so he'll have to try name-calling.
just how many handsets have the Symbian platform and how many out there are based on Linux in one form or another??? Just why does he have to "trash talk" the competition at every opportunity? Me thinks he's getting desperate
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Technical yellow press.. That's the sad state of many IT sites now day (not only, but especially /.)... Who said what, who bashed who... Stuff that matters. Bleh
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
First Symbian now Microsoft. It sure has the two competitors in a uproar.
You want to know the really funny thing, although I heard about the google phone, it is through this press release by MS and Symbian I learned that it is called Android and that it was officially announced. Thanks to these nice companies for helping me spot that I missed the original press-release by google itself (surely the world ain't so ironic that the original story never made slashdot?).
Okay, enough fun, on with a serious comment.
Taking bets, when a MS employee leaves to work on the google phone, what will Steve Ballmer throw, shouting "I will fucking bury Google, I failed to do so once, and I will fail to do so again."
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It is a press release. No product was unveiled. So, what's the point?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
All reporters are now required to wear protective helmets.
There have been reports of flying chairs during heated press conferences.
Yes it's a press release, made 7 days before the SDK is released on Monday. How long was Vista a press release for?
Apparently, Microsoft cares more about the Gphone (i.e. Android) than about the Openmoko probably because Google is behind (not just some obscure company). It could happen that Android is just an announcement to impress future stockholders or clients. But it is more probable that it is a real threat to Microsoft phones' OS. Maybe there is some alpha code already? What I don't understand is the relation between Gphone/Android and Openmoko. I hope Openmoko will succeed still! Again, the fact that Microsoft reacted to Gphone/Android but not to Openmoko (AFAIK) is significant.
Read that as Chiuaua - if him and Paris Hilton get a in a fight, that'd be fun.
If he's the Walrus then can I be a penguin please?
Those that have most to lose, those that compete, rubbish the competition. This is unfortunately not a surprise.
Makes them sound arrogant to me, especially the quotes given.
Captcha was Whimpers. A Whimper from Microsoft perhaps. I wonder how long before someone thinks of running the audio captcha through a voice recognition system and automating it, especially as its pronunciation is quite deterministic. How long before you need to put in background sound effects? (And can I patent either the idea of playing the captcha into voice recognition or the ways of getting around it?) Not a bad voice though.
...preferring instead to highlight the successes of the Windows Mobile platform which he said is on 150 different handsets and is available from over 100 different mobile operators... and it doesn't work in anyone of them.... seriously: the big difference between Google and microsoft is that when google announce a new product to be out on a certain date, you can be sure you'll find that product out on THAT date, With microsoft you usually get to wait one year or more. Let's see what's gonna happen next weekwas about a decade or so ago. Perhaps Ballmer doesn't have to worry about an Android device until 2017 (at the earliest) if Google runs at MS speed :) Don't anybody remind him of iPhone's pace.
Its funny how people forget that EVERY project starts out as just an idea. Considering Google's size and apparent commitment to this, I'd say its a pretty large chance that at least SOMETHING will happen. Maybe it'll be as big as the iPhone's hype... or maybe it will suck. Who's to say, lets wait and find out!
He's one of the more influential voices in the IT world. Whether that's good or bad, the fact is he has a lot of power, so as much as it would be nice to, we can't simply ignore him.
Be it corruption, cheating, lies or whatever that got him where he is, the unfortunate fact is that he is there.
Except in press releases, we never get to know what's inside Vista! In the good old DOS days, there used to be fat manuals explaining the commands in the OS, but these days, press releases are full of features LEFT OUT in Vista. Nobody can program for Vista except with approval and continuous monitoring by Microsoft - Android is atleast much better in this aspect.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Yeah I was joking... and here it is today and the joke has become real. Or surreal.
Balls of crystal, I tell ya! Where's that Randi guy?
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
When I first heard the form that Google's entry into the mobile phone market would take, I was disappointed. But after seeing this reaction, and to a much lesser extent Symbian's, I'm all of a sudden thinking there must be something to Android.
mobile computing is their world is it? now let's see..
/their/ world. no one would say that now.
/their/ area. i doubt it now.
- everyone had hotmail ids once; it would seem webmail was
- most people never heard of another OS than Windoze. it would seem PCs were
- IE was the browser king. it would imply that they owned all of www. is IE doing that well now?
