Go here and read #6. Oh hell, read the whole damn thing. Sounds like you need it.
I have and I find it rather sad. Take just one prime example:
"2. Steve Ballmers disparaging remarks about the iPhone were completely off-the-mark.
No, they really werent, not at the time he made the comments which was several months prior to the iPhone actually being releasedwell before anyone knew the final feature set. And in fact, Apple validated his primary criticism (the exorbitant price) a mere month after the iPhones release with a wholly unexpected and somewhat controversial price drop.
Lets make no mistake... blah blah blah... he was absolutely right about the iPhone."
Absolute rubbish, and here's why. This is a transcription from the video of what Ballmer actually said:
"500 Dollars, fully subsidized! with a plan! I said, that is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine. Now, it may sell very well or not. We have our strategy. We've got great Windows mobile devices in the market today. You can get a Motorola Q phone now for 99 Dollars. It's a very capable machine, it'll do music, it'll do internet, it'll do email, it'll do instant messaging. So I kinda look at that and I say, well, I like our strategy and I like it a lot."
In answer to: "How do you compete with that though? He's sucked out a lot of the spotlight in the last few weeks because of what happened at MacWorld, not only with the iPhone, but also with the new iPod. How do you compete with that with the Zune?" Ballmer replied"
"Right now. Let's take phones first. Right now we're selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year. In 6 months they'll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the market place, and let's see, you know, let's see how the competition goes."
He then babbles on about the Zune having 25% of the above $249 market share, which we now know is utterly irrelevant because a few months later the Zune was killed.
Now, let's look at that. "500 Dollars, fully subsidized! with a plan..."
Yes, Apple did reduce this a few weeks after launch. Why? They didn't need to charge the top end for the iPhone because it was so successful they were going to recover their outlay much sooner than anticipated.
But what are we paying for the top end models today?
Right, let's look at:
"...it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine."
In what sense is that true? The iPhone is the most popular choice for consumers and business customers - when they are allowed to choose. But Ballmer was actually attacking the interface, not the product here. This is the very same interface he eventually had on his own phones - a few years later. So what we have is a man incapable of recognising something that will work, even when its time has come, never mind sufficient time before, in order to innovate and develop the technology himself.
Next, as if to prove this point, he says: "...I like our strategy and I like it a lot."
Well Steve, it stinks.
Then, "...Right now we're selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year..."
No. No they are not. Microsoft was selling Zero phones a year. Other companies were selling millions of phones with Microsoft's [OUTDATED] licensed software on them. And that's a huge difference. Selling a license nets income from OEMs too lazy or too dumb to develop their own software. Selling the device, if that device is superior and actually commands a 4 or 5 times price multiple of his example Motorola Q phone [whatever the hell that is], represents a very different kind of business proposition altogether. It means genuinely significant bottom line numbers - so much more than mere market share that translates, in real terms, into low cents in the Dollar profits.
It's only at the end that we see the deer in the headlights reality that is Ballmer's life:
"Apple is selling zero phones a year. In 6 months they'll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the market place, and let's see, you know, let's see how the competition goes."
BAMM! We did. And not for the first time this clown is eating his words and following Apple into the marketplace, years and years late with virtual copies of the very products he so energetically criticized when first presented with them.
The lesson here is simple. If your mouth is producing more hostages to fortune and viral video moments, than your brain is producing good ideas, it's time to retire. And anyone quoting this so-called mac using geekshovel guy in a vein attempt to debunk the facts, really needs to check the facts first.