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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."
Please don't use "umm" or "err" or "erm".
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.
Yes it's a press release, made 7 days before the SDK is released on Monday. How long was Vista a press release for?
You are correct about his role at Microsoft. He really is Microsoft's attack dog, but regardless of what you and I think of him, 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.
To sum things up, competition is good and Microsoft is going to get a taste of a company that can do more to mobile platforms than Symbian can (or so I expect).
Full Tilt
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.
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.
As an ex-user of Windows Mobile and now on Symbian, I'd say the market is still wide open for someone who can do it well.
WinCE is still crash-prone, clumsy and ugly on a handheld. Symbian is more stable and looks better, but still has glitches, and is much harder to develop for. Apple iPhone's locked down nature isn't suited to creating a new mobile software ecosystem, so if Google gets this right, they may have a new wave to ride.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Well, Windows Mobile is just like normal Windows: it isn't great, but the real value is in third party apps and mods.
I own an HTC Trinity (P3600) with WM5, and I like it, even though the OS has some real flaws and isn't really as user-friendly as it should be.... Still, there are thousand of modifications, and that to someone like me is very important.
This just in, Loud mouth CEO down plays and insults competition. Really people, This is in no way suprising, of course Ballmer is going to insult anything that isnt microsoft. At this point I think we should all do our selves the favor of ignoring anything that comes out of his mouth these days. Except maybe to have the occasional laugh at something wildly outrageous.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
Microsoft has a pretty good presence in the mobile market, but it is most definately not "Microsoft's World".
Steve is running scared. I'd say that over 75% of the Windows Mobile market consists of handsets manufactured by HTC and Motorola, with a good chunk of the rest being Samsung. Guess what - those two companies are part of Google's OHA. (I can't remember, is Samsung involved? Microsoft is really screwed if they are.)
Steve should shut up and stop attacking Android and figure out how to compete before Microsoft loses one of their largest handset manufacturers.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Windows Mobile is on 150 different phones; and every one of them sucks.
Nice astroturf attempt, but too many people here have tried to use Windows Mobile handhelds.
Their software is not good. It's not stable. It's resource hungry. The interface is intrusive and ugly. The only advantage for users of the platform is the development tools available.
If Palm hadn't dropped the ball, Google might have had a fight on their hands. As it is, the field's open.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Translation: We are fucking scared to death here folks.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Vaporware is were a product has been heavily hyped, but ultimately never actually produced. "Android" has just been announced, of course it is still in design phases. This should not be surprising or disturbing. If in a few years we still don't have it then you can start calling it vaporware.
99% of people pick the email provider based on the name part of the email. If you go to hotmail looking for firstname.lastname@hotmail.com the odds are really good that somebody already has it. So check yahoo. So check gmail.
Microsoft owns the PC market. This is a simple fact. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional.
IE is by far still the #1 browser. Again a simple fact.
Yeah, they're having problems with Zune.
How was Steve attacking Android? All he basically said was that their product isn't out yet so it can't be compared to Windows Mobile. Can you honestly say he's wrong? I am looking forward to Android but until it's released I can't say whether it's good or not..
You said: Note however that with those pretty massive advantages it still remains a very marginal player on the phone market. Well, change "phone market" to "smartphone market" and the picture changes. Windows Mobile is doing very well in the smartphone market overall, especially in the US. That's where the innovation is happening. Anybody can build a basic little toy phone OS/experience.
I don't think you quite understand the situation here. Linux on the desktop was a hobbyist project until very recently. Hobbyist projects rarely amount to much: good programmers usually don't have a whole lot of spare time. Novell and Ubuntu/Canonical/Shuttleworth started pushing desktop Linux a couple of years ago, and it's already made tremendous gains. Linux is certainly pretty successful on the server, which is where 98% of the development effort was going. IBM and Redhat don't care about the desktop; they needed a server operating system, and they were quite successful at creating it.
The fact is, open-source is a highly efficient way to collaboratively develop software. It is a great framework for collaboration on a corporate level: it's simple and lightweight, with no complicated corporate agreements and resulting conflicts of interest. This is what Google is trying to accomplish here. If a few of the major 5-10 handset vendors gets serious and hires a few developers to push this platform along, it will quickly surpass anything Microsoft or Symbian can come up with, simply because the handset vendors know how to make phones and Microsoft doesn't. Google is just trying to kick-start the process.