- let's not even get started on zune..
The only thing that I can say MS has a decent product is their Office package (at least for now..); everywhere else they suck - big time.
M$ and Apple and Nokia and now Google are all going to be in the mobile phone business. It doesn't matter as are their target markets are all different. On the one hand you have the fashion/ordinary (Nokia) phones and on the other the business (M$) smart phones. Somewhere in the middle you have the iPhone. Unless Android is skinnable I can't see it appealing to the fashion brigade and unless it syncs with Exchange I can't see it going down well with businesses. It would have proprietry e-mail and a few search map apps.
Anyway a phone with the Google "look" about it would be so fugly that no one would buy it.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
What Google has right now is just a press release. It might or might not evolve into a threat to WinCE (aka "Windows Mobile").
But the fun thing is that this is traditional Microsoft strategy. Microsoft has crushed many companies with press releases stating that they will "soon" release something, which will obviously become the strategy, and investing anything in the existing solutions will be a waste of time. So rather than buy a solution now, companies wait for "the standard" to come from Microsoft. Which come late, and is horrible broken for the first few releases, but that doesn't matter, for meanwhile the competition has folded.
Hopefully lots of customers will treat Microsoft the same way, skip WinCE and wait for "Google Mobile" instead. That would serve them right.
That's just unnatural...
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
Even if we don't like him, he is correct about the android vaporware.
It is getting very common to do a lot of noise about a product/platform without releasing something solid.
I wish the best luck to android, but to get developers attention it needs to deliver something, not just a website with a lot of abstract intentions about java (what version of java?) or SDKs (how?, in what IDE?, how many APIs? to do What?).
Math is beautiful... e^(pi*i)+1=0
Maybe, Mr. Ballmer, at the next press conference you can say, "Yeah, their promises sound good, but what if they pull a Vista?" Then maybe the general public would become a bit more inured to the time-tested MS strategy of marketing semi-vapourware against products that exist already.
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
... the cellphone dynamical system is less straight forward than the desktop. Cellphone subsidies and long-term contracts play heavily into the success of a particular platform. The incumbent has a clear advantage but not an insurmountable one.
...).
Let's consider Palm OS. It is still out there on MANY devices and actively peddled by cell providers. They really stopped innovating - maybe - 4-5 years ago. It has taken that long for others to eat their lunch. Even a minor amount of work to really stay current and they would still be plugging. They simply stopped paying attention to the important bits (interface is critical, display usage is important, speed is a concern
Now, that's not to say Microsoft isn't guilty of not paying attention (IE, for example). But, they do watch the trends and will throw MAJOR horsepower at catching up after a stupid decision.
Long term relationships with vendors help them because it gives them time to recover and they KNOW how to do that. Shoot, they practically invented it and they certainly perfected it. You can absolutely bet that the non-committal public attitude by Verizon and AT&T is playing to that - they smell a deal to be made. They want to see how sweet it can be by playing Google & Microsoft against one another. Microsoft is not afraid to spend lots of money; they are experienced with how to turn a lost leader (XBox) into a money maker.
The bottom line is that, short of a critical miscalculation on the part of Microsoft, Google's battle will be very tough indeed. They are going to have to expend a lot of capital to keep the pressure on and produce something real - assuming they aren't just generating hype.
Actually, I think classification standard of vaporware has to be expanded a little to include this.
The little guy just ain't getting it, is he?
Nokia has sold 252 million handsets in Q1 2007 and has 36 per cent global share. Apple expects to sell 10 million iphones next year, and i am still waiting for the SDK for Android. /this will not be like the fight for searches. /much much harder.
I take my children to see Madonna(..), but I never for once ever thought I was in the same business.Chris Rea.
Good old Steve, it seems has no idea about mobile technology or his platform would be the world leader.
The Windows Mobile department has a fairly management steady staff turnover, almost like it's a training ground for executives. They jumped into the mobile market just like they jumped into the browser market all those years ago. Windows Mobile is (like IE was) getting a bit stale now, they can only reskin the interface so many times and get away with it.
If Windows Mobile was a mobile device sensation then why didn't use it for the Zune?
Symbian has a greater market share and I can't see that changing anytime soon.
Plus there's Linux alternatives that will become popular at some point.
Microsoft has a great share of the mobile market and their software is actually quite good nowadays.
M$'s vendor manipulation has done to the mobile market what Vista is doing to the PC market. Their ability to push crap onto "willing" partners kills markets and the partners eventually. People don't buy stuff that does not work and Windoze mobile is the pits. CompuUSA and DSG are good examples.
It's all downhill for M$ at this point. Vendors and handset makers are tired of losing money for M$ and are jumping on free software. Google is going to clean M$'s clock in mobile computing. M$ will soon be driven out of the PC market as well. Non free software can not compete. Sucktard owners like M$ never did anything for anyone and need to go.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Translation: We are fucking scared to death here folks.
There is a war going on for your mind.
- Symbian and Microsoft talking smack about Android seems quite reminiscent of Sony and Microsoft talking smack about the Wii. Oooh, our consoles are better, they said. The Wii is a toy, they said. But people wanted the Wii because it actually innovated in gaming instead of trying to take over the universe.
- The mobile market is not "Microsoft's world." Microsoft is #3 in handsets, behind Symbian and the collective versions of Linux.
- The fact that so much negative noise is being made tells us that Microsoft knows Google is going to kick its ass.
- We really don't want to hear what Ballmer has to say unless there is an accompanying flight of chairs.
That is all.Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
As subject says, MS announced their HealthVault which isn't even built yet!!
Looks like Ballmer's poor attempt at creating a reality distortion field, particularly with the, "Windows Mobile rules the phone scene" comment. Seriously, does it now? Or do you just wish it does, Ballmer?
I suppose if CEOs were made to be reasonable and only say truthful things that they wouldn't say very much after all.
and now, he is threatening it. seeing a pattern here.
Read radical news here
Did anyone else read the headline as "Press Release calls Ballmer an Android"?
When the competition starts to trash Googles mobile initiative before its even out the door they must be very very afraid. The smart thing would have been to just shut up about it. Microsoft is clearly worried wich gives tremendous amounts of free PR to google. Its like setting up a big sign infront of every possible competitior to Windows mobile / Symbian and screaming "Work with Google!".
HTTP/1.1 400
Well, that's the very definition of Excel's, no ?
Love,
Slashdot.
Yep, Microsoft is at Stage Two, as fucktards like Twitter are laughing at Microsoft. Then Twitter (and all of his sock puppets) will attack Microsoft in 12 Months. Then Microsoft will win.
Right now they have a press release
TRANSLATION: so here is one my own. Their contains dates and promises with a history to back it up. Mine contains nothing.
we have many, many millions of customers
TRANSLATION: we got less then 10% of the market, we are so small Apple might overtake us with just one phone.
great software
TRANSLATION: Oh come one, am I trying to kid. It is the sucks and the only people that use Windows Mobile are those who absolutly have too. If it was so great we wouldn't be such a small player. Really, go to a european or japanese mobile phone dealer and try to find a MS phone. Thank god for our lock on the desktop or we would really be nothing. Curse you blackberry!
many hardware devices
TRANSLATION: we just can't shift them so we keep trying with lots of new devices hoping one day to get it right. Curse you steve jobs for doing it in one!
they're welcome in our world
TRANSLATION: and in our world the sky is pink with polka dots Wheee! I am not crazy, I am an airplane!
So no, nothing he says is actually a lie, it is just... man it is hard to remain serious about this. The symbian one was laughable enough, this is just, it is almost sad.
I have to keep telling myself it is his job to say that and that he probably knows that it is all a big lie, because if he really believes what he says he really needs to seek proffesional help.
Some people point out that he has no choice but to say this, he needs to reasue stockholders. That is true. Up to a point. But if you are a MS stockholder, does this reassure you? Because it just sends up a huge red flag to me that this guy has no clue how to deal with the fact that MS Windows Mobile just ain't doing that well and is now facing two new competitors (Apple and Google) who seem to have a very big clue, wrapper around a stick and are paddling his flabby ass.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I wouldn't mod the parent a troll (anti-Microsoft bias showing through). Google announced something with little detail that won't be available for over a year (end of 2008). If they miss the 2008 deadline, we're looking at technology that won't be available for maybe another _year_and_a_half_. The whole mobile landscape will look different by the time Android comes out (WM 7, Next gen iPhone, etc..). Might be more paper tiger than vaporware - I guess we'll just have to wait 12-28 months to see.
And some of MS oromises never actually makes it into a product. Or makes into a product years later. WinFS anyone? That was promised with Win95 over 15 ago. As of Vista, it still does not have it.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
In an effort to help moderators maintain their sanity, please use replies to this post for all flying chair jokes.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
He wasn't lying according to this overview he was just very good at suggestion a large market share which they obviously don't have. Notice linux is allready ahead of microsoft.
Truth is, MS mobile phone customers are fewer than 20 - read on.
MS doesn't sell to you, me, or Joe Douchebag. It sells to HTC, HP, and a few others. Nothing branded Windows Mobile is sold by MS to end users. You can't get support for WM by calling MS. You call HP. You call AT&T (which bought it from HTC, which bought it from MS). You can't call MS. You are not its customer.
Not that that's a bad thing.
I mean, Apple has this tiny, thin, sexy iPhone. Microsoft has a coffee table. There's got to be a joke in there somewhere.
Anyway, MS doesn't build phone or PC hardware. So any implementation of their "surface" work would have to come from them passing the tech on to their manufacturing partners.
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
I am not really here right now.
As someone who's been forced to support and develop for WM devices, I think I'm at least semi-qualified to make the judgement that Windows Mobile is complete and utter shite. Even latest versions running on 600 MHz+ Xscale processors are slow, crash prone memory hogs with an interface that must have been designed with pricipals created by Josef Mengele.
Beyond this, we've been screaming to various vendors for similar form factor devices running Linux, or at least *not WM*, but I keep hearing the same excuse, "We want to persue alternative operating systems for our devices, but Microsoft has threatened to cancel our preferred licensing status if we do." Since said vendors need to be able to supply the industry standard mobile OS (unfortunately WM), they're screwed and companies like mine are stuck with the same crap OS platform on every nearly every single device we've explored, regardless of vendor. It's a damned shame really, because we don't need an operating system that includes a crap version of Word, an inefficient media player, Bubble Breaker and Solitaire; just a terminal client, STANDARDS BASED web browser and maybe a SIP client is all we need. Yet we're paying for all that crap PLUS the software necessary to lock the system down to keep users away from it.
Windows Mobile has the marketshare it does mainly due to extortion, not innovation. Balmer is a tool.
Pyramid
~Any apparent grammatical or typographic errors are caused by defects in your display device.
With hand-held computing never catching on simply because it's "too many devices" making your phone into the hand-held computer would be just the way to make it appealing. (And let's face it, the iPhone proves it.)
But even with small laptops, desktop computing on the go is clumsy and inconvenient at best. I'm sure confident that we have all the other supporting technologies in-line yet, but having an open-development platform for which to write apps could go a long way to moving useful software from the desktop to the phone.
The things missing from phone computing that we like in desktop computing? Screen size, keyboards and mice. With the next version of USB or Bluetooth, we will start seeing convenient display technologies and projected keyboard and mouse technologies that are better than today's. After that, pocket computing will be everything we want it to be.
I recall watching Ballmer making comments about the iPhone, too. Haven't heard anything from him since the iPhone actually released. But given his prediction ability, I would say that this is really a non-event. That is unless you want a record of the statements for future comedy efforts.
How often does microsoft make press releases?
I'm tempted to say I believe him. I mean, if there's one man who should be able to tell when something is Vaporware it's him, he has maybe the most experience with that kind of spin in the IT biz.
But if it is, why bother commenting on it? Why not just shrug the shoulders and, if asked, say something like "I'll comment on it when I see it, so far, there ain't anything to be seen for miles." and leave it at that?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
But once again the rich get off for sucking dick.
Who in gods name would talk up windows mobile?
It sucks, it makes the hardware look bad.
I've owned a ipaq 4150 and a dell x51v I loved the hardware! but
I hated the devices because windows mobile. It is worse than any product they have.
I've been using Maemo, which makes hardware look better than it is!
Sorry Ballmer your lame if you say WM is a success...
I have an HTC Hermes cellphone running WM6 (upgrading was a BIG mistake from WM5). My friend is the single-button salute with it. I have to reset it on a daily basis because of it not wanting to charge, not seeing the uSD memory card most of the time unless I delete the METADATA file and reset. Hopefully, some one will be come out with a Linux distro for the phone. I love the hardware but the crippleware that came with it is the showkiller.
... but things went very wrong and got released. May God have mercy on your soul, Ballmer.
...CrackBerry Thumbs are acting up...
...Ballmer & Google both out to lunch...
...Pesky Canadians at RIM are moving to take over China... and, soon, the world!
Nyah-ha-ha!!! Eh?
*** Don't be dull.***
Microsoft has a great share of the mobile market
They have a great marketshare unless you include Symbian and the Blackberry OS. Oh, and Palm too.
and their software is actually quite good nowadays.
Sucking less than before is not the same as good. Good is good.
And yes, I've used Windows Mobile 6. That's why I have an iPhone now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm old enough to remember when Apple ran an ad in the NY Times "welcoming" IBM to the PC business. The ensuing competition didn't quite turn out the way Jobs hoped it would.
David Pogue reviewing a Windows Mobile device? Yeah, THAT'S not biased at all!
Replace - Ballmer with Kutaragi
- Android with Xbox
- Windows Moblie with Playstation
- Microsoft with Sony
- Google with Microsoft
And what do you get? Reasons to keep your mouth shut.
In the U.S. WinCE has a tiny foothold. It is easily outdwarfed by all of the more-or-less locked/low-end phones. That's the biggest market penetration it has because Symbian just hasn't taken off in the U.S.
In Europe, Symbian-based phones are huge compared to WinCE handsets. Things are hardly any different in Asia.
The parent post is **not** insightful, or even informative in any way.
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> Investors try to plan ahead - customers now aren't as important as customers tomorrow.
Unfortunately, all of the companies in the world believe the same thing because that stock price always has to go UP UP UP. Great if you're an investor, horrible if you're a customer. And we're all customers of one company or another.
Wouldn't it be better if Microsoft, AT&T, or any of these companies that dismiss the customer actually catered to the needs of the existing X million customers instead of worrying about just signing them up? Even about 10 years ago, a friend who owned an ISP told me that he had one guy in the customer service department and NO people responding to disconnection requests, compared to tons doing sales and signing up people. We've created a world where growth > quality, every time. Today you can't even find a $100K car that isn't making cost reductions and shoddier quality than 10 years ago. It's sad to see it being advocated again and again.
Captcha: Retard
Not only off topic, but also false.
Sometimes you wish Steve had a official spokesman to speak on Microsoft's behalf but in this instance, I think he as a valid point. Windows Mobile has actual devices and actual customers, in large quantities at the moment, whatever your personal feelings towards him. But he did say he welcomed the competition. It still remains to be seen what form this will take. People are still speculating over whether there will be a Google branded phone, rather than just a software platform for others to plug into and develop. I hope they do go for it, it can only be good for competition, maybe even ruffle a few feathers at Apple. The cunsumer should win (hopefully).
In Soviet Union... ah, never mind.
I, for one, welcome our robotic chair-throwing overlords!
Yeah, that's got it.
-- Boycott Shell
Ballmer oughtta know. That guy is full of press releases.
but currently Mr Ballmer does have a point.
No, he does not. Most of the components that make up Android are already in widespread use in mobile and embedded devices. Furthermore, the sources for Android will be released on 11/12.
Google has done a reasonable announcement for an about-to-be-released piece of software. That's not "vaporware".
It should be replaced by a flying chair.
he is correct. Microsoft has a great share of the mobile market and their software is actually quite good nowadays. And yes, Google's announcement is sort of a press release at the moment.
Have a look at the market share figures:
http://x.msmobiles.com/portal/images/other/symbian-market-share.jpg
Microsoft's worldwide presence is a joke. In fact, Linux is already far more widely used worldwide than Microsoft, Palm, and RIM combined.
And yes, Google's announcement is sort of a press release at the moment.
It's a press release for something that is going to be available in less than a week for developers, with a dozen industry heavyweights behind it. That's not just a press release.
Worldwide market share for smart phone operating systems is about 70% Symbian, 20% Linux, and single digits for Palm, Microsoft, and Blackberry.
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/images/shareworld2006.jpg
The market share figures for the US are different mostly because Palm and Blackberry still manage to hang on (they wouldn't stand a chance anywhere else) and because Microsoft is up to their usual monopolistic tricks with Windows Mobile.
In most markets, Linux competes only against Symbian. In the US, Linux should be able to grab Palm's and Blackberry's share easily, and eat substantially into Microsoft's market share, such as it is.
Like jumping around the scene shouting "Press release!", "Press release!". Just call press release "press release" is affront.
I used to thing Google was awesome, "do no evil" they say . . . now with their android platform they are exloiting retarded children. Fucking sick google, fucking sick.
Googles powers Android off the dreams of retarded children.
Microsoft Windows CE, the core and former name of their "Windows Mobile" product line is just over 10 years old IIRC and they've posted publicly about $10 billion in losses to that division.
I guess only a monopoly can classify such a money pit as a success. But then again, that would be standard operating procedures for a marketing company and THAT is really the primary focus of the Microsoft monopoly. It's obvious that technology and solutions is not the focus, just the tool. IMO.
oh, and so Balmer calls Google's announcement a "press release" by doing a press release. How cute. BTW, any public word(s) from Balmer and gang are press releases if you've not caught on yet.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
While mobile devices may be MS's world at the moment, I think alternatives will be quicker to adopt here than anywhere else. I mean, who buys a cell phone or PDA and asks "What OS does this run?" And usually, those that do are more interested in it NOT running MS bloatware. Even in the desktop world, where compatibility is a much bigger issue than on mobile devices, MS alternatives are gaining ground. Anyone remember the Simpsons episode a few years back where the record store kid asked "What's Apple?" I think this is gonna be the iPod revolution all over again. Either that, or its time to file another bug report on my Crystal Ball.
I swear, I don't know a single sales stooge or marketing drone who uses a Microsoft smartphone. They all use BlackBerries or Treos. The idea that MS is even seriously competing in Palm/RIM's world comes as sort of a shock.
I can only assume that there must be, somewhere, some gigantic vertical industries that have standardized on Win CE applications down the employee chain or something. Does anyone know of examples?
Breakfast served all day!
Welcome to OUR world. We own 40% of the mobile phone market worldwide, and have been making smartphones since before you even knew what the word meant.
-Nokia
I once attempted to switch from Blackberry 8100 to a WM6 device to get better remote desktop usability with one of the new VGA and WVGA mobile devices. WM6 crashed more in the first two days than my old BB had in the prior year. Then I found out WM6 doesn't even come with an RDP client and I had to get one unsanctioned from the net. Overall the burden of dealing with WM6 for that 98% of the time using a cellphone as a phone instead of an RDP client wasn't worth it. There is an RDP client for BB - the display is just smaller.
I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this, but between GMail still being in beta and hardware manufactures willing to release hardware based on "beta" specifications (802.11n, anyone?), I could just see something like a "GPhone beta" or "Draft GPhone" coming out.
What's done's in the past, forever shall last.
Work is work; life is life; fair is not!
At the risk of piling on: My Windows Mobile-based smartphone locked up hard earlier this year at the worst possible time: in the Atlanta airport as I was headed to Europe for a week of travel. It never came back to life, capping a history of unreliability and bizarre behavior. At the end I was glad to see it go.
Replacing it: A simple Nokia 6133 not-so-smartphone that boots in a matter of seconds, paired via Bluetooth with a Nokia 800 Internet tablet running Linux and a Mozilla browser. I am much, much better off.
Previously I had a Symbian S60 Nokia that eventually suffered hardware failure.
Based on my experience with both Symbian and Microsoft, a long history of using Linux, I'm excited and optimistic about the Android project. It's been said that OK open systems beat great closed systems every time. In this case, the closed systems are far from great, and the open system looks like it's going to kick butt.
Ballmer really is the court jester of the computer industry. We need to keep him around just for laughs.
Nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained -Tom Baker, Doctor Who
Jesus. This coming from the guy who talked about WinFS and Exchange on a SQL backend. How about you just shut up and focus on getting rid of NetBIOS, the registry and the half-assed 64-bit support.
Now hold on just a second; if you have such great software, why does my phone crash every few days? Why is it that when I'm out somewhere, and need to look up a number for someone, or add something to my todo list, or hell, even make a simple phone call, I have to poke fruitlessly at the screen before hard rebooting the damn thing and waiting for it to all load again.
The rest of it is true enough, but don't lie about the software. Your software is a stinking pile of garbage. The biggest thing I'm hoping Android does is light a fire under your ass so I can get a stable PDA phone from someone, whoever that happens to be.
We're geeks... We're the sorcerers of the modern-day world. --
yes,I think so .MS already have been beaten in some field,like online advertisment.A era of MS comes to is end